Mystique Gets a New Exhaust

One of the more common mods for a vehicle is an exhaust. The purpose is to not only give you that nice rumbling sound, but to also open up the exhaust system to escape more air. The automotive engine in it's simplest form is an air pump. The intake pulls air into the plenum which is where the air collects until it is thrown to the cylinders. The cylinders, (6, if you have a 6 cylinder, 4 if you have a 4 cylinder, etc) then pressurizes the air and gasoline mix and combustion occurs.

The more air (to an engine's maximum efficiency) that your engine can bring in, the more powerful the otto cycle is. Once that air/gas mixture is ignited, it must escape somehow. That is where your exhaust comes in. The first part of your exhaust leading from your engine block is the downpipe, then the Catalytic Converters. The "cats" as they're often called are the most restrictive part of your exhaust in most cases. The diameter of the pipes is small, they're normally bent, and there are filters in these pipes because the main purpose of the cats are to filter polution from the exhaust.

I have replaced my stock cats with Berk Technologies High Flow Cats. The next part of the exhaust on the G35 Coupe is the stock Y pipe. It's given this name because it's, as you've probably guessed, in the shape of a Y. Then following that is the Midpipe. This connects the Y pipe to the mufflers and tail pipe. By increasing the diameter of pipes in the exhaust system, you can potentially increase horsepower and torque as well if backpressure is increased or maintained.

Illustration of the Otto Cycle

Here's how my car sounds with a JWT Pop Charger, 350Z Intake Tube, 1/2" Motordyne Plenum Spacer, Berk Technologies High Flow Cats, and Fujitsubo Legalis-R Exhaust.