Got my performance header and cat back exhaust!

[Jay666]

After tons of time researching and asking questions on here, I finally got my header and cat back on my car. I wanted to thank everyone on here for all your help with my questions, suggestions and opinions.

I ended up going with the Weapon R header and the Megan Cat Back exhaust. I spent all day Saturday doing this with a friend of mine who works at the Toyota dealer. I learned a ton from his help and all of your suggestions on this forum, and I honestly would not have been able to do it without the help of this forum. Or, at least I would not have had the confidence to try it or make the decisions I made.

I am LOVING the results. It looks bad ass, and sounds fantastic. The performance is noticeable, and I am proud of the fact that I was able to compete this task on my own (with the help of a friend of course).

I am not a very knowlegeable "car person" and have only really taken interest since buying my TC last January. But I have learned a lot and gained a lot of confidence since owning my TC, and quite honestly, since joining this forum.

Thank you guys all, so much for your help. This is a great forum, and me being able to complete a header and cat back exhaust job on my own is living proof of how helpful this forum is.

I plan on taking some pix of my car (finally) before it gets cold here in Chicago and I put it away for the winter...

Thanx!
Jay

[Graphite]

Cool! Glad you were able to gain knowledge from your experience! Now you caught the tuning bug!

[JeremyTc]

Great to hear!! im a little jealous, all i have is eibach lowering and trd axleback!!! how much did that set up cost ya?

[Jay666]

Originally Posted by Graphite

Cool! Glad you were able to gain knowledge from your experience! Now you caught the tuning bug!

Thanx!

Oh, I caught that bug MONTHS ago. I had already spent a ton of money on some other upgrades prior to this. This was just the first thing I did on my own really. Other than replacing the OEM pedals with Razo ones, everything else I had done was TRD stuff at the dealer. At this point I have all the TRD upgrades available with the exception of the SC and the transmission stuff (racing clutch and LSD). Saving up for all that.

But yes, I was bitten by the bug quite some time ago. This forum has helped me feed that bug along the way.

[Jay666]

Originally Posted by JeremyTc

Great to hear!! im a little jealous, all i have is eibach lowering and trd axleback!!! how much did that set up cost ya?

In total, it cost me exaclty $780.95 and two cases of beer for my friend from the dealer (I don't drink, this was his only payment request for showing me how to put everything on). Not bad considering the quality of the parts I went with.

Here's the breakdown:
$446.00 Weapon R header
$334.95 Meagan Cat Back
2 12 pack cases of Blue Moon Beer for labor (proably saved me about $350.00 worth of labor costs right there).

I really took my time shopping around for the parts and found great deals before I bought them. The average price I found for the WR headers was close to $600.00 and the average price I found for the Megan Cat Back was close to or just over $400.00

I think I got great prices on the parts. And saved on labor big time like I said.

I am LOVING it. Best part is, you open the hood and that header just shines back at you, it makes you grin a mile wide. For anyone interested, I know the WR header is by far the most expensive header for the TC, it's WELL WORTH the extra money.

PS, for anyone just learning like me, take advantage of trying to be-friend someone at a Toyota dealer with a lot of inside info, help out on questions, labor, part costs, installation... I took care of this guy, now he's going out of his way to take care of me too.

[JeremyTc]

nice im still debating on spending money on the tc or my bike lol. I got the tc looking good, so i just keep it clean and smile =D

[Jay666]

Nothing wrong with that man.

It was a pretty big decision to start spending a ton of money on the car. And I don't even have all the crazy stuff a lot of the guys on here do.

Yet...

[navylife59]

Yes, Congrats. The force be strong in this one. The future, uncertain, but a killa tC, you have. Now it is time to start shedding the weight for more kick.

[e246]

Is all you have is an exhaust and headers, any s pipe, or cai... Also how much power gain did you notice, and did you need a resonator to kill rasp.. I want my i/h/e here a couple days when i get paid hope it adds a nice power increase for now..

[Jay666]

Originally Posted by navylife59

Yes, Congrats. The force be strong in this one. The future, uncertain, but a killa tC, you have. Now it is time to start shedding the weight for more kick.

I wish to be trained master Obi Wan.

Where do I begin?

[Jay666]

Originally Posted by e246

Is all you have is an exhaust and headers, any s pipe, or cai... Also how much power gain did you notice, and did you need a resonator to kill rasp.. I want my i/h/e here a couple days when i get paid hope it adds a nice power increase for now..

I have everything, start to finish. Meaning, from header off the engine block, all the way back to the exhaust tip at the ass end of the car.

The Weapon R header comes with an S pipe. And from my experience in researching headers for this car prior to my purchase, Weapon R is one of (if not the only) header that comes WITH the S pipe. Yet another reason their product is superior. (The CEL Eliminator goes into a port in their S Pipe).

The Meagan exhaust is a full cat back. The two go together perfectly, eliminating the first cat and the header also inculdes as CEL eliminator that works like a charm, giving your sensor a false read. No check engine light.

It runs so much richer, you can actually smell the gas. Engine is clearly breathing SO MUCH BETTER. It's really amazing. So, yes, there is a noticable gain in power.

I have not had it dyno'd or anything to see how much (just put everything on about a week ago). But based on the many, many discussions on this, estimated gain is around 20 HP. I would have to agree, just based on the driveability and overall "feel". It has noticably faster pick up and acceleration. You can just tell that the engine in breathing MUCH better and that you are maxinizing potential power with a simple thing such as exhaust flow.

The Megan Cat Back did come with a resinator cap. I think it was about 6" long. It worked well enough, but I prefered to take it off because it sounds much "deeper" and a lot more... intimidating without it.

What set up are you looking at?