Those who will remember a while back Buschur and I offered to do some testing on his exhausts while I was out in Ohio. After a lot of pissing contests back and forth David Buschur basically decided to wash his hands of the situation as he was tired of all the nonsense and bickering back and forth. It pained me that David canceled the testing at the time becuase I knew that his exhuasts made a lot more power and I have seen it time and time again that on the dyno the cars with Buschur exhausts always made really great power while some other units seemed to always give problems. I knew what would happen if and when I had a chance to invest the time to do a test.

Some will remember that I referenced at the time that I bought a used Buschur Bullet V Band Exhaust system around the same time from a guy who was going back to stock and trading in his Evo.

Flash forward to today and at my shop we were installing some cams in a customers 2003 Evo 8 and a few other goodies and a custom reflash tune.

Thanks to Jimmy at www.theshopct.com for donating man force, time and dyno, lifts, tools to make this happen

Modifications were

Ebay Intake tube and upper fmic pipe with K & N Cone filter and adapter
Walbro fuel pump
Crower 272 cams
Gredy Pro fec B II EBC
Megan down pipe with flex
Perrin high flow cat
E Bay SS Auto Chrome Cat back
Invidia cast o2 housing
10.5 Hot side

93 octane 22 psi

(It should be noted that the customer selected ALL of his performance mods)

When I got the car on the dyno it just felt flat, dead and it wasn't making the kind of power that I would expect for a car with these mods.

The car was already boost leak tested and the plugs were changed before it got on the dyno.

Therefore, I did a compression test and saw that the 4 chambers were even at 175 per and the cam timing was dead on

There was a bit of a knock threshold issue so I drained the gas 100% and went to the local Sunoco station to grab some fresh 93 octane, the knock improved slightly but the car was still just as dead on power.

Although the TQ was decent the top end power was really flat and the car seemed corked up.

I suggested it was time to do an exhaust test and gladly The Shop agreed to donate the time to swap out the exhuasts and redyno

We installed the Buschur V Band Exhuast - along with a bone stock 02 housing (Buschur unit would not fit on the Invidia unit)

NOTHING other than the 02 housing, and full Turbo back exhuast was changed

SAME Boost, tune and dyno settings

This is a true A - B test



The results shocked even myself. Basically the Bushcur unit flowed so much air up top the a/f went nearly a point leaner with no changes and the car held nearly 1.5 psi more boost with the same boost settings at red line.

You will note that until 4,300 rpms the curves are identical - up top the free flowing Buschur Exhuast KILLS the E Bay junk

I will note that I knew this would happen as the best exhaust on a turbo car is NO EXHUAST

Flex sections kill power

Tiny mufflers with small holes in them kill power (what good is a 3" exhuast with a small hole through the muffler?)



Look at all this junk under your car - so many connections and joints







Here is my used Buschur V Band testing unit









Disclaimer - these are the results of a test on ONE car. While they do support what I have known all along about the difference between a well designed performance exhuast and a cheap exhuast, it is impossible to draw any far reaching conclusions from one test.

I will be doing more of this testing as time permits

You can imagine that unstraping a car from a dyno - putting it on a lift - changing exhuasts - re-dynoing - going back on the lift and re-installing the original exhuast is all time consuming and something we donate as far as time, labor and dyno fees to R & D

The customer drove the car with the Buschur exhuast (said it made his hair stand up) and with his el cheapo unit back on and he estimated he lost 25 whp by his butt dyno

It is what it is the results speak for themselves

 

First off, thanks for doing the test.

While the results are interesting it must be pointed out that he did have a cat on the car before. It is pretty intuitive that you are going to gain a lot of power if you pull the cat off the car. Maybe in your next round of testing you can try and do a comparison of the buschur exhaust to a full exhaust that does not have a cat or a flex joint.

Or you could try just swapping out axle-backs.

Again I don't mean to discount your work or results but in all honesty you can not really compare a cat exhaust to a cat less one.

 

How is this an "A-B" test? One exhaust had a cat, one didn't.

It's not suprising the one without made more power.

I'm suprised you didn't think of this before posting this.. You had to know someone was going to mention it.

