Megan Racing type 2 exhaust and you: my review

[tastyratz]

Megan Racing type 2 exhaust and you: my review.

I recently purchased the Megan Racing type 2 exhaust in black from wesellcarparts on zilvia.net

The exhaust was shipped very quickly and the price was very cheap at only $335 shipped. wscp was great and I have nothing but positive over my experience with them, sale was smooth.

This exhaust was chosen for being low profile for my s14. I have my no compromise fully built s13 for summer fun but needed something that attracted less attention and also was more "civil" than the s13 for DD and year round driving. This exhaust uses 3" piping all the way through into an oval muffler with dual stainless polished tips. The exhaust is entirely ceramic coated black for corrosion resistance as well as resonance reduction and heat retention (heat = faster flow) It looks very low profile which is just what I wanted.

My s14 currently has:
Ebay headers
s13 oem 2.5 in/out cat converter (s14 was just a resonated chamber as the cat used to be on the header)
248/232 cam combo
redrilled cam gear for proper alignment.
ram air intake



The exhaust arrived and when I took it out of the box it looked good. The welds are mig and looked solid and thick. The black ceramic coating seemed decent and tough. Flanges are thick and the piping was a heavier gauge than expected. Piping and muffler is mild steel not stainless. There is a resonator right after the cat and it lead to a dual tip muffler. The muffler has 3" OD polished stainless steel tips that taper to a 2" ID over about 1.5-2" or so at the end. The exhaust is 2 pieces, muffler half and main pipe half.





I wanted to see what it weighed so I got on a scale, then got on the scale with the exhaust and recorded the difference.
Stock s14 exhaust: 37lbs
Megan: 34lbs

3 lbs less than stock. Not as light as a can style but better than heavier. I didn't mind a little extra weight here if it measured up.
While you might expect it to have a chambered muffler design it doesn't. The muffler is a straight through glasspack "turbo style"
See the diagram below:



As you can see it seems like half of the muffler is completely wasted. There is no muffling going on after the perforated section, and the perforated section takes up less than half of the muffler. This makes this big heavy tank at the end only half of what it needs to be and less functional than the average straight through 3" n1 style can.

I also noted that where the ceramic coating ended and the stainless tips begun it looked like they used regular masking tape to do the edging... how can I tell? There's loads of little bits and pieces at the transition and they couldn't reach in between the tips to pick it off so they left a couple of big chunks on there.


I bolted it up to my s14. Fitment was actually excellent, I was impressed.



Ground clearance was close to stock, the lowest point to almost worry about would be the flange by the muffler which sits maybe 1.5-2" lower than stock.

stock:

Megan:


Tips of megan:


Tips of stock:


I also made a video clip with before and after sound to show the differences in volume and tone. Some people just do an after sound clip which doesn't really show how it compares to stock. Different recording conditions (location, camcorder type, etc) don't make for valid comparisons side by side. car was in the garage, on a lift, right next to the open door. Sound clip was taken 2 feet lower than the muffler tips (car in the air) and at a 45 degree angle lining up with the passenger side door or so.I revved the car to 3krpm a few times then to 4krpm.

I will throw up the video clip later


Sound is quiet compared to other exhausts at less than 2k under load. at that point it sounds awesome. Very quiet near stock and subtle with pronounced pulse notes. from 2k-3k it starts getting really loud and its just as loud if not louder than your standard can style. At that point it loses any throaty growl it had and all exhaust tones just blend. My s13 has a titanium N1 style exhaust which is VERY VERY loud. This is about the same over 2k in comparison.

Revving the car out it has a nasty rasp to it. The car sounds like a battle of epic proportions between rival bee hives is taking place in the muffler after 3krpm or so when revved in place or 4k when romping it on the street. Ricers rejoice here is your choice.

The exhaust resonates the cabin something fierce... So much so that I needed an Advil when I got to work today. Things in the car rattle and the thought of going on the highway make me cringe. I will be dynomatting the trunk over the exhaust today in hopes of making this less painful till I change it.


Verdict:
I give this exhaust a 7/10. If it sounded great and had a quality muffler I would have given it a 10/10. Build quality, fitment, appearance, and ground clearance are stellar. 3 points removed for sound. I would have very willingly paid and extra $50 for a better FUNCTIONAL muffler. Megan obviously didn't get the point of making this exhaust and their target audience. Ill take the exhaust tone of a straight pipe 3in can over this exhaust any day. It is quieter than the straight pipe but definitely doesn't sound as nice.

Updated: I threw up pics. Not putting the sound clip up yet. I have put 100 miles on this exhaust since I purchased it. So far it seems to have "broken in" and mellowed out significantly. I can no longer hear the rasp I originally described in my review (at least from inside the car I haven't noticed it anymore) Its still not as quiet as I would like but I think I will give it a tank of gas to see. I no longer have the carpet piece, spare tire, or trunk wood to block out sound a bit. I also dynomatted over the muffler section to see if that helps.

Update again: Added sound clip
http://personal.tastyratz.com/articles/megans14.mp3

and crappy shakey video clip with audio showing the tach too.

Please don't judge the car based on its automatic disease - it was inflicted with the autotragic at birth but will be getting a manual sex change soon enough.

http://www.youtube.com/v/Ky7R1kWNhW0