Hello I am the proud new owner of an 87 TR. I have had some sorting issues, but i seem close to getting the engine running, and in a month or two, the salt might actually be clear from the roads (the only thing worse than the cold and snow we are getting here in the northeast is the new-found passion the highway departments have for this saline solution that they spray on the roads. It is completely overwhelming - everything is coated in a white powder. I wonder where the NY environmentalists have all gone?) anyway, my new car has gutted cats (I am told) but the stock muffler. It sounds boring. I am handy with a welder and a die-hard do-it-yourself-er. I have put together exhaust systems for my 57 chevy. 65 and 69 mustangs, and 74 Pantera. Those old school V8's make it easy to sound great. Rather than drop a few grand on an afrtermarket TR exhaust, I am thinking about trying my hand at making a cat-back exhaust for the TR. Maybe I can find a used stock muffler and cut the pipes off it to start, inserting my own muffler, or just start entirely from scratch 1. does anyone know what size the 3-hole flange is, that connects the cats to the muffler pipes? If I could buy two of those flanges, i could weld up my own system. 2. has anyone had any positive experience with any particular straight-through muffler or glasspack for the TR? I would love some suggestions I imagine with the stock cams, the flat 12 engine is going to sound different than a big cam V8. i dont want it to sound like a Honda.
Hi, Just buy a stage 3 Capristo and be done with it. You’ll have an F1 sound straight out of the box.
I fabed my own TR exhaust with 2.5" 304 Tubing. Used pre bent 180s. Not difficult, If you are handy no problem. At 3000 sounds trifurcate.
I’ll be selling my stage 3 Capristo this spring. It has less than 100 miles on it. Unless your very handy you run the real risk of making a droney mess…
could you tell me what muffler, if any, you used? also, where did you get the flange to bolt up to the stock cats?
Machined the flanges from 3/8" SS, it could be plasma or water jet. Mufflers were from Viper exhaust.
Well, if anyone happens to have a stock testarossa muffler with tips sitting around, that they want to get rid of, I am willing to pay something for it, so that maybe i can borrow some of the pipes to work with. I may just buy some universal pipes and start from scratch on my own. might be something fun to do while i wait for the salt to clear off the roads here
I have a stock muffler that is cut up (two end caps with tips and one center body). It will make it easier to ship this way too. Let me me if you're interested.
well, to update those who are interested, i bought the stock muffler from a nice forum member here (who did a great job boxing up the massive stock anchor) and after buying a great stainless steel crossflow muffler and a bunch of tubing, and spending bucks on stainless steel welding wire and new gas tanks for my MIG welder, I just can not make the pieces fit. Pretty frustrating, and I dont have the ability to make my own bends, and all of the stock tubing and flanges are annoying metric sizes so nothing i can easily find can fit. So ... time and money wasted. I do a pretty good job not getting frustrated when my projects go south, but not a great job. i guess next step is to spend a lot more money on an aftermarket exhaust because I cant keep the car with the stock exhaust. Overtime at work - here i come... Image Unavailable, Please Login
The best sounding TR exhausts I have seen were home made. I would ditch the factory precats, gutted or not. They are terribly designed for flow.
i am deciding between Capristo brand new (along with second mortgage on my house) or an older Borla (good condition, suposedly never installed), for a third the price. is the capristo 3X nicer?
The Borla looks like it was made by a blacksmiths apprentice, is heavy, crude and I for one never liked the sound. I never cared for the Capristo sound either. Tubi was OK. Kresig or however its spelled sounded good. I used to drive loud cars. My driving record record read like the vehicle code. Now all of them have fairly quiet exhaust, I drive as fast or faster than ever and have had a clean record for about 20 years. No coincidence. My exhaust.
thanks for those videos! yes, the borla does look like I made it in my garage. the capristo looks sharp, and sounds nice, but I can not ignore the cost. I sure wish I could. for me, it is not the speed. What I like is the look (thats why I finally got my dream car TR) and the sound. When I want to go fast, I go to the track (where I drive a vintage 65 mustang, which is really not fast at all, but sure looks great and sounds awesome with big headers and open exhaust).
In the end, I found a new-old stock Borla testarossa system. i am pretty sure they have not made these in 25 years. It cleaned up pretty well, and the welds werent any worse than I would have done on my own. The fit is actually really good, but the 4 "mufflers" (glass packs) are heavy. probably somewhat lighter than stock system. I am not sure what I was expecting but the sound from inside the car is just OK. Definitely not too loud. definitely louder than stock. a lower pitched tone. Does not sound at all like a Borla on a corvette, or headers and glasspacks on a big american V8. I am not sure that I like it, but a Capristo would have cost more than 3 times the price I paid, and I am still a working stiff. It might sound really great from outside the car, but I'll never know Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
Let someone else drive it so you can hear it. I let my nephew do it for me! He screamed thru the neibor hood, not what I wanted him to do! LOL.
I had the Borla system on one my old TRs and it had a decent growl but nothing to brag about, but better than stock for sure.
