Ok now... i'm not a dumbass. I know the difference between a catback exhaust and a muffler replacement, but i have a question for you 240 people out there. I have a 95 nissan 240SX SE. Problem is that the KA has 217000 miles on the thing. I'm going to get a new KA soon, but i cant stand the stock sound. I was wondering what the exhaust pipes look like under there. if I replace the muffler with an N1 would that make it catback(somewhat)? I last thought that the pipe runs straight through from the cat straight to the muffler. So will welding a new muffler in place of the old one make it catback? Or is there some bend somewhere between the cat and the muffler. I just havent had the time to look at these things b/c of school. Reason I'm asking is because i want to get a HKS catback exhaust when i get the new KA, but right now i dont want to spend money on the KA that is pretty much running old. I just wanted to know if welding a new muffler will technically make it catback? or shall i say "straight piped" or JDM.(with least amount of bends)?

 

alright.....the exhaust you have now is a cat back, catback means it runs from the cat back, welding a muffler on the exhaust is still a cat back but you wont get the "performance" an hks, or apexi...ect. will.
why? performance company's exhaust sytems have less bends and they are bigger...my stock exhaust is 2.25 and most performance exhaust are 2.75 or 3.00, but if you just have the na ka-de then you will be fine with just the muffler "for sound" but if you want performance try to find one that is 2.50. you could get a 3.00 incher but my belief is that you will loose performance because of low back pressure.but we arnt going to get into that one, if you want to read more on that one thier is already a post about diffrent exhaust sizes are better or worse and why,...just search for it.

 

I must not have been clear... sorry about that.... I meant is the amount of bends in the stock exhaust the same as most name brank catback exhaust sytems out there. I know the part of the piping size affecting the performance, I just wanted to know if the amount of bends are the same.... Sorry about that... but do you know the answer to my new calarified question?

 

The bends should be roughly the same as it has to travel the same route as the other exhaust (althought it might exit at a slight angle). Its the types of bends, crimping (pipe gets samller at the bends) vs manderal bends (pipe stays the same size). Plus the size difference in the piping is another big thing.

 

in a performance exhaust thier are LESS bends. find a pic of a stock exhaust from any car and then look at a performance exhaust for the same car. im sure you could find pics of a civic exhaust or somthing. but like i said if your justing wanting a sound a muffler is the most easy and cheap way to go. *hint* when people say custom cat-back then usually all they do is put on a muffler and sometimes depending on where you live gut the cat. and yes what phreze said is true about crimping and manderal bends. anything else or did that do it?

 

Yeah that cleared it up, I'll just change out the muffler till i get my HKS catback. I cant wait till i get my new KA!