Thread: exhaust on 2.2 puma

I've pulled my rear resonator and had the mid muffler replaced with a hi flow - a bit more of a note and (arguably) slightly quicker spool up.

Next step will be to pull the mid completely, but I think you probably need to ditch/replace the cat to really get things happening.

Taipan and Bruce Davis do full exhausts for them - Beaudesert offered to do one for mine, but they needed a guinea pig truck (but I'm in Canberra and they're in QLD).

Originally Posted by n plus one

I've pulled my rear resonator and had the mid muffler replaced with a hi flow - a bit more of a note and (arguably) slightly quicker spool up.

Next step will be to pull the mid completely, but I think you probably need to ditch/replace the cat to really get things happening.

Taipan and Bruce Davis do full exhausts for them - Beaudesert offered to do one for mine, but they needed a guinea pig truck (but I'm in Canberra and they're in QLD).

I was advised by Gary at Alive Tuning to leave the back box with a decat and straight through centre pipe. He said that it was a common factor in overspeed turbo failures, which he often sees.

Originally Posted by pannawonica

I was advised by Gary at Alive Tuning to leave the back box with a decat and straight through centre pipe. He said that it was a common factor in overspeed turbo failures, which he often sees.

Yeah, decat seems to be the primary cause of turbo over speed - assume leaving the resonator is an attempt to maintain some back pressure and address this issue?

I plan on keeping a cat (hi flow) in whatever system I use - they aren't required to in the uk (lucky buggers).

2.4 Puma 130: 3" mandrel bend from turbo with centre muffler. No-where near as sweet as a TD5 at full noise. A noticeable deeper tone but not significantly louder. No drone at any RPM/speed. No indication of overrun (first time might be the last).

Had mine custom made because the long travel suspension fouls the factory pipe over the rear diff tube. The fabricator included extra mounting points to reduce fatigue i.e. i have mounting points fore and aft the centre muffler.

No noticeable improvement in acceleration. No noticeable improvement in fuel economy (the idiot behind the wheel is the significant contributing factor to fuel). If you can measure, by the seat of your pants, an improvement in performance by fitting an exhaust you have, my friend, what they call the placebo effect.

MLD

Whilst I am inclined to agree that there is not a great deal of increased performance in doing exhaust mods in just it self, combined with everything else for me it has substantial. I do not get the amount of heat from the seat boxes that I used too. I am using less fuel but more to the point to me is increased range.

Originally Posted by MLD

2.4 Puma 130: 3" mandrel bend from turbo with centre muffler. No-where near as sweet as a TD5 at full noise. A noticeable deeper tone but not significantly louder. No drone at any RPM/speed. No indication of overrun (first time might be the last).

Had mine custom made because the long travel suspension fouls the factory pipe over the rear diff tube. The fabricator included extra mounting points to reduce fatigue i.e. i have mounting points fore and aft the centre muffler.

No noticeable improvement in acceleration. No noticeable improvement in fuel economy (the idiot behind the wheel is the significant contributing factor to fuel). If you can measure, by the seat of your pants, an improvement in performance by fitting an exhaust you have, my friend, what they call the placebo effect.

MLD

Your last statement, while a sweeping one should probably just be ignored, but I'll draw attention to it for the benefit of the younger players out there.
Exhaust tuning on na and turbo engines is a very real performance modification. I'd suggest that those who think that a bigger exhaust did not improve performance, probably have flow restrictions in other places (intake, heads, or turbo itself). In modern engines its highly likely that they were engineered more towards extracting the most efficiency, torque and reliability out of the motor than engineering excess capacity into it for the benefit of aftermarket tuners.

I've had a naturally aspirated 3l v6, and a twin turbo v6 (same engine- Nissan vg30de) to which I've tried about 6 different exhaust configurations- pipe diameter, cat converters and muffler setups. Each engine needs a tailor made exhaust solution, but the designer needs to know more about the engibe and exhaust system than just "bigger is better". When you understand what you are doing worth the exhaust mod, then you can tweak the system to get the best gains.

I agree with Toxic in as much as exhaust mods/gains will vary from vehicle to vehicle,....and of course with the skill of the "designer".
However, IMHO, I don't think there is much to gain on the exhaust of a 2.2 Puma, unless you have some solid engine mods like a bigger turbo, intercooler, re-map & all that sort of stuff, and even then, whilst NOT being an expert myself, I've read of a multitude of modified Pumas, most of which had a standard exhaust. I don't think I've EVER seen one with a set of extractors, all the modified ones I've seen are wearing the standard exhaust manifold.
Summing up, I reckon the gains of a modified (which would probably be only to the "pipe" itself) exhaust on a Puma would be marginal at best.
Pickles.