Exhaust systems

How much money are you looking to spend, the JIC is a great exhaust but a little pricey.
 
let's see, you've got: HKS axle back, jic-magic catback, greddy evo catback, mazdaspeed catback, magnaflow i believe makes one too. i not sure about other companies but other reputable ones are tanabe, apexi, borla, and skunk2. or go custom, like i did :D then you can use any muffler you choose.
 
Go with a magnaflow cat-back. I have one and love it. Nice deep sound, oh and you can't beat the price. I think i paid about 340 :D
 
mazdaspeed doesn't make a catback. mazdaspeed makes an axle back for the sedan and p5. the only catback that is affiliated with mazda is racing beat, who provided axle backs for the msp and mp3.

Striker187 said:
let's see, you've got: HKS axle back, jic-magic catback, greddy evo catback, mazdaspeed catback, magnaflow i believe makes one too. i not sure about other companies but other reputable ones are tanabe, apexi, borla, and skunk2. or go custom, like i did :D then you can use any muffler you choose.
 
i rode in my friend's g35c yesterday, and man that exhaust sounds nice. very classy, deep tone. does anyone know the closest sounding exhaust for our cars?
 
Lowdown on exhausts:

Ok, this is a very opinionated opinion :)
Personally, I think that the stock piping is quite suffcient on the Protege5 unless youre going turbo. Therefore, I would not waste your money with an expensive catback exhaust, and instead put your money elsewhere (not to mention you'll save a buttload on shipping). Mostly, you'll see people have the Racing Beat, JIC, HKS, or "custom" exhaust. Basically, from what I understand (although I've only had one exhaust, the HKS), the main difference is sound. I highly doubt that you will notice a difference in performance between the Racing Beat cat-back and the HKS axle-back exhaust or the JIC. If you wanted to go the custom route, you could simply buy a nice muffler from eBay, and take it to your local muffler shop and have them weld it on, and get the same gains as a catback system for probably half the price. i know my local shop wanted to charge me $150. so plus a decent muffler ($100+), you could get a custom cat-back for around $250 installed...then use the money you save to buy yourself a high-flow catalytic converter from the same place. The reason I chose my HKS rear section (in other words, it bolts to the stock piping right around the rear axle, as opposed to the second cat converter) is because it comes with a silencer that you can use to significantly dampen the sound of your exhaust - this keeps you from sounding like a damn ricer, AND can be very important in areas where they are strict on noise ordinances and EPA violations...plus, HKS is a good name too! i also like the way it looks coming out at an angle. Install on most of the exhausts should take you less than an hour with a good jack and a friend...they should be two bolts only, and come with gaskets!
 
remember, things like these need a system in order to maximize gains. if you get just an intake, the exhaust is still restricted, so you won't get much. if you get just exhaust but no increased flow on the intake side, you won't get much. now if you go from intake all the way through to exhaust with enlarged and less restricted piping, you'll make decent gains. intake, header, exhaust and flywheel yielded 117whp whereas a stock car dynos at most 102. no one piece will give you significant gains.
 
there are multiple threads about headers...

AWR, Racing Mazda, and soon to be Ractive. There is a group buy with the Ractive headers right now. Everyone's got there own opinion on that.

Depends on how much you're looking to mod the car, but if you've only got $200 to spend and want to get teh best gains, I would think that Unorthodox Pulleys would be best.
 
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