For the record, I'm sure the Buschur exhaust would make more power if the tests were really an "A-B" test, but this test proves nothing..

 

Come on, you know that is not going to help. Lets not turn this into another stupid battle where we loose out on the original work that Al is doing.

If you constantly criticize the work that people on this forum do to test stuff out, you are going to discourage them from every contributing to the community. If you don't have anything constructive to say don't bother.

 

so the ebay exhaust is not a ture full 3" exhaust
how small is the opening at the muffler?

 

Al, could you please post the AFR and boost for the 2 plots?

 

While it was not certainly a labratory grade experiment - and I do see your point

The reality is that no high flow car is going to cost you that kind of power on a stock turbo car - while a high flow cat will never make the power of a test pipe equiped car

While it did have a high flow cat - consider that the after test did not include the Invidia cast o2 housing which presumably makes some power over the stock unit ?

I think the reason why David canceled the test was becuase no matter how we were going to do it - it seemed that someone would critique the testing methods and cars used to compare

My point is that I really don't have the resources to go about testing products all day just to entertain the evo m community

As I have time and as the shop I work in has time and lifts available I will be testing against other exhuast set ups

One of the trends I see with the ebay and china exhuats is a lot of mixing and matching of this and that brands in the make up of these set ups. It is almost like the customers think by getting a different brand of down pipe and cat back they might work better than by getting all the same brand. Sad reality is that most of these compaines do no dyno testing and devlopmemnt to make the parts really work on the dyno like Buschur does.

It should be noted that poor Perrin got in the middle of this with their high flow cat which was some how selected along with the rest of the parts.

Keep in mind this exhaust testing gig is 100% a hobby and past time to me. Kind of like some dude who collects stamps or builds ships in bottles, my hobby is testing parts to see which ones make the most power.

 

someone needs to go on a dyno with a completely stock evo and then strap this exhaust on and see the gains? Or someone take off thier expensive exhaust and put the ebay one on and do a before and after dyno graph.

 

To me it proves this

The junk system the poor customer was conned into buyting by various internet parts vendors did not work very well and the car ran like dog meat

We remove the entire exhuast and all his hard selected parts and swap in a real performance system and do nothing else and suddenly his car is running great and making great power

Nothing else but exhuast parts was changed

It shows me that a well designed and engineered exhuast "SYSTEM" will out perform a hodge podge of mis matched parts

If I did not swap the exhuasts to test it I would be left with a customer complaining to me about how weak his power was and how on line vendors X Y and Z had told him he should be making " fill in the blank" power

What the test showed me was where the missing power was to be found

Moral - get a free flowing cat less 3 " exhuast system and your car will make great power

 

heres my take on the ebay exhaust... its a given that the buscher will make more power. i dont think any1 will really argue that..

but is it worth spending an extra 300-500 for 5whp more when ur already making 40whp more...

that extra 300-500 can be used for something better.

another example..

i find it funny how every1 says get a mbc cause its much cheaper.. when a ebc is so much better. but then they go buy an expensive exhaust when a cheaper one will be almost just as good. and the mbc or ebc is much more important as far as the characteristics of the car.

cheers!

 

two things i never understood about the ebay junk.
1. you have a semi expensive car why go cheap?
2.support your local shops or shops in the U.S. dynoflash, ams, buschar, ttr, etc. these guys have been putting in all the hard work for years. why give your money to people who have no interest in the evo community?

 

Nice result! Like others say, its not a "perfect comparison", but is shows buschurs exhaust is superior to the ebay one. Thanks for your time Dynoflash.

So buying a TTP downpipe with a flex section wouldnt be as good as a performer as a dp without a flex section? I was under the impression that flex sections did not hurt power?

 

why not support people who work in the us to build ford gm etc...

or hell even honda bmw mercedes.. those cars are made in the u.s.a. too

why drive a jap car?

 

i spent a while researching this and i found no proof it makes a difference.. its fine... are u really concerned about .2hp difference.. if you are. then skip a meal a day to save wieght and youll be just as fast =-p

 

Hey Al what do you think of the Helix 3" TBE?

My understanding was the helix is an excellent unit just weighs more than bushur's unit plus the cost is quite low.

Thanks in advance