If you’re looking for a new exhaust for your E30, and in particular an exhaust that sounds and functions similar to stock, but has the benefits of stainless, than you’re in luck.

The Ebay, Ireland Engineering, and a bunch of other esque websites sell a stainless steel catback system that are identical in every way and are sourced from the same place (COO China).

The underlying part number of the exhaust is CBE SPD6026, US importer is E-Motor USA Inc. out of Griffith IN and supplied out of China by www.speedexhaust.cn

Even disregarding the $240-$350 price tag, this catback is a good system, toss in the inexpensive price tag and its a no brainer.

The exhaust for all intents and purposes is a replacement for a stock muffler; the sound is very stock sounding.

One flaw of this system is that it comes shipped in two pieces with the expectation that you use their exhaust clamps. I found that the exhaust clamps were lack luster and no matter how tightly applied, allowed some gas to get by.

My recommendation for the average lay person is to do either of two things:

1. Once mounted, take it to a muffler shop and have them weld the section that is otherwise clamped.

OR

2. Buy yourself a hobby flux core welder and get some “Blue Demon 309LFC-O X .035 X 1LB Spool Stainless Steel Flux core gasless Welding Wire”. This wire will allow you to weld a stainless bead without having to worry about getting a bottle of gas.

Two things to remember when using this wire:

– Most fluxcore machines come setup in DCEN mode, this means that the ground strap is actually the power lead and the spool gun is the negative lead. 95% of all fluxcore wire welds in DCEN, but this is one of the very few exceptions; switch your leads so you are in DCEP mode, where the ground strap is actually acting as the ground and the spool gun becomes the power lead.

In most machines this is a matter of undoing two nuts and swapping the wires; in some fancier machines, you are able to quick change from the front of the machine.

– For best results this wire likes to run higher voltage; set your welder to 22 volts and 130 amps.

If you’re looking for an inexpensive welder that also punches above its price tag, and can do 120/240v, check out the Yes Welder MIG-205DS, its crazy good value:

This entry was posted on April 19, 2021 at 7:32 pm and is filed under Interesting Stuff. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.