Tanabe DP, Perrin cat, Tanabe Medalion Catback review
Nov 16, 2007, 12:25 PM
#1
Tanabe DP, Perrin cat, Tanabe Medalion Catback review
I purchased the Medalion Touring catback (why only one “L” in medallion?), the Tanabe 2.75" downpipe, and the Perrin hi flow cat. I wanted to get somewhat scientific and do some stopwatch timed acceleration runs and sound level readings before and after but unfortunately that didn't happen. I tried to find a dB meter at my local Radio Shack but they were clueless and then I ran out of time and wasn’t able to do the acceleration runs. I did manage to weigh and measure everything though. Here’s my review.
Downpipe
Stock downpipe: 2.38" od, ~2.20" flattened portion/restriction, 10.8 lbs. Looks like 409? SST and cast iron flanges.
Tanabe downpipe: 2.75 OD, 8.0 lb, .3" thk flanges, 304 SST, very nice construction, nice MIG welds. I don’t really care for the spliced/MIG welded multi-piece tubing construction, it’s certainly not as sexy as one piece of tubing, but I assume this gives them more control over fit than one piece of bent tubing. Flanges were slightly warped (.02-.03") from welding but this is inevitable unless they're machined flat after welding. I sanded the outlet flange flat on a 6” wide table belt sander. This downpipe uses the factory donut gasket and shoulder bolts with springs. It comes with one gasket and new bolts for the cat connection. Fit is excellent and it easily clears everything. I realize this isn’t the downpipe for ultimate HP, but for me it will be fine.
Cat
Stock cat: 11.6 lb. Removal: my car has ~10,000 miles, never been in salt, only in rain ~3 times, and the nuts were tough to get off. I had to break out the oxy-acetylene torches, heat them dull red and then they finally came off. The bolts still had some plating and came out ok. This is just a warning to anyone doing this on a car that’s not almost new. I unplugged the O2 sensor wiring inside the car and removed the sensor once the cat was on the ground. I put a box wrench on it and had to kick it to get it loose. (I do have the special O2 sensor socket )
Perrin cat: 5.5 lb. Very pretty mirror polished 304 SST, 3.00” OD tubing, nice TIG welds, metallic core cat. Looks like ~ 4.0 OD at the cat portion but I didn’t measure. Flanges are thick, ~.5”, and are cast stainless. The flanges were warped quite a bit, ~.03”, but again I sanded them flat. I also cut off the obnoxious Perrin badge that's tacked on. The instructions were lacking on this; they basically say: “remove old cat, install new one”. I know everyone should know how to put it on, but just in case, you want the O2 sensor to be downstream from the cat portion and it will be facing to the RH (passenger) side of the car. Since the O2 sensor is in a different position than the OE location you will have extra slack in the wiring. With the harness out of the car I pried open the crimped clamp and relocated the grommet; when installed I tucked the extra wiring under the carpet. I didn’t think the O2 sensor would hit the heat shield on the bottom of the car, but just in case, I slightly bent it up for extra clearance, and screwed a small clip to it that loosely holds the wiring. The O2 sensor bung is tall and positions the sensor outside of the pipe so hopefully this will prevent any CEL. So far, so good, no CEL, but only a few hundred miles on it at this point. The cat portion is small on this, looks like maybe a forth of a factory cat, but the car doesn’t smell cat-less, so it’s doing something.
Cat back
mid-pipe
Factory mid-pipe 2.38” OD with two resonators. 16.6 lb
Tanabe Medalion Touring mid-pipe: 3.12” OD tubing, 3.00 neck down at cat flange, 304 SST, one resonator. 11.2 lb. .3” thick flange at cat end and stamped flange at muffler end. To me the 3.12” tubing is overkill for this muffler, but I guess they use the same part with their higher flowing systems; 3” OD would have been plenty big IMO for this muffler. Nice construction, nice welds, flanges slightly warped again. Fit was good, but not perfect on my car. I installed the muffler portion in the hangars, and the midpipe at the cat, and the faces of the flanges didn’t mate up perfectly; they were slightly angled away from each other and I couldn’t move anything around satisfactorily to get them more parallel. Note that the bolt holes lined up ok. Obviously once the bolts were tightened they mated fine, and nothing hit anywhere, but something was slightly off somewhere between these two pieces. I would have liked a little better fit on this. Again, the fit wasn’t bad, but not perfect; probably 8/10.
Muffler portion
Stock 18.6 lb
Tanabe 19.0 lb. 3.12” OD tube, 304 SST, nice welds. Polished oval type straight thru muffler with TIG welded double wall SST tip. I realize this is the style, but the tip is a too big of a diameter for my tastes (I’m an old geezer at 40). A smaller dia tip would’ve been nice and gave some more clearance to the bumper. Fit is good, but as mentioned earlier, it’s off a little. The rear hangar on top of the muffler is actually in compression, and not tension, with everything tightened up. The tip is centered pretty well in the bumper opening, but it is off a little (no more than .25”) to the passenger side. I would like a little more clearance at the top to the bumper, but it’s not an issue so far. The tip definitely does not stick out too far from the bumper IMO.
