hi there
First post here and a newbie too, so ... hello everyone!

I'm Pedro, from Portugal ( ERICEIRA more to be more precise ) and i'm 22. I've a W201 2.5 16v stock and i'm upgrading the suspensions, wheels and brakes before i touch the engine.

For the engine i have an ITB + EFI + CAMS + CARBON AIRBOX system in sight but only for the next year, though, i would like to get a new exhaust system but i don't know what to do so ... my questions is ... is it a good upgrade, to get a costum build exhaust system with mainfolds ( manifolds? i don't know how to write it ) ... if yes, can you teach me the best way to improve 2.5 16v exhaust system?

Best regards

Pedro

hola pedro,

The 2.5 exhaust system already has headers instead of a regular exhaust manifold. I've never seen anybody try to improve the performance of the headers, but custom exhausts abound. It seems to depend on where in the rpm range you want your horsepower/torque and how loud you can stand your car to be. Try searching the archives here, or head on over to 190 revolution (its a site for the 190s in particular, do a google for the adress), the kiddies over there tend to modify their rides alot more than the people on this board. Old age and wisdom maybe? anway, best of luck.

dan

yeah, I wouldn't worry about the manifolds, they are tubular headers from the factory on all the 16v cars (in fact, they are pretty aggressive headers from what I understand). Perhaps some tweaking of the downpipe and a higher flow muffler would help a little, but probably not much. If your cars are required to have catalytic converters on them a high flow cat would help (Not sure if cat-converters are required in your part of the world though).