The install went mostly quite well. The kit itself fits perfectly, with the only issue being the self destructing cat flange stud. The kit also weighs 15lbs less than stock.

The sound is certainly different. I'm used to the Subaru STi rumble or a V8 Growl, so an inline-4 is taking a bit of getting used to. I might just end up going with the muffled version with the free flow cat.

Here's video of a couple runs. The 2nd run in the video with the airbox opened let you hear the nice turbo sounds.
http://www.grayforge.com/solo/solstice_dyno.mov

The car acts kinda odd on the dyno... like it learns each run. During the baseline runs, power increased significantly from the 1st to the 2nd run. Then increased to lesser extents for succeeding runs. As you can see from the dyno chart below, there'd be quite a difference between the 1st stock run (blue) and 3rd Modified run (green). But the difference was a lot less from the best stock to the best modified. Max differences of 12 Hp and 13 Ft-Lbs.

Horsepower


Torque


Regarding the stock sacrificial exhaust studs. We first removed the stock system and installed the Street Race system to test fit it, then went back to stock for the dyno baseline. On the final install, one of the stock studs had had enough. First, the tip broke off with the stud not fully seated. So I used vice grips to get it off, trimmed the integral washer/flange with an angle grinder so I could get a socket on it, then tried re-installing it... after a bit, she broke with the remaining piece left in the cat pipe flange. I didn't have time to drill it out, so I used coat hanger wire twisted tightly to hold the broken side of the flange in. The other stud hadn't quite died yet. Yeah, pretty Ghetto.

I'd suggest replacing the stock studs with the provided ones if you have any damage or if you plan to swap exhausts any.

Stock sacrificial stud.

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Have you throw an engine light yet. I threw one a day later.

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Nope, but I haven't swapped out the stock cat yet. Have you? If you still have the stock cat, you should check the code to see what's up.

Russ

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curious if you put the pipe on before the dyno run? Did the ecm not have time to adjust itself?

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I put it on at home, then drove 10 minutes to the dyno shop.

Here is the order of runs with the Street Race exhaust from 1st to last:

Run 1: 222hp
Run 2: 235hp
Run 3: 238hp
Run 4: 233hp
Run 5: 230hp

So it looks like some learning occurred, then heat soak may have set in, dropping power again.

Russ

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Note: I just re-uploaded dyno graphs with the horizontal scale showing RPM vs. road speed.

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I noticed I had values bouncing all over the place too when we did the dyno values. Before resetting the ECM and after it was the same scenario.

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Here's a movie we took at this last weekend's dyno session. This is with the Street Race Exhaust. Good for getting a feel for the sounds this exhaust produces.

http://www.grayforge.com/solo/solstice_dyno.mov

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Where's the 30 h.p.???????

With the mach exhaust + hiflow cat there was a 28rwhp gain on my car


Im kind of puzzled with ender's dyno numbers, how much cool off time was there between runs?

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1993 talon tsi awd - stock on the outside, modded on the inside
2007 solstice gxp - Solo Performance 3" mach exhaust + hiflow cat - dyno sheet

There was 90 minutes between my 2 sets of runs while I installed the exhaust. There was only a few minutes of time between each run in a particular session. I could see the power falling a bit on the 4th & 5th run of the 2nd session (with Street Race), but the 1st run of each session, while the coolest, was also the lowest of each session.

I'm more surprised at the variation within each session than I am with the lack of overall power increase with the exhaust.

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The big gains were not peak gains from this kit. You're talking about 20 HP to the flywheel at peak gain (~15 HP to the wheels), the big gains are the max ones off of peak. I saw a 25 HP to the wheels gain off peak with the Race version which comes to about 30 HP at the flywheel.

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Weird... big differences between my gains and others'.

How many dyno runs did you do stock, and how many after the new exhaust?

Did other people's dyno operators compare the worst stock runs with the best aftermarket exhaust runs? In that case, you'd see a big gain as seen between the blue & green lines on my dyno sheet. But I was conservative and compared the best of each session.

Russ

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The way I see it his numbers are consistance with this exhaust system and NO high flow cat.
The Solo and Maganaflow 3" exhaust system with no cat is 232 - 235 WHP which gives you 280+ BHP or 22 to 25 BHP extra from stock.
If you then add a high flow cat then your BHP is 30+ BHP.
SOLO has some pretty accurate numbers with all his postings since the Dyno was tune to be pretty accurate with the readings.

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I'm getting my Hi Flow cat today... I'll throw it on by the weekend and see how loud she is. :-)

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