Hardware:
Hardware is supplied so you will have everything you need, but I ordered SST nuts and bolts from McMaster for the install as I’m tired of fighting with rusty exhaust fasteners. I used four M12 x 40 SHCS and nuts at the cat, and two M10 x 20 SHCS and nuts at the muffler. For the top muffler hangar, one M8X50 bolt and two nuts butted against each other. I just put the first nut on snug to not bend the brackets and then tightened the other nut against it. I coated all threads liberally with anti-seize, especially the factory downpipe shoulder bolts.
Issues:
no leaks, no problems. The system will smoke/smell for a few days as said on the paperwork.
Weight summary:
OE Factory Turbo Back System less hardware 57.6 lb
Tanabe and Perrin Turbo Back System less hardware 43.7 lb
Weight savings: 13.9 lb
Overall summary:
This is not the lightest exhaust, but the weight is not an issue for me as long as it’s not heavier than the OE system. It’s also not the highest flowing muffler, but it will be plenty for me. And, it’s certainly not the cheapest at about $1000 shipped for all three items.
With all those “negatives”, what drove me to this combination was:
I didn’t really want a 3” downpipe- I wanted the extra clearance over a 3” downpipe, and for me the 2.75” will be plenty.
I wanted some type of a hi-flow cat.
I wanted a “quieter” muffler- not a can.
Flanges were a necessity; absolutely no slip fits.
I wanted all 304 SST construction, good fit, quality construction, etc.
I did a lot of reading and research and based on my above requirements I ended up with this combination and am quite happy with it.
Sound: I like it. With the Perrin cat, it’s actually pretty loud IMO. I was worried it was going to be too quiet but it’s definitely not. I don’t like loud exhausts, but the factory exhaust was too quiet for me. I’m sure the Perrin cat helps out in making it louder. I don’t know what type of power gains there are with this TBE, but it feels like a different car to me than with the factory exhaust- like a 20 WHP gain. I dunno if that’s accurate, but it’s definitely not wheezing at high RPMs like it was before.
Downpipe
Stock downpipe: 2.38" od, ~2.20" flattened portion/restriction, 10.8 lbs. Looks like 409? SST and cast iron flanges.
Tanabe downpipe: 2.75 OD, 8.0 lb, .3" thk flanges, 304 SST, very nice construction, nice MIG welds. I don’t really care for the spliced/MIG welded multi-piece tubing construction, it’s certainly not as sexy as one piece of tubing, but I assume this gives them more control over fit than one piece of bent tubing. Flanges were slightly warped (.02-.03") from welding but this is inevitable unless they're machined flat after welding. I sanded the outlet flange flat on a 6” wide table belt sander. This downpipe uses the factory donut gasket and shoulder bolts with springs. It comes with one gasket and new bolts for the cat connection. Fit is excellent and it easily clears everything. I realize this isn’t the downpipe for ultimate HP, but for me it will be fine.
Cat
Stock cat: 11.6 lb. Removal: my car has ~10,000 miles, never been in salt, only in rain ~3 times, and the nuts were tough to get off. I had to break out the oxy-acetylene torches, heat them dull red and then they finally came off. The bolts still had some plating and came out ok. This is just a warning to anyone doing this on a car that’s not almost new. I unplugged the O2 sensor wiring inside the car and removed the sensor once the cat was on the ground. I put a box wrench on it and had to kick it to get it loose. (I do have the special O2 sensor socket )
Perrin cat: 5.5 lb. Very pretty mirror polished 304 SST, 3.00” OD tubing, nice TIG welds, metallic core cat. Looks like ~ 4.0 OD at the cat portion but I didn’t measure. Flanges are thick, ~.5”, and are cast stainless. The flanges were warped quite a bit, ~.03”, but again I sanded them flat. I also cut off the obnoxious Perrin badge that's tacked on. The instructions were lacking on this; they basically say: “remove old cat, install new one”. I know everyone should know how to put it on, but just in case, you want the O2 sensor to be downstream from the cat portion and it will be facing to the RH (passenger) side of the car. Since the O2 sensor is in a different position than the OE location you will have extra slack in the wiring. With the harness out of the car I pried open the crimped clamp and relocated the grommet; when installed I tucked the extra wiring under the carpet. I didn’t think the O2 sensor would hit the heat shield on the bottom of the car, but just in case, I slightly bent it up for extra clearance, and screwed a small clip to it that loosely holds the wiring. The O2 sensor bung is tall and positions the sensor outside of the pipe so hopefully this will prevent any CEL. So far, so good, no CEL, but only a few hundred miles on it at this point. The cat portion is small on this, looks like maybe a forth of a factory cat, but the car doesn’t smell cat-less, so it’s doing something.
