I had fun last night

"Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To" (murdersofa) 04/28/2014 at 09:16 • Filed to: None

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Hung out with a friend of mine to do homework, then we ended up screwing around with his Civic

That civic. Yes, that is an awful spraypaint paintjob that's flaking off, the front bumper is held on with zipties (FWIW, you can't tell), it has a fart cannon, and front and back tow hooks. No headliner, the right window is wired up wrong, ALL of the trim rattles, only two speakers work, and the gearshift knob is upside down.

It looks like a total piece of crap.

Until you pop the hood.

I don't know near enough about import cars to tell you what all this is, but it's an I4 swap from a CRV (with the JDM engine), wrapped exhaust manifold, the engine cover painted red and then the accents were done by spraypainting over laced panties (obviously JDM panties). It also has the coveted limited-slip diff, so the owner tells me. Along with this there are substantial suspension mods and bracing, though the car is running the stock ECU with a new engine, so it idles REALLY rough and the mixture is all over the place. Despite this, and the fact it barely turns over (owner says starter problem but it seems more like a battery issue to me), it'll do 0-60 in about 6 seconds and corners like it's on rails. The ride isn't as awful as you'd expect with the drop, though it does have reasonable tires on it (!!!).

All-in-all, this is a modded civic I don't hate. The money went into the performance mods (A friggin' engine swap) instead of making it look "cool", and it can haul pretty well. While we were driving around we saw several other super-clean civics driving around, as well as a Lexus making some noises that a Lexus should DEFINITELY not make.

Also, I had him sit in my car and rev the engine so I could actually stand behind it and hear the exhaust. That 3800 sounds pretty mean, as it hits 4 grand it sounds like a barking dog, with lots of nice snap-crackle-and-pop after you let off the gas. Any way for me to keep the noise intact but make the whole thing louder? I'm thinking of chopping out at least one of the catalytic converters, but I don't have a torch to weld something in their place (nor really any way to cut them out except for a sawzall).

We also poked around under my hood to see what mods I could easily do, and I'll probably be putting on a new intake since the airbox is super restrictive, as well as insulating the exhaust manifold since it passes within 2cm of the intake, probably significantly warming the air.

My honda-loving I4-owning buddy spent about five minutes looking for the other three cylinders before remembering my car is a V6 and not inline, which was amusing.

Anyways, rambling over. Time to go shopping for intakes.

OPPOsaurus WRX > Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To 04/28/2014 at 09:32

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I'm pretty sure cats are a good thing to have on the car.

Milky > Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To 04/28/2014 at 09:36

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Couple thoughts: First, it shouldn't take any car guy 5 minutes to figure out you have a V6 and not a I-6.

Second, as a previous SC400 owner, Lexus' can sound fantastic. (not my car, but I did the same mod)

Party-vi > Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To 04/28/2014 at 09:44

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I see we have a tow eye on here he must track this thing a lot.

*rolls eyes*

crowmolly > Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To 04/28/2014 at 09:57

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Your car only has one cat, unless it's different in Buicks than other W-bodies. Do not fuck with it.

Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To > crowmolly 04/28/2014 at 14:35

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Looking underneath shows two large bulges in the exhaust, as well as the muffler in the back. All I can find online is that they might be primary and secondary catalytic converters. Even if there is only one, what is the risk in getting rid of it and opening up the exhaust a bit? There aren't any inspections in my state.

crowmolly > Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To 04/28/2014 at 15:26

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Removing the cat may net you around 2hp and you will have fuel odor and extra drone. BTDT and I found it not worth the trade-off. On my Pontiacs they always had it like this:

downpipe off exh manifold -> cat -> bend/union ->resonator-> mufflers.

There was no "secondary cat". You can delete the resonator for extra noise. Basically if it's after an O2 sensor it doesn't HAVE to be there.

You can run just a downpipe off of the exhaust manifold but the noise will get to you. Loud but not exactly pleasant after a while, IMO. I ended up putting a bullet muffler back IN to a loud system.

Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To > crowmolly 04/28/2014 at 15:38

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Oooh, resonator. That must be what that is. There's quiet and then there's *IMPOSSIBLE TO HEAR* and I'd like to at least hear my engine a little bit as I go down the road. I get that it's a luxury car, but dang.

crowmolly > Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To 04/28/2014 at 15:42

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I have been trying in vain to get an exhaust diagram of a LeSabre to show you what I mean. If I get one I'll post it. Maybe look up "resonator delete"?

crowmolly > crowmolly 04/28/2014 at 15:50

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Best I could find. 1996-1999 model. If this is yours, you can probably remove the entire exhaust behind the converter and clamp a glasspack with a turndown on and see where you are at.

Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To > crowmolly 04/28/2014 at 18:53

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The muffler is oriented wrong and there are way more bends in that diagram, but yep, that's the same setup of components on my 2000. Cool, this gives me some to think about, thanks for digging around for me!