Midnight_Raven's Build

Okay so we just finished installing these tonight... I'm so tired. Not sure if because these are intended to be used with aftermarket catalytic converters or what but we had a real battle trying to get these in. Unfortunately since it's so late I can't record the audio for these. I did turn it on just to hear the idle and I have to say just the startup alone is amazing compared to the Comptechs. Here are some more pics of the exhaust before I installed them. Workmanship is amazing on these. Almost felt bad putting it on the car because it looked so good.

I also did a weight comparison.
Stock 44lbs
Comptech 30.8lbs (I thought it was 38lbs. Must of forgot that zero lol)
GRF-EX003 Titanium 10.7lbs :D. Really cool seeing something so large that weights so little.

Pics:






 
You bought it? Awesome!!! Dude your nsx is really coming along.
 
Slightly OT but I wanted to put my $.02 in about seatbelt/airbag interaction.

I don't know about NSXs, but in airbag-equipped Miatae there is a fold stitched into the seatbelt which is meant to rip apart in an impact and allow the occupant to move forward into the airbag. Common practice after removing the airbag is to undo the stitching for this fold.

In the below picture, the fold would be inside the black sleeve.

beltweb.jpg


PS - Car looks great!!
 
Here's a video showing the differences between my three set ups. Note: With the GRF-EX003 Setup I was not able to fully rev to 6K+. I got it up to about 4.5K the second time I gave it gas. I have a sleeping roommate in the house so I had to be considerate to get this done quick and as quietly as possible which is hard since these are loud lol.

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/htJKsmJ7Srs" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>


Jean That's interesting, so they actually slack up the seatbelt during impact even with a airbag. How much give is it once it breaks you estimate? Maybe it's to let the head and body move forward into the bag vs the head only moving and hitting the air bag at a strange angle.
 
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Wow that sounds great. Yes someone actually understood the value of a good exhaust! Your car is starting to become so similar to mine. LOL
 
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Midnight_Raven said:
Jean That's interesting, so they actually slack up the seatbelt during impact even with a airbag. How much give is it once it breaks you estimate? Maybe it's to let the head and body move forward into the bag vs the head only moving and hitting the air bag at a strange angle.
Click to expand...

Right, the seat belt gains about 6" of length once the threads holding the fold together fail. The idea being to slow the body more gradually, possibly saving the occupant from more severe injury. Non-airbag Miata seat belts didn't have this fold.

Just to prove I'm not making this up:
http://forum.miata.net/vb/showthread.php?t=454571
http://www.miataturbo.net/general-miata-chat-9/seat-belts-after-air-bag-removal-16681/

Of course, YMMV and I'm not recommending this, but it is a common practice (the mod).
 
It's not all good news here today. I drove around today and when I got home I checked out the exhaust and found out that my passenger side tail pipe was touching the rear valence. It melted the plastic onto the exhaust tip and now my valence is damaged :-\. So I tried adjusting the exhaust position but it seems when I turn the car on it the vibrations make the exhaust want to settle into a cocked angle which causes it to touch the valence. I guess I'm going to have to find rubber hangers that are longer so the exhaust can sit further away from the valence and get a new valence. Bummer :(

Anyone have any recommendation for rubber hangers that are longer?
 
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That sucks man... Sorry to hear
 
It's not all bad news now. Well since the valence is already damaged and I really don't want to mess with the exhaust since it was a pain to put on I decided to rework the valence to make it work. I removed the rear bumper and then used my Dremel to carefully cut off the part of the valence that would touch the muffler. I put everything back on together and it almost unnoticeable. :) Obviously if you focus on it you can tell the right side of the valence is a little different from the left, but you have to look for it.

 
For the price of that exhaust you would think that it will fit pretty perfect. That sucks and sorry to hear about your valence.
 
I agree it should fit perfectly and imo it's because they designed this exhaust to sit much higher than other exhaust. If it was designed to sit maybe 1/4" - 1/2" lower it would of been no problem with any NSX or if they made the tips stick out .5" - 1" more that would of also fixed the problem. It's just a very tight fitting exhaust.

Either way for now I'll have the modified valence and I'll eventually figure a way to adjust it so it sit's properly and then install a new valence... maybe even go with the 02 valence... ;)
 
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Hey Midnight,

I'm not sure if you need something like this any more (after your fix), but I've seen these used on a cockeyed exhause before to sort things out:

http://www2.kartboy.com/x4/product.php?productid=16166&cat=0&bestseller=Y

ImageUploadedByTapatalk1366079852.928958.jpg

The poly might help with the vibration issues as well. Not sure if these will fir your exhaust hangers, but they've solved a problem like this before! Hope this helps.

Lucas
 
Awesome find jaja. I just put a order in to try them out to see if these do help correct the position. Thanks for the help!

bngl3rt it's something I've considered. Sometimes I feel it's a little out of place for a pre-02 body car though.
 
Sorry to hear about the fitment issue.just another crapy data point for folks to consider when buying used parts online.I wonder if the seller ever had fitment issues on his car,or maybe had to modify his own valence:frown::rolleyes:
 
docjohn,

I don't know maybe this is a issue with my setup vs the muffler itself. I was told by the previous owner of my headers that these were the old style of Comptech headers(The one DC Sport used to make for Comptech out of plain steel). When I installed them my rear header I was having some fitment issues, so I had to loosen my rear crossbeam to allow the header to slip between it and the motor. This was not part of the DIY steps I read about for header install, so this leads me to believe it could be the source of my problem. It could be my comptech exhaust was skewed too but I never noticed it because it sits much lower than the GRF exhaust. Either way everything is on and working good so I'm not going to loose sleep over it. Hey look at the bright side of things I lost maybe like .1lbs by removing some material from the valence ;).
 
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A little more bad news for me. Last Sunday I took my NSX out to a car show. During the drive home my driver side window started to bind again. I was able to pull it all the way up with my hands and left it as is until I could look into it more. Well Tuesday I took the door panel off and immediatly could see that the regulator wire was limp. So I took the regulator apart and see that the wire had kinked up inside the reel assembly and it didn't look good. I tried straightening it out and putting it back together. I thought I might of successfully put it back together but after a couple of trys the regulator wire became limp again. I had to give up and admit defeat my regulator is broken :(. I know I probably could of bought a new wire and tried to put it back together again but I think replacing it would be the more permanent fix. So I ordered a new one and now I wait. It's a bummer though another thing breaking on the NSX just delays my plans even more.

Either way here are some pictures of my NSX someone took during the car show.


 
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Hey man you are driving around a semi exotic type supercar for peanuts, don't complain about a window regulator. :)
 
Hey Hey man, I could of bought a 5 lb battery for this car for the price I had to spend on the regulator and still had extra cash left. It slowing down my progress lol.
 
Thanks guys.

Hey guys I removed the volk center caps this past weekend but not sure how I feel about it. I prefer the non capped look because it's less blingy looking but it also does expose the axle nut in the rear to the elements plus exposes the rusted up front hubs . Additionally without the cap you can see the pink centering rings around the center hole. Do you guys think I should keep it as is without the cap or with the center cap to have a more clean look?





I also bought some new tires for the NSX :). Dunlop Direzza Z2s. My Yoko S.Drives rear tires were getting low and I thought why not just get better rubber all around. I wonder how the car will feel after the change.
Mounting them sometime next week.
 
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