Exhaust fab. (- cats) anyone built their own ?

My backround- I love cars/ working on them and this is my first BMW. A time capsule 1995 540i/6 The exhaust looks like it could use some help- Quite small andway silent. There must be some more free ponies in there! Now, I'm not spending $1000 for a cat-back system. Honestly a waste of money. For $10 you can get a disc of an exhaust you like the sound of, and drop it in your CD changer on repeat..... :p What I want to know is: Has anyone built their own from ready available components. How well did it work and did gutting or removing the cats help a great deal ?

Just because you own a BMW doesn't mean you have to pay others to do your work :) Besides some of us just love doing it ourselves.

Gimmie a welder !

the cats are a good size and not really that restrictive, besides a little back pressure helps bottom end power, not sure what aftermarket components will be useful. my 535 came with a flowmaster where the cat shoulda been and a glass pack where the muffler shoulda been, it sounded like **** and when i installed a stock headpipe and cat i got more power and smoother accelleration, i used a catback from a e32 750il with 2.5" pipes
http://members.cox.net/wdixon27/750%20high%20tips
http://members.cox.net/wdixon27/750%20low%20tips
http://members.cox.net/wdixon27/750catback2
http://members.cox.net/wdixon27/750catback1

winfred - with more than 230k miles and a really rusty, but not yet leaky, potentially original, muffler, should I be thinking of replacing the cat?

When I hit the cat (or the cover around it?) it sounds "dead".... in other words, it's like hitting a piece of wood and not a muffler... effect is that, you feel like you're squishing the stuff inside upon the impact; does that make any sense? :)

you can always look inside the cats from the resonator end to see if it's solid, if you can hear crap rattling around empty them out and be done with it, that way it looks like it has cats and you pass visual inspections

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Originally Posted by Kamil

winfred - with more than 230k miles and a really rusty, but not yet leaky, potentially original, muffler, should I be thinking of replacing the cat?

When I hit the cat (or the cover around it?) it sounds "dead".... in other words, it's like hitting a piece of wood and not a muffler... effect is that, you feel like you're squishing the stuff inside upon the impact; does that make any sense? :)

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dam I like that 750iL exhaust on your E-34 Winfred...beautiful set up...would love to do the same thing on my big six E-32. Issue is a good high end 750iL exhaust replacement is very pricey...more than a M-30 OEM exhaust replacement and I can't find a nice used one. Have to do something soon as my original exhaust has about had it.

you must have that invisable thing activated on the user control panel, i never see you online

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Originally Posted by George M

dam I like that 750iL exhaust on your E-34 Winfred...beautiful set up...would love to do the same thing on my big six E-32. Issue is a good high end 750iL exhaust replacement is very pricey...more than a M-30 OEM exhaust replacement and I can't find a nice used one. Have to do something soon as my original exhaust has about had it.

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guess I need to check my settings :-) Hey Winfred...you build all your computers from scratch?

this'll be the 1st from scratch and 2nd peecee of my own, i've done a fair amount to the mac i am using now, how bout 50% overclocked for the last two years :) the early g3's had alot of head room with some help, i could go more but i didn't feel like modding the cpu voltages for a rch more performance and instability

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Originally Posted by George M

guess I need to check my settings :-) Hey Winfred...you build all your computers from scratch?

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sorry to butt in.
:D

sorry to butt in.
:D