Zach P

I didnt know any other part of the forum to post this, so I put it here. Im looking into buying a TL in a few months but havent seen many aftermarket performance parts for this car. Do any companys make a performance cat-back exhaust system for this car or not?? Any help would be appreciated.

Salut

Comptech is the Acura certified Aftermarket company...

http://www.comptechusa.com/

They already have some stuff and are developing more... (i.e. supercharger)

Cya..
Salut

Tommygun

The exhaust looks hot, but we loose the triangular tips that match the bumper.

icex731

Rectangular Tips

Salut

Somebody in an earlier thread was mentioning that they could flush cut and tig weld the old tips back on...

Either through him or any welding shop... (can be done)

I don't like the Comptech exhaust... $1100 for an exhaust seems a little steep...

Salut

04acura tl

and of course they do not tell you what kind of hp gains it will give you!!

stealth

Yeah, if i'm gonna' spend $1100 on an exhaust, i better get some big power gains.

PoochaKannInc

Don't expect "big" power gains. Comptech's numbers as posted by a member of this site (not directly from Comptech or any actual dynos) seem good. It gets you around 10 lb/ft of torque and I think around 6 hp, supposedly. Those numbers are good in my view for a cat-back exhaust.

I believe our standard exhaust is relatively efficient. It only becomes "useful" as a performance enhancer when you turbo or supercharge it. Then the backpressure from the stock exhaust could choke some horses.

Still, I might get it for the sound...and $1100 is steep for just sound. Still debating...

cvajs

that was me (i think). i have a ESAB 161 unit and i have done steels,aluminums, and stainless. mating oem tips (steel) to stainless will be tricky.

cvajs

i dont mean to burst the bubble here, but here goes.

1) comptech webiste says they developed the exhaust using the dyno they have, but they fail to post any results. i have asked them to email me some results.

2) the cat-back part of the exhaust system is just one small piece to the puzzle. for $1100 what you get is a sound change.

3) the oem and comptech exhaust is not a dual exhaust

4) to really extract some HP on the flow side, you need to invest $$ to get the motor to breath better. without ripping the heads off to do some porting, you need to get headers, dual exhaust, hi-flo cats, and keep the exhaust gases hot and moving (bigger pipe is not always better). i suspect the oem pipe size is adequate for the rather low 270HP the engine can make. then after all that you need to dive into the fuel mapping of the ECU because when you enhance the breathing of the engine you skew the way fuel enters and leaves the cylinders.

IMHO, don't mess with the oem stuff unless you are dedicated to doing it all (or just want a sound change). comptech is probably alot less restrictive than oem, and i would be surprised to see anymore than a 2% gain in HP, and probably almost 0% gain on the torq side. there are plenty of other less expensive alternatives than Comptech to open up the exhaust some. i'm not sure if that pre-muffler is a true helmholtz resonator or not, but swap that out with a Magnaflow and then swap out the oem mufflers with some Spintech's (spintech is steel so welding on oem tips is real easy). heck, i may just do this to my TL if my wife lets me (hehe, it's her car) .

if anyone has some dyno runs of before/after comptech please please post. i made a large tube intake for my Tacoma and then took it to dyno, actually got a few HP and a few ft-lbs more, but nothing noticeable in the pedal.

cvajs

here's what Comptech tells me

"We do not have the Dyno sheets in our system yet, but I can tell you that the system increases hp by 7.5 at the wheels. thanks for considering Comptech."

hmmm, their website says the exhaust is built using the dyno. i'm not sure if this person meant "on our system" or when using "in" what the "system" refers to.

from their website http://www.comptechusa.com/store/exh_tl.html
"Comptech uses its in house Dyno Dynamics chassis dyno to develop all of the exhaust systems we sell.", so why they have no dyno #'s or even pics of charts to show. certainly not getting me to spend $1100 on a exhaust with no dyno charts to show...

their claim a 2.7% increase in HP, but actually has to be a tad more to account for drivetrain losses. i'm a skeptic on this one folks.

Road Rage

I have sold Comptech for years, but my exam of the 2004 system revealed there is not much to gain. Remember that the bulk of the gain over the 2nd gen Type-S was specifically from the cast-in headers and the freed up exhaust. Looking at it, it is much smoother and larger than the previous TL's, of which I had 3 2nd gens. Plus, the gains are at the top of the power curve - good if you race, practically worthless if you do not. Now, I paid $1500 for the Mugen on my S2000, but I saved a lot fo weight - over 35 pounds as I recall.

And the C'tech just looks odd in the 3rd Gen's cutouts, and ruins the look IMO. exhaust on this car would look better in a satin finish as well. Comptech uses Ultraflo mufflers, so one option would be to have a custom place put them on with the stock tips.

Acuraluvr

iTrader: (2)

yea, same. i look on ebay and a guy was selling for 11hundred man! and i did get some results off the web; up 2 11 hp gain and 14 lb torque, dosnt seem worth the $$

SouthernBoy

My last car was a 2002 Altima SE. For those not familiar with the SE, the standard engine was the 214 cubic inch VQ35 6-cylinder rated at 240 HP and 246 lb/ft of torque. I installed a Frankencar warm air intake with the Apexi filter. Now don't let the term "warm air" mislead you. This intake's midpipe (it was a straight shot to the throttle body) remained at ambient temperature to the outside air. This was because the area in which the filter rested was actually quite cool. And the Apexi filter flowed better than the next best filter; the K&N, thus producing slightly more HP. The net gain to the wheels was 13-14 HP and 10-12 lb/ft of torque (I saw one member of the website with this same intake had his dynoed with an 18 HP increase. I would question the validity of that one.)

I then installed an Unorthodox Racing underdrive crankshaft pulley (UDP) which was nearly 6 pounds lighter than the the stock unit and 15% smaller in diameter. Dyno gains were 6.5 HP and 3 lb/ft of torque.

Next came the Mossy full catback exhaust system. Great sound, great appearance, and 12 HP with 10 lb/ft of torque. The stock exhaust had sufficient flow characteristics with the stock mufflers, but the stock resonator was of the reverse flow type. That and there was a section of exhaust pipe that was pinched for around 20 inches, reducing interior volume in that section by around 50%. This is where the exhaust was improved with the Mossy catback.

I have a friend who had very similiar mods on his SE plus he had his ignition timing bumped 3 degrees and had HotShot headers installed. His car dynoed at 244 HP and 244 lb/ft of torque AT THE DRIVE WHEELS!. Great numbers and I can tell you he would blow the doors off of a stock TL so bad the TL would get morning sickness. My SE would also wipe a TL.

What this proves is that the engine in the SE was lacking in the breathing department. Mine came alive with the Frankencar/Apexi intake. From what I've heard and a passing examination under the car, the stock exhaust on the TL is not bad as is. Pretty low restriction from what I can tell, so I doubt a catback is going to get you much at all. I'd stay with the stock exhaust unless you really want the sound. As for the intake, it looks like there could be some improvement there. But frankly, I'm not going to do anything to mine.. at least I don't think I will.