OK, so I have been interested in this exhaust for some time, but I have never seen pics of it installed, nor of the kit fresh out of the box. Even the thermal website has a generic pic up there that is not of the actual EF kit, so I am creating this thread for anyone interested in it who might have the same questions as I did.

This thread will be updated throughout the installation process and ended with a video/sound clip which will be posted either here or on my youtube page.

First of all, this kit is rearely sold by Thermal, so they are literally "made to order" I had to wait about 3 1/2 weeks before I got mine, so don't count on getting this thing overnighted to you because I could not find any place that stocks this item. Cudos to you if you find a place.

Expect to pay between $600 - $675 for this kit. I got mine from Mike at www.lsdmotorsports.com He is a super cool guy. Highly recommended.

OK, now for the technical stuff:

Overall impression: Hard to say yet because I just got it, and it has not been installed yet.

The bad:

1. Some of the welds were sub-par for my expectations of the product. While not necessarily "bad welds," I just expect better from such a seemingly reputable manufacturer.

2. I'm not sure why, but some of the bends that were made actually crushed the pipe in certain spots about .100 " May not seem like much, but again, I expected more.

3. As you can see from the pics, this is actually not a true 3" exhaust. It should be called a 3" O.D. (outer diameter) exhaust. The inner diameter is much closer to 2.75" This was the most depressing part about the whole kit. So thumbs down to Thermal on this part.

The good:

1. At least they had the sense to mount the flanges correctly with the lone hole (and pointy part) facing upward toward the car to prevent dragging.

2. The position of the hangars. I like that they are tucked into the car and not hanging down and mounted on the bottom portion of the pipe. This will prevent dragging and make the car look better from below.

3. Welds. I know I complained about them above, but most of the welds on this thing are solid, uniform, and complete. Very nice

4. The fact that the kit exists. To my knowledge, Thermal R&D is the only manufacturer that even makes a 3" kit for EFs, so kudos to them for having it available.

5. The packaging. This kit came amazingly well-packaged. Not a scratch, bend, or dent anywhere on the whole pipe. I don't know what that foamy stuff they use is called, but it works very well.

 

More pics

 

more pics for your enjoyment

 

Last set of pics.

 

I got mine in less than a week, and I have apic of it on here:

https://honda-tech.com/forums/showth...thermal&page=2

its not a very good pic, but you get the idea

 

Install was completed today. Here are some shots of what I was running before. Turns out my crush bend that I paid a muffler shop to build me was made with 1.75" piping when I asked for 2.25"

I can tell you that there is already a very noticeable difference in responsiveness. It feels like there is much more lower end torque. I can't wait to get my car re-tuned now that I have this bad boy installed. I now have test pipe, custom 3" DP and thermal R&D cat-back.

As for the sound, I haven't revved it past 4k RPM, but it sounds a little more high pitched than before. Not that big of a deal to me. It definitely performs better than what I had.

I will be posting before and after dyno charts as well as some sound/video clips if anyone is interested...

 

Eh, what the hell, might as well post up the before chart LOL

disregard that torque chart. My tuner said that the dyno computer was having a convertion factor malfunction or something like that.

 

Don't be so disappointed about the tubing size. That's how all exhausts are rated, by the tubing OD not ID. so 2.5" exhausts = 2.375" ID, 3" =2.75"ID

Ive never been a fan of Thermal exhausts quality/price ratio. A prebent tubing kit and muffler and resonator of your choice is the way to go. A lot cheaper and endless options.

 

^agree, like with some companies that make exhausts i tend to want to see some one else' first, and then think about it. One exhaust i really llike and has GREAT quality is RedShift Motorsports Modular LCA Dump exhaust. great quality,a little high price, but sounds great, you cant see it. gave me the influence to make my exhaust this summer too.

 

Fury of 4, I get what you're saying, I was just hoping that it would be bigger because I had a custom 3" downpipe made and its ID is 3", so that means that I will be going from 3" down to 2.75". I have to admit that it is much better than going from my 2.5" DP to the 1.75" exhaust I had before though.

I thought about having my own custom exhaust made, but the total cost ended up being the same as the thermal. the thing about custom exhausts is that there are more cuts and welds than a cat-back system; therefore, custom exhausts may not be as smooth on the inside which may distort some of the exhaust flow and reduce performance. My system has only 6 welds: 4 for the flanges and 2 for the muffler. With a custom exhaust, you would have at least 17 because each piece of tubing would have to be welded on each end (obviously). Plus you never know how it will turn out.

I feel like it was a good buy. $600 for a relatively stock-looking, slightly loud exhaust that will boost my power output dramatically.

I wanted to see and hear someone else's first, but I couldn't find pictures of the system anywhere on the internet, so I think I am the first person to post pictures of this system on the internet. Even before the company that makes it, so hopefully this thread might help others in a similar situation.

 

I installed this a year ago (this is my car)

 

The amount of welds is completely dependent on the design of the bend kit you buy. A prebent kit usually doesn't have that many separate pieces.

Some of those bend on the thermal have much more restriction than a weld anyway. A proper weld should not affect flow at all though.

 

I completely agree, but what your saying assumes that you are having this work done by someone willing to put in the extra time and effort to make sure it is done properly. I would rather not take the risk and go with something that is pre-made so I don't have to worry about the quality consistency of the welds

 

I've had this on my '90 CRX Si D16A6 and am totally happy. Just had to have the local muffler shop fabricate a 2 1/4" to 3" adaptor. Thermal didnt have a clue what I had of how to fix it. They gave me a $10 credit to go tward my $100 adaptor. Nice stuff but their techs are idiots!

 

adaptor for what?

 

2 1/4" cat outlet to 3" Thermal pipe.

 

they charged you $100 for that? Why? You know you could have just gotten a 3" cat with flanges for the same price...

 

Subscribed. Doing research for my boost setup and would like to see the outcome of this

 

Just wanted to say that I really appreciate the pics in this thread. The Thermal cat-back is one of the choices I'm considering for my CRX, but all I've seen are pics of the OEM-style axle-back, so I've been extremely hesitant. Thank you so much for the pics.

 

got one on my crx LOVE it

 

Glad this thread helped someone. I was in the exact same predicament, so I decided I would be the guinea pig for this.