A strange cat back exhaust upgrade

[saabie]

Well I took the plunge today and changed my exhuast cat-back.

Parts were from a brand new 2004 aero who immediately upgraded his exhuast to a hirsch cat back. Unfortunately for him, the center piping did not fit his 2004 model so he had to retain the stock center pipe.

As for my car, I bought over his aero's center resonator, and rear muffler, together with his 2.5" hircsh center pipe. Wielded it all together and waahlah....btw this was all done for a very nominal fee.... much less than Saab charges for just the rear sport muffler.

Haha and i don't even have a body kit to go along ops:

Of course I kept my stock exhaust just in case!

So far so good.

[Cayman1]

Looks good!

how does it sound?

[Saba]

I think the stock centre pipe is the restricting part. Your gain his loss. Although I think you will have a few 2.25" restricting parts in yours (Muffler joins) so you won't get the full benefit of the 2.5". But still, good score.

[epsilon93]

Saabie! You took the plunge. Very nice! Got to see your car when we meet next. How does it feel now?

[Jet 9-3]

So it fits on an '03, but not an '04?

[saabie]

So far so good, the car seems more responsive but it might very well be all in the head!! To be realistic, I wouldn't say that there was a vast performance improvement ....

Sound wise, very quiet, only a little louder than the stock setup. Actually I am buying this more for the look rather than expecting any huge bhp gains...

His Hirsch cat back was actually meant for a 2003 linear but he when he upgraded to a 2004 aero, there is some differences in the fuel tank configuration and therefore the middle center pipe.

[moz]

Nice find!, I would say the sound won't be that much greater - the OEM end mufflers are very quiet, swapping that out will give you the greatest difference in sound (having been through a couple of exhausts and now with a cat-back, that's what I found anyway).

[Johnken]

Originally Posted by Jet 9-3

So it fits on an '03, but not an '04?

03 has a differnet fuel tank than 04s. 62 L for 03 and 58 for 04. To cut costs, saab had to use a GM stock part instead (58L) and this required a different exhaust system.