i am going through another chapter with my fiero (86 2M6). I couldn't figure out why the thing was losing power. finally decided it might be the cat, so i crawled underneth and knocked on it, looked old and rattled when i hit it. so i decied it was sawz-all time. After getting it off the car runs like it used to, but is loud due an amatuer straight pipe and a leaking exhaust manifold. SO i am gonna get new exhaust to make it sound and run better.
The next problem is that everywhere i have taken it to get it priced for exhaust people says no perforance exhaust exists for the car and it would have to be custom made, making it super expensive. Does anybody have any suggestions on where to get performance exhaust so i can have somebody install it?
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Proud Owner of a Black 86 2M6! AIM: Hutchmyster85
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08:58 PM
PFF
System Bot
$Rich$ Member
Posts: 14575 From: Sioux Falls SD Registered: Dec 2002
do what i did, port the stock manifolds, cat delete, and i just added the Ocelot exhaust from the fiero store, and re-used the stock tips, the tips that come with the Ocelot look like ass ("I" think)
its half the price of borla, and i got an awsome power gain, although my stock muffler was plugged with reminants of a cat
If you would like a Borla, I got one from my car I'm taking off and would consider selling.
It would be in used condition though. its 304stainless, and has a million mile warrenty on it. I don't know what that would mean to a non original buyer, but lets ya know the quality is there.
Let me know if you'd be interested, I'd have to check shipping.
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09:36 PM
$Rich$ Member
Posts: 14575 From: Sioux Falls SD Registered: Dec 2002
There's a few choices for performance exhaust for the Fiero depending on the condition of your remaining exhaust.
First for the leaking manifolds; i would highly recomend Darrell morse. He ports and rewelds the exhaust manifolds and does an excellent job. Many people on the forum have had him do this and all are happy with his work. Do a search on him and you'll come up with several threads praising his work. Good guy, excellent work, and even a good price. Far cheaper then any header that's available. Exhaust; i would not recomend the Ocelot. I had it and experienced no power gain. I guarentee you that Richs gain in power is coming from removing the cat and not the Ocelot. The Ocelot has restrictive bends in it and i wont even get into the cheap exhaust tips it comes with. I had this exhaust on my GT and experienced no power gain what so ever. I had been driving around without the cat long before installing the Ocelot so i did get to compare them seperately. One good thing i will say about the Ocelot is that it does have a nice deep sound but that's it. If you do decide to use this exhaust then it would be a very very good idea to paint it to keep it from rusting with a high temp paint. The Borla, if you don't buy it from the forum member above, is available from Twin Lakes Fiero for less then $500. It is a high quality piece and has been dyno proven to give 7 HP. All Borlas, as previously mentioned, do have a million mile warrenty and are made of stainless steel which will not rust. Twin Lakes installs all the brackets for your year car so when you get it it's a true bolt on and can be installed in the driveway if you have the tools. I would rather have it welded up myself though so that would cost extra obviously. That price includes polished stainless tips too by the way. You can reach Twin Lakes via their website at: www.localline2.com/~fierobob or by phone: (217)- 379 - 9140 If you want to replace the cat then you could go with a dual system. This is done by coming off the cat and installing a "Y" pipe which then splits the exhaust into two pipes which you route right to the tips eliminating the muffler altogether. This is loud and may attract the polices attention so if you're interested in doing this make sure the cops in your area arent anal about this. Minngreen has this exhaust if you want to talk to someone who has it. This can be done by any exhaust shop around for much less then the Borla ,although, adding a cat will make this more expensive of course. It should still come out to be far less the the Borla though. Probably just under $400 (with new high flow cat installed too) depending on the shop. Very possibly less actually. Friend of mine got a quote of $350 complete just for reference.
You can add a Flowmaster muffler or the Spintech muffler from West Coast Fiero. If you have a pre 88 then the Camaro crossflow Flowmaster will fit without mods from what i understand but an 88 requires it to be notched. West Coast sells these already notched to fit the Fiero. The Flowmaster has been dyno proven to add 5 HP over stock. This will only cost you the price of the muffler and the price of getting it welded up at a shop. Some of these choices would only work if some of your system is still in tact so if it's not then that will limit your choices some. You can always get a stock system from a variety of places as well such as; Twin Lakes, Kick Hill, the Fiero Factory, or the Fiero Store to make some of these work though.
------------------ Activities Director N.I.F.E.
[This message has been edited by Dave Gunsul (edited 10-12-2003).]
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10:01 PM
$Rich$ Member
Posts: 14575 From: Sioux Falls SD Registered: Dec 2002
Exhaust; i would not recomend the Ocelot. I had it and experienced no power gain. I guarentee you that Richs gain in power is coming from removing the cat and not the Ocelot. The Ocelot has restrictive bends in it and i wont even get into the cheap exhaust tips it comes with.
ive had other V6 fiero's With the cat removed, i will positivley say that the sound with the Ocelot is a little louder, and noticably deeper than a stock V6 With OUT the cat i like it!! it sounds nice and powerfull, but yet its not overly loud (even with out a cat) the only restrictave bend is in the head pipe that i recived and that was from the fiero store aswell, i would stay with the stock one and just pc. in a pipe where the cat was, because the stock bend is Manderal bent and hard to beat.
i agree 100% that the tips that come with it are Cheesey and Cheep, thats why i ordered it W/O tips, and re-used the stock ones, the increased power didnt come from removing the cat (the cat was empty) it came from removing the stock muffler that was plugged with the remains of the 2 previous cats
All the bends in it are restrictive. Compare it to the Borla, which is a real performance exhaust system, and you will see the difference. The Ocelot is bent using a regular pipe bender where as the Borla is made with mandrel bends. A pipe bender makes each bend smaller as it bends where as mandrel bending has no decrease in interior pipe size as it bends. An exhaust is only as good as it's smallest part. Before anyone comes in and says some restriction is good that is true but the size of the pipes themselves is still a restriction being only 2 inches at most so sqeezing the pipes down with a pipe bender as it bends brings it smaller then 2 which is not good for performance.
The borla system I have is a 2 piece design. It has the piece that goes under the cradle to the muffler, then the piece with the muffler and the 2 tips. The muffler to the tips is all once piece with mine, it uses the Borla intercooled tips.
I'm taking it off cause I'm puttin on turbo, and my downpipe is the trunkside rather than the firewall side like stock. I could cut it up and keep the muffler section, but I'd prefer not to cut up a good system.
I had this exhaust on my GT and experienced no power gain what so ever. I had been driving around without the cat long before installing the Ocelot so i did get to compare them seperately. One good thing i will say about the Ocelot is that it does have a nice deep sound but that's it. If you do decide to use this exhaust then it would be a very very good idea to paint it to keep it from rusting with a high temp paint.
