Hey all...glad to see that the site is up and running again!!
It's been awhile since I've been active on here, but I've since learned that I have a cracked driver's side flex pipe causing an exhaust leak. The noise is REALLY REALLY unbearable and I want to get this changed asap, but want to take the opportunity to do my exhaust upgrades.
I'm looking to put on a magnaflow 14816 muffler, and aside of that must replace at least the one downpipe. (I read that it is possible to cut out the flex pipe and simply replace that for a fraction of the cost, but not sure how reliable and/or stable that is...)
Anyways, to get to the business, I want to get some info on the stock exhaust specs for my car. What size is the piping?? 2" inches?? Does anybody have pics of the exhaust system?? What parts are there?? So far, as I understand it, I have two downpipes (with flex piping) and two cats coming from the exhaust manifold, but then I'm not sure what follows...what other parts are there to play with other then the mid-resonator/muffler and rear muffler? I am a little unclear as to whether or not there are any testpipes...
I've been researching this for a while and I know that I want the 14816 and AM NOT CONSIDERING deleting the mid-resonator. I do not want the car 'ricer' loud but would like to reduce back pressure and increase performance with a high-flow setup. I've been looking at some 3 inch cats on ecs and labree motorsports, but I'm not sure if it makes sense to go with such large piping especially since I will be keeping the res(; I'm assuming this would be counterproductive b/c the stock res may be restricting the larger higher-flow piping anyways). I don't want a loud tone so 3" may not be ideal and secondly, I have a 2.8 and will only be installing the pes g2 supercharger, so I'm not sure if the large piping makes sense. If I don't go with the 3", what should I go with and where could I get it? Labree also has a downpipe (w/ fp) but i'm not sure how big..., and ecs also offers 3" flex piping. I know I've rambled on, but I guess I want to know whether or not it makes sense to change everything to 3" piping, while keeping the stock resonator for use with a 14816...(?) If so, I think will be getting 2 new downpipes, 2 cats, the magnaflow and I guess custom 3" piping for the rest. Does that sound right??

 

anybody have an estimate of cell counts (CPSI) on any of these parts?? stock or the aforementioned aftermarket....

 

Nothing...nobody has any ideas?? I was hoping/thinking that many of you had custom exhaust set ups....I am trying to do this in a couple of weeks so any help would be valuable.

 

Your stock exhaust is 2.25". I would do 2.5 at most. 3" is to big for a n/a car. There are no aftermarket 2.8 dp's that I know of. That magnaflow is pretty nice though. and you can even get rid of your resonator, but it gets annoying.

 

remember the stock res is a 2.25" inlet/outlet. Going from 3" to 2.25" doesn't help exhaust flow. You could just replace the restrictive, heavy stock res and get a lightweight freeflowing vibrant res like I did http://vibrantperformance.com/catalo...0f01be1fb82e3d. It'll free up the magnaflow muffler while still keeping the exhaust note ricerfree. Or, you could do a custom downpipes, high flow cats, to 3" dual pipes to the new res(s) (get rid of the old anchor), to the magnaflow muffler. Kinda like this https://secure.memca.com/ecodetuning...1061_large.jpg

 

Thanks a bunch for the advice!!
"Trey25": That setup sounds nice. I will definetly look into the vibrant resonator if it is quiet as it clearly states. Do you think it may be comparatively quiet as if I were to leave the stock resonator there??

"coleA4":The downpipe I mentioned was this one here from labreemotorsports.com. I found it some where here on the site. I dunno, maybe its just OEM though.
Also, I will be buy a supercharger next February/April (~8 months from now), what are the downsides to having 'too big' piping in the meantime? Will it have any negative consequences? or just be a waste in the meantime? I'm not married to the idea of 3" piping, but if I'm not mistaken, I think thats what the inlet to the magnaflow is, so it's just easier.

 

I have 1996 A4 Quattro 2.8L 5spd. and just did my exhaust on a budget. Vibrant and Magnaflow seem to be the more popular brands for our exhaust but you're paying for that name brand. I actually viewed some on youtube.com and got a feel for what the aftermarket brands sound like. I too dislike that "rice burner" sound. I'm not sure if cost is an issue for you, but I got two new universal high flow cats and a universal stainless steel dual tip muffler off ebay for $100 total with shipping. I took them to my local muffler shop and had them welded on for $120. I left the stock resonator on the car and sounds pretty sharp along with a slight performance improvement for $220. Just food for thought. Hope it helps in your decision making.

Henry

 

vibrant and magnaflow are not really "name brand". They're cheap compared to borla, milltek or in my case $600 for a remus muffler (got it slightly used for $75, score!). Plus the exhaust note is as good as those really expensive imports previously named. Trust me once you have the stock res off and compare it to the vibrant you'll realize how heavy that sucker is. It's not a night and day sound difference but it definitely sounds aftermarket.

 

you guys really go into this, me and my friend rednecked it today and took a sawzall to the rear muffler and WOW does it sound better. i think i may have gained a few horse from loosing the 40 lb fatty too.

 

you don't gain hp from weight reduction. you only lose weight. that pic of the downpipe is for the 1.8. the 2.8 downpipe is a single piece with the mani. i recently had my flex pipes replaced and it's been fine so far. i got the flex pipes from ecs 2.25 and they were too big. stock flex pipe size is 2 but the rest of the car is 2.25. idk why they did that but i compared them when the guy cut one down. going to 2.5" is my suggestion too. you can custom make a mani for the 2.8 but it's not really worth it unless you're going to build it later down the road. what i suggest is replacing the flex pipe, leave the piping size stock and get the 14816. leave your res on and hook up the 14816 and see how you like it. if it's not loud enough, cut out the res. a lot of people run with the res because the 14816 by itself will drone on the highway and is super loud. youtube has tons of vids.