My MONZA Exhaust Installation
January 3, 1998
Hello,
I am another MX-3 owner who works on his own car, and I figured this might
be of interest to you and your web page readers. This is the abbreviated
version of what happened to me when I replaced my exhaust system. As a
disclaimer, I don't work for Pacesetter or know anyone who does, I just
bought their product and it's working fine so far.
After the stock exhaust on my ’92 MX-3 GS (1.8L V6) rusted out in a second
spot I decided that patching it (again) was a lost cause. I called up the
local Mazda dealer, priced out the OEM replacement for everything past the
catalytic converter (about $325 U.S. plus tax) and decided that I would at
least find out what a "performance" system would cost. After some web
research, and a few calls I purchased the Pacesetter MONZA Performance
Exhaust System (cat-back system), part# 88-1278, for $199.95 plus $25 S&H
(U.S.). I really couldn’t find any other manufacturer that sold a cat-back
system for the MX-3, so I quizzed the guy on their 800#, talked to some of
my gear-head friends, crossed my fingers and ordered it. Yes, they have a
website: http://www.pacesetterexhaust.com/.
What I got via UPS a few days later was a 3 piece, 2 ¼" diameter (stock is
2" diam.) cat-back system, painted black with the necessary gaskets,
U-clamp, bolts and so on. The first piece is the pre-muffler, with a flange
to bolt up against the catalytic converter and a slip joint connection at
the other end. The pre-muffler itself is a straight-through glasspack type
muffler with small louvers inside that open to the rear of the exhaust. The
next piece simply connects from the slip joint to the flange connection for
the rear muffler. The last piece is the main or rear muffler, with a flange
connection at the front end, and a single 4"outside diameter, chrome
resonator tip at the back end. I couldn’t really see much inside the
muffler, but the tip is a louvered glasspack resonator, painted bright
yellow on the inside. This resonator tip is not subtle and will make a
noticeable change to the look of your car ("Why is that huge pipe coming out
of that little car?").
While the overall quality of the system was good (clean welds, even paint,
solid construction) I do have one criticism of the product. On the last
piece of the system, the mounting brackets on the main, or rear, muffler
were significantly out of alignment. The mounting brackets held the
tailpipe up against the rear bumper and pulled the muffler up and towards
the center of the vehicle, against the heat shield. I was able to fix this
by carefully bending the brackets with Vise-Grips and checking the fit until
I had the location of the rear muffler and tailpipe corrected.
I believe that Pacesetter could significantly improve the quality and ease
of installation of this system by some simple adjustment of the 3 brackets
that hold and position the rear muffler (I did email them about that but I
haven't gotten a response yet). Otherwise, I found the quality and fit were
excellent. The first two pieces of the cat-back exhaust installed easily
with no modifications. It took me about 3 hours total to install the
system, by myself, without rushing (it would have gone faster if the rear
muffler fit right initially).
The final question is, "What about horsepower and the sound?) Well, I don’t
know for sure. Pacesetter claims a 6% increase in horsepower, which would
be 135+ at the engine compared to 128 stock. Since I haven’t had the car
dyno’d (might do that this spring) before or after, I can’t say if there is
an increase or not. As far as sound, it’s really hard to say since my stock
exhaust was leaking and LOUD before. Hopefully, I can find someone with a
stock MX-3 V6 and compare at some later date.
From reading other web reviews of this product it sounds as if Pacesetter
has improved the quality (somewhat) and increased the price as well. My
recommendation is, if you have to replace your exhaust anyway, go for it!
At the very least you will save about $100+, you might like the new look,
and you might get a performance increase.
|
|