Cat back
mid-pipe
Factory mid-pipe 2.38” OD with two resonators. 16.6 lb
Tanabe Medalion Touring mid-pipe: 3.12” OD tubing, 3.00 neck down at cat flange, 304 SST, one resonator. 11.2 lb. .3” thick flange at cat end and stamped flange at muffler end. To me the 3.12” tubing is overkill for this muffler, but I guess they use the same part with their higher flowing systems; 3” OD would have been plenty big IMO for this muffler. Nice construction, nice welds, flanges slightly warped again. Fit was good, but not perfect on my car. I installed the muffler portion in the hangars, and the midpipe at the cat, and the faces of the flanges didn’t mate up perfectly; they were slightly angled away from each other and I couldn’t move anything around satisfactorily to get them more parallel. Note that the bolt holes lined up ok. Obviously once the bolts were tightened they mated fine, and nothing hit anywhere, but something was slightly off somewhere between these two pieces. I would have liked a little better fit on this. Again, the fit wasn’t bad, but not perfect; probably 8/10.
Muffler portion
Stock 18.6 lb
Tanabe 19.0 lb. 3.12” OD tube, 304 SST, nice welds. Polished oval type straight thru muffler with TIG welded double wall SST tip. I realize this is the style, but the tip is a too big of a diameter for my tastes (I’m an old geezer at 40). A smaller dia tip would’ve been nice and gave some more clearance to the bumper. Fit is good, but as mentioned earlier, it’s off a little. The rear hangar on top of the muffler is actually in compression, and not tension, with everything tightened up. The tip is centered pretty well in the bumper opening, but it is off a little (no more than .25”) to the passenger side. I would like a little more clearance at the top to the bumper, but it’s not an issue so far. The tip definitely does not stick out too far from the bumper IMO.
Hardware:
Hardware is supplied so you will have everything you need, but I ordered SST nuts and bolts from McMaster for the install as I’m tired of fighting with rusty exhaust fasteners. I used four M12 x 40 SHCS and nuts at the cat, and two M10 x 20 SHCS and nuts at the muffler. For the top muffler hangar, one M8X50 bolt and two nuts butted against each other. I just put the first nut on snug to not bend the brackets and then tightened the other nut against it. I coated all threads liberally with anti-seize, especially the factory downpipe shoulder bolts.
Issues:
no leaks, no problems. The system will smoke/smell for a few days as said on the paperwork.
Weight summary:
OE Factory Turbo Back System less hardware 57.6 lb
Tanabe and Perrin Turbo Back System less hardware 43.7 lb
Weight savings: 13.9 lb
Overall summary:
This is not the lightest exhaust, but the weight is not an issue for me as long as it’s not heavier than the OE system. It’s also not the highest flowing muffler, but it will be plenty for me. And, it’s certainly not the cheapest at about $1000 shipped for all three items.
With all those “negatives”, what drove me to this combination was:
I didn’t really want a 3” downpipe- I wanted the extra clearance over a 3” downpipe, and for me the 2.75” will be plenty.
I wanted some type of a hi-flow cat.
I wanted a “quieter” muffler- not a can.
Flanges were a necessity; absolutely no slip fits.
I wanted all 304 SST construction, good fit, quality construction, etc.
I did a lot of reading and research and based on my above requirements I ended up with this combination and am quite happy with it.
Sound: I like it. With the Perrin cat, it’s actually pretty loud IMO. I was worried it was going to be too quiet but it’s definitely not. I don’t like loud exhausts, but the factory exhaust was too quiet for me. I’m sure the Perrin cat helps out in making it louder. I don’t know what type of power gains there are with this TBE, but it feels like a different car to me than with the factory exhaust- like a 20 WHP gain. I dunno if that’s accurate, but it’s definitely not wheezing at high RPMs like it was before.
Last edited by Steve_P; Nov 16, 2007 at 12:28 PM.
Nov 19, 2007, 07:53 AM
#3
sorry, no, I didn't. It wouldn't be easy to do this as the resonator is far from the ends of the mid pipe. It wouldn't surprise me that the resonator has a ~2.7" ID though, as the muffler also has a neck down in it as shown in another review here.
I would say if anyone is worried about that then this is probably not the exhaust for you. As far as aftermarket exhausts, this is more of a "compromise" exhaust and not for the ultimate in power.
I would say if anyone is worried about that then this is probably not the exhaust for you. As far as aftermarket exhausts, this is more of a "compromise" exhaust and not for the ultimate in power.
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