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Hey there all. SVX is having an exhaust leak that all the shops I've gone to want $1100 to fix. Just to replace the two downpipes and the midpipe! It's pretty ridiculous. For that, I'm pretty sure I could get a custom exhaust system with less catalytic converter installed.

I remember lots of you guys used to suggest to people, "just get a 2.5" system fabbed" or whatever, like it was nothing. Well now I'm looking for a shop that'll fab up a custom 2.5" exhaust system, and am having a hell of a time. Anyone know a place reasonably close to Ithaca willing to do work on a Subaru?

Any muffler shop should be able to fab up the exhaust.

The quality might be marginal.

Why do you need to replace pipes for an exhaust leak? It's probably just a gasket leaking.

I wish I'd had my camera with me when it was up on the lift, you should've seen it.

See, someone off-roaded my SVX way before I owned it. Then either that someone or someone else decided that the best way to fix the holes in the downpipes he made would be to try to weld them shut himself. There are two pieces of oxidized metal which don't match the metal of the rest of the piping on top of both downpipes, and that's where the leak is coming from. It's not a gasket.

No muffler shop in town will fab me up an exhaust for my car. :( The only one who said they even did any sort of work like that was Cole Muffler, who told me they only do it for big trucks.

Bah.

what you are describing sounds like it has cracked headers.

custom headers are not cheap.

your best bet is to hit up one of the SVX sites and look for someone with a extra set layng around close to you.

Thanks for the tip.

It's not the headers, though--the headers are fine. The headers each feed into separate downpipes w/ cats, which then feed into another cat before going to the rear of the system. It's those three catalytic converter-fused parts which are damaged.



All the parts on the bottom of that diagram are what I'm referring to.

In any case, there's an SVX guy who does custom exhausts in West Virginia... I guess he'd be a better bet. Thanks though guys.

maybe try a local forum and ask around about speed shops that do exhaust fab. pretty retarded that a place with as rusty of cars as upstate NY the exhaust shops arent willing to repair stuff.
maybe you can also call around a few towns over?
dont drive to a guy in freakin west virginia, just drive here and I'll do it for $200+materials. I bet there about 10 people in ithaca who could build the same thing if you bring them the material. you can get the U bends on ebay, from summit/jegs, or maybe a local speed shop or metal supplier. post an ad in ithaca craigslist car parts asking about exhaust fab.
the primaries off the manifolds youll probably want to do in 2" or the same size as the outlet of the manifolds and 3 u bends would be a safe bet to do both sides, depending on how good whoever does your fab is they can make a collector to the midpipe, then a high flow 2.5" cat, 10' or so of 2.5" straight, and 2 or 3 2.5" u bends ought to do it plus whatever muffler you want.

I'd say if you're up for the drive, take it down to Tom (svxfiles) in WV for sure. From what I've heard, he's done something like 30 some SVX exhausts, and when it comes to SVXi, he knows his shit. If you go down there, you won't be disappointed

My shop is an hour drive from RIT...

I'd need to know exactly what you want to give you a price. Size, material, how many cats, standard or metal matrix, how many resonators, what kind of muffler, etc.

Wow, it pays to have forgotten to change my location!

Turns out, when Mark found out all the problems with my SVX he decided to just tow it back and try to fix it all himself for me. Which should hold for quite a while, enough to take the car anywhere.

But I'm still interested in getting a custom fab. I'll be calling SVXfiles to see what he thinks would be a good setup (the SVX FAQ suggests a 2" pipe through-and-through, but ditch the midpipe and just take each header straight back), and possibly get some detailed information. I've seen your work before, IT, and it's great.

Gimme some time to put together info and we'll see what can be done.

206er: You're way farther away! But thanks for the info.