w00t, rx8store.com exhaust just arrived.
 

Will put it on later today. Think there's any harm in firing it up without an exhaust? I'd love to get a sound clip of the rx8 with nothing behind the cat.

get some ear plugs...just incase you can't hear now...Y O U S H O U L D H A V E U S E D E A R P L U G S!!!

Yeah that will be louder than all hell.
Seriously, wear something to protect your ears...

Could shoot some flames if you are not careful, and also will probably trip a check engine light because a fresh air supply will be so close to the 2nd O2 sensor. I wouldn't do it, but if you do, try to be outside. Even a 1.5 liter spitfire motor sounds like a canon going off with only a header.

It would sound like a car without an exhaust....horrible.

I'd love to hear a clip of the new exhaust once you get it though!

Enjoy!!!! :D

-Eric

I ran my Mini Cooper with exhaust removed from the cat back and it was L O U D! We ran it on a Dynojet like that and it put out the lowest HP of all the dyno runs.

http://www.mini2.com/gallery/persona...ken/dyno-3.jpg

Most cars need a little back pressure.

I'll definitely be posting clips of the new exhaust. And you should quality your statement... it'll sound like a rotary without an exhaust, which is 10x worse than an uncorked piston engine.

Welp, bad news. I am unimpressed by the rx8store exhaust. Build quality seemed good, but they didn't include bolts to attach the mufflers to the pipe. Managed to scrounge some up, went to bolt the pipe up onto the cat, and it didn't fit. The flanges were off by at least a half inch off of the cat's studs, and the pipe was too big for the cat outlet. Perhaps this particular unit was designed with a 3" mid-pipe in mind?

At any rate, I'm going to go ahead and send the rx8store.com exhaust back and order a B&B. It seemed like a very nice exhaust, I'm just sorry I couldn't get it bolted up to the car to try it out.

sorry to hear that, hope B&B exhaust will work out for you.

maybe you should consider HKS exhaust, i have it the finish and fitment are really nice :)

The HKS appeals to me, but the price doesn't. Too many other projects to put money into. :)

What about the Borla?

The Borla is sweet !

If you are ever up in Thousand Oaks they have a Borla exhaust system on a red RX-8 you can drive and check out.

You are not bolting the exhaust up correctly if its not fitting. I would mount the pipe on the cat first without bolting it to the mufflers. Then mount the mufflers on the hangers and then bolt the mufflers to the pipe. If you do it any other way its going to be very hard to install. You may also need to shift the exhaust on the hangers to get it to lineup correctly. There should be a small bag in the box with a gasket and bolts.
I have had one other person complain it didnt fit and after mounting it like I suggested he didnt have any problems.
The exhaust is made from a jig and almost impossible for the piping to be off. It always possible it was bent in shipping.

Jason

This is how I was doing it... struggled with it for quite awhile, but it just wouldn't line up with the studs (flange on the rx8store was too large). I'll give it one more go, and take pics of both the stock unit and the rx8store for comparison.

Yea if you could get a couple of pics that would be great. Send them to jbaughman@ameritech.net

Thanks
Jason

wish i could be there....its gonna be nasty and loud!:D

Thanks for the advice Jason. I should be receiving my RX8 exhaust any day now. :cool:

Gave it another go, it still didn't fit. Picked up a B&B, fit perfectly. I'll take comparison pics of the rx8store and the stock to show the difference in flange and pipe sizes.

Winter - Why didn't you just get another exhaust from the RX8Store? You liked it enough to buy it the first time, right? Why so quickly to change? Not that your replacemant won't do the job but just curious. :)

success07, are you suggesting Winter just didn't like the RX8 Store exhaust and made up a reason to return it for the B & B?

PFO - No, not at all. I have the RX8Store exhaust and all is great. Several others have it and have had no problems. I was simply curious because if I like something enough to buy it and in turn something isn't right with it, I usually give it a second chance just for the purpose that it may just be a one time issue. I spend alot of time researching the things that I buy and should something like this come up, which it does on occasion, I allow myself to get one more for comparison. If that one has an issue than I know that it wasn't for me and then it's time to research a different product. No harm, no foul. :)

good luck

Success07, I'd originally ordered a B&B from hopupracing, but after getting the runaround for a few weeks I cancelled that order and placed an order with rx8store, because they could ship an exhaust that day. After spending that night trying (and failing) to install the rx8store exhaust, I decided to take a close look at the other options. After viewing a B&B in person, I was very impressed by the fit and finish of it, and decided to order one (my mind was already pretty much made up, since it was the exhaust I'd originally wanted).

I held off on returning the rx8store until the B&B arrived, because I was curious to see if the fitment issue with the rx8store was my screw up (I'd feel like a jackass returning a perfectly good exhaust, and figured I'd sell the one I liked less on here). Tried the rx8store one more time for good measure, then tried the B&B. The B&B lined up perfectly with the flange studs on the cat, took about 20 minutes to install.

I'm very happy with my B&B exhaust, and am sure I would've been happy with the rx8store. Considering the large number of people here with rx8store exhausts, this one seems to be a fluke, and shouldn't reflect poorly on them.