Working with an Exhuast company to get a kit for R51s

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rang-a-stang
Posts: 16
Joined: Thu Dec 26, 2024 6:08 am

Working with an Exhuast company to get a kit for R51s

Postby rang-a-stang » Thu Jan 16, 2025 10:09 am

Hey all, I am working with an exhuast company to see if we can get a better performance cat-back kit offered to us. They are sending me the Y-pipe and muffler from their Frontier kit to see if they fit easily. If they do fit well, the company will develop a tail pipe and we will have access to an affordable bolt on cat-back exhuast system.

This kit uses two 2.5" pipes into a 3" Y, 3" single in and out muffler, and a 3" tailpipe. Pretty much everything in this diagram. I have this company's system on my Jeep XJ and absolutely love it. On my Jeep it has a deep, sporty tone, and is only slightly louder than stock. I did notice a slight difference with the butt dyno but it was not drastic. I feel like our stock Y-Pipe is so poorly designed, this has to make a similar change on the R51s.
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My XJ kit was about $500 from Summit. The Frontier kit is about $500 on Summit. I would assume an R51 kit would be less than $600? Would you consider buying one? I know it's too early to tell since you have not seen or heard it, or seen a dyno graph but assuming it sounds OK, looks good, and nets at least some power/MPG gains, would you consider one?
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rang-a-stang
Posts: 16
Joined: Thu Dec 26, 2024 6:08 am

Re: Working with an Exhuast company to get a kit for R51s

Postby rang-a-stang » Mon Jan 27, 2025 10:39 am

I ended up ordering the entire Frontier kit. It's in my garage and I hope to install in late Feb. Pics to follow!

TooMuchControl
Posts: 382
Joined: Tue Apr 28, 2020 4:41 pm

Re: Working with an Exhuast company to get a kit for R51s

Postby TooMuchControl » Tue Feb 18, 2025 9:31 pm

I had a shop basically add a stainless steel Y pipe back in December. It's a great addition to make the full throttle sound like a V8.

This price sounds more than reasonable for a cat back solution. Interested in the pics after you've done it.

Mine was done by a shop and to be honest, the most money I've ever spent on this truck is the get the exhaust shops to do the job right.

Everything is like patch work.

If I had to do it again, I would go with OEN, or keep replacing it with Walker. The Walker muffler I bought 7 years ago is still perfect - no hole no rust and I'm in the salty north. The rest of the piping is thin and prone to rusting. But the muffler I have it simply bullet proof over 150000 km of driving.

rang-a-stang
Posts: 16
Joined: Thu Dec 26, 2024 6:08 am

Re: Working with an Exhuast company to get a kit for R51s

Postby rang-a-stang » Fri Mar 07, 2025 10:25 am

Spent 12 hours yesterday getting this system to "fit".

1) EVERY single part needed work to fit. The muffler is about 6" too far aft so I had to trim all 3 front pipes (see diagram). I had to fabricate all new mounts, None of the installed mounts worked where they were. I stopped taking pictures when I realized how much different the systems are. It really is a whole new system.
2) The output of the muffler pointed almost straight at the rear crossmember. I was able to chop/weld the kit and use some other 3" elbows I had to get it to go up and over the cross member but this fenagling took a solid 4 hours. It's a REALLY tight fit going over the cross member but the 3" pipe does fit.
4) Instead of the tip; I took a 30 degree elbow, cut it lengthwise, and welded that to the end so it dumps downward, like stock PF exhaust. I did this because, the lowest hanging part in the back is the hitch, then the exhaust. If I would have added the tip, it would have been the new lowest hanging part in the back and been munched on my first offroading trip (tomorrow).
5) Interestingly, the mid pipe (item 5 in the kit) fit the best but as a tail pipe! I had to rotate it 90 degrees and move the mount but once that was done, I could have just stuck the tip on and been done.
6) It hangs a little low for my liking. My XJ system is the same. My muffler is the lowest part on both my XJ and PF. On a street vehicle, that's not a big deal but on my two mild offroaders, it is a little concerning. I expect to beat the crap out of the muffler over the next few years. Hahaha!
7) Butt dyno: STOOOOKED!!!! Unreal difference! I have been wrenching a LOOoooong time and its pretty rare that a part(s) makes this much difference in the butt dyno for this cost! I have an 1800 mile road trip over the next 5 days and am looking forward to checking MPG, too. The MPG was really why I did this.
8 ) On my XJ the tone is AMAZING!!! The idle sounds beefy and WOT sounds aggressive and sporty but not loud, cruising is very pleasant. My PF idle is good (not great), WOT is way too aggressive for my liking, and cruising is kind of annoying. I may get a resonator later but am unsure right now.
I am not 100% sure I can still fit my spare tire down there, too. I'll let you all know next week when I get home from my road trip!

Bottom line: there is Waaaay to much work needed to get a Frontier kit to fit a Pathfinder. When I visited 3 different exhaust shops (when I was considering doing custom) they all wanted to go under the rear subframe and for an offroader, that does not work.

I'll also get a lot more pictures when I get back. I am super sore today from crawling around under there all day yesterday! hahah!

(same picture but a couple different ways of posting to make sure it shows up)
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https://drive.google.com/file/d/1cyOMyd ... sp=sharing


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