From the first day I picked up my 325i I wanted to change the exhaust. The original muffler had rotted so it was worthless. For the time being I had a Scorpion muffler and midpipe on there but to be honest...it was far to flashy, quiet and...not what I wanted.
So I set out to build a budget exhaust.
I bought a downpipe from an e30 in the junkyard for $18. This did not include the catalytic converter which is good because I didn't want it anyway. So I proceed to cut the header, make a small relief cut in the middle and use my bench vise to squeeze the pipes together.
Then I took a 3" pipe section and used my bearing press so slowly squeeze one in and kept the other side circular but keeping a very large socket in there.
Once that was on I used a small transition to get it down to 2.5. This is a good time to tell you that ALL the pipe I used was FREE. I found a guy a guy swapping out his truck exhaust and got everything for free. You can get PLENTY of people who are willing to toss you great mandrel bent pipe for nothing once they upgrade!!!
Anyway...here's the beginning of the exhaust
This continues back until I toss on a cheap ebay v-band section:
And here is the front section complete. Still uses all factory mounting areas. Not shown in this pic is the rear section right before the v-band has a mount to hook to the factory exhaust hanger.
The rear section was pretty quick to build. I use a jack to place the muffler where I want and tack/weld the mounts on. Once that's done I just have to connect muffler to the v-band like so:
The tip you see is factory from a Chevy truck. I painted the back of the muffler and tip with high heat grill paint to hide the stainless. I'm not a fan of bling.
So for $135 I have an exhaust that sounds good to me, won't break the bank, and makes remove and installation a cinch.
Thanks for looking.
Here's a vid to help answer some questions:
https://youtu.be/qm-QYMO4S1Y
So I set out to build a budget exhaust.
I bought a downpipe from an e30 in the junkyard for $18. This did not include the catalytic converter which is good because I didn't want it anyway. So I proceed to cut the header, make a small relief cut in the middle and use my bench vise to squeeze the pipes together.
Then I took a 3" pipe section and used my bearing press so slowly squeeze one in and kept the other side circular but keeping a very large socket in there.
Once that was on I used a small transition to get it down to 2.5. This is a good time to tell you that ALL the pipe I used was FREE. I found a guy a guy swapping out his truck exhaust and got everything for free. You can get PLENTY of people who are willing to toss you great mandrel bent pipe for nothing once they upgrade!!!
Anyway...here's the beginning of the exhaust
This continues back until I toss on a cheap ebay v-band section:
And here is the front section complete. Still uses all factory mounting areas. Not shown in this pic is the rear section right before the v-band has a mount to hook to the factory exhaust hanger.
The rear section was pretty quick to build. I use a jack to place the muffler where I want and tack/weld the mounts on. Once that's done I just have to connect muffler to the v-band like so:
The tip you see is factory from a Chevy truck. I painted the back of the muffler and tip with high heat grill paint to hide the stainless. I'm not a fan of bling.
So for $135 I have an exhaust that sounds good to me, won't break the bank, and makes remove and installation a cinch.
Thanks for looking.
Here's a vid to help answer some questions:
https://youtu.be/qm-QYMO4S1Y
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