Megan Racing Muffler (V36) - My Thoughts

[The Max]

So, I have finally arrived back home and my first point of order was to get this muffler on the car. Off I went to my exhaust guy, got him to cut off the gay burnt titanium tips and welded on a couple understated oval tips which have a reduced height compared to the stock tips.

Under his advice, I did not replace any other pipework. The rest is all bone stock and even he was impressed with how well Nissan decked out this car.

The end result, a nice deep note which is understated but that also makes itself known without being obnoxious and loud. Absolutely NO drone in the cabin. This is definitely the best $500 I've spent.

Power gains? Don't know and don't give a rat's arse. If I want power gains (which I do), I'll look to forced induction for that. In my opinion, the cost vs benefit of a top notch complete exhaust system is simply better spent on a supercharger system instead. I've seen guys fork out $5000 on an Akrapovich system for their 370Zs and the way I look at it, that's about half of what one pays for a turbo kit only to receive much less power in return. It just doesn't make sense to me. I'm just glad I took the usual piecemeal approach rather than buying a complete system only to find that the muffer alone would have been just fine.

Photo and audio clip (properly recorded for authenticity) coming up soon.

[naz370]

Where did you buy your exhaust from? Shipping from the US is typically 300-500

[Yo-Yo]

Don't know and don't give a rat's arse. If I want power gains (which I do), I'll look to forced induction for that.

Let's go group buy on GTM's new twin charger you know you want to

Definitely post pics or vids of the new zorst when you can

[The Max]

Where did you buy your exhaust from? Shipping from the US is typically 300-500

Sonic Motor - http://www.sonicmotor.com/

Muffler was US$405 and shipping (USPS) a further $153.84. With the exchange rate at the time, it worked out to be around AUD$550.

Only downside was that it took them almost 3 months to get one from Megan Racing and ship it to me. Not sure what the hold up was on it and as I was about to call Megan Racing to find out why Sonic Motor were experiencing ongoing delays since ordering it in May, I got the email from Jim at Sonic Motor letting me know that they received the stock and shipped it the same day. It took about 2 weeks more to arrive at my mate's workshop while I was still overseas.

Edited September 22, 2012 by The Max

[The Max]

Let's go group buy on GTM's new twin charger you know you want to

Definitely post pics or vids of the new zorst when you can

Hahah. Twin supercharger was even admitted by GTM as being a "why dogs lick themselves" project rather than cost vs benefit. I'm going to stick to the idea of a single supercharger but I probably won't buy into their kit until I've had a good play with the car on the open road or otherwise if the exchange rate is in any immediate danger of rendering the value of that kit too costly to ship home.

[Yo-Yo]

It's more fun with twins mate

[t5iv]

It's more fun with twins mate

That sounds dirty.

[The Max]

That sounds dirty.

And I'm all for dirty but twins are only fun to play with, not to keep long term. Even Hugh Heffner doesn't keep his for long.

Thinking long term, twins are a costly approach given the upkeep involved later on not to mention the custom belt that was supposedly produced for the set up. For that reason alone, it's less of a hassle to just go with one for the long term.

[t5iv]

And I'm all for dirty but twins are only fun to play with, not to keep long term. Even Hugh Heffner doesn't keep his for long.

Thinking long term, twins are a costly approach given the upkeep involved later on not to mention the custom belt that was supposedly produced for the set up. For that reason alone, it's less of a hassle to just go with one for the long term.

Lol. Love how you played that!

[naz370]

Thats pretty good value, i got quoted $400 for the same product off a seller on ebay. There are so many exhausts in the U.S for the g37, how did you make up your mind? was it the price that made the difference mostly?

Also, forgot to ask did you have to retune your car?

Edited September 24, 2012 by naz370

[The Max]

If I based all my decisions on price (at least primarily), then I'd have a lot of junk on my hands. I'm a firm believer in paying once to get good so that I don't have any regrets and end up paying even more in the end.

How did I make up my mind? I relied heavily on what I had already heard when I was thinking about buying a V36 back in 2010. At that time, I had the advantage of working in Vancouver for 4 months and there were a reasonable number of G37 vehicles going around. I would actually walk up to the drivers of these vehicles and ask them questions about the cars but more importantly about their upgraded exhausts. Some went the Motordyne ART approach, some went HKS, many went for the Megan Racing bolt-on. I heard each exhaust and they all sounded nice and throaty, which was what I was after. I only asked them about the drone in the cabin but never stuck my head in the cabin for the fear of being a rude bastard. Hell, I wouldn't trust a stranger in my car so it's only fair I didn't expect them to trust me either.

And so after hearing the various systems and chatting with the owners, my ears told me the Megan Racing path was the way to go since I wasn't interested in extracting the most possible performance out of the exhaust system. All I wanted was the respectable note. As previously stated, the performance will come from a supercharger which will find zero benefit in changing the headers and pipework leading up to the muffler.

The price was just a consequence of what I liked and luckily for me, it worked out mighty cheap.

[naz370]

Thanks for the info, i was looking for an exhaust that sounded nice and i came across your one which surprisingly sounded quite good especially for its price. Unfortunately for me I was involved in a car accident yesterday so looks like my money will be tied up with repairs Believe me it hurts. Especially waiting for parts now, if only Infiniti had released the G37 already.

Why go supercharger? Why not twin turbo stage 1 or 2?

[The Max]

Linear power curve (which makes it friendlier to automatic transmissions) and less work involved as there's no need for custom exhaust piping. Besides which, there's not a hell of a lot of room underneath from what I saw when I had it up on a hoist.

[naz370]

fair enough, i like what GTM have done for the G's. it would definitely be a sleeper and just destroy on the road. hope you do it soon man i'd like to see the results. i was thinking about the twin turbo kits but ive decided to save my money for a couple of years and go for a 2009 GTR. hopefully they'll be under 90 by then.

[The Max]

We'll see how we go. My old Maxima was all about top speed rather than acceleration when I turbocharged it. With the speed limiter removed from this V, we'll have to see how he performs on the open road. If I see the same top speeds like I did in Max, then I might just leave it as is.

If I get the urge to race, then it'll be a different story.

[colin.ssc]

How did you remove speed limiter? And did you change your cluster? The JDM ones are only 180kms top speed right?

[The Max]

I have the Uprev Osiris Tuner cable (US$700) which does remapping as well as removing the speed limiter (well, more like you can set it to whatever speed you want, like 300km/h, heheh).

I haven't changed the cluster from the factory 180km/h thing. I figure I can always look at my GPS if I want to know where my insanity is at. But, if push does come to shove, I might consider going for an Impul cluster.

[colin.ssc]

I've been looking around for the clusters and can't find anything anywhere for the v36..or maybe I just suck at looking at things.

US$700 is, quite alot...guess it wont be something I'll be doing anytime soon. Any idea if Nistune would be able to remove speed limiter?

[The Max]

Considering I plan to use the cable for remapping, it's actually a pretty good deal. Of course, if you know of a tuner who has the cable already, get them to do it for you. Aside from that, they will then need to clear the DTC error that pops up in relation to the pop-up hood control unit. Uprev aren't sure why it happens and they are working on it but clearing the error with a Consult III scan tool will do the trick.

No idea about Nistune. I haven't seen much about the Nistune documented anywhere so that's why I stayed away from it.

[colin.ssc]

Ah okay, what ECU are you using then? Still stock ones?