I bought my the final parts needed for my turbo project (injectors and clutch). I plan on doing everything on a weekend and then slowly drive the car to a muffler shop for the exhaust work and then take it to a tuner to have that side of things taken care of. When I called and talked to the muffler shop, they said they can bend me 3" pipes from the cat back and do a 3" down pipe but it would all be crushed bent. How badly will this screw things up? They gave me a really cheap quote and they warranty their work for the life of the car. In the eyes of an owner who drives an NA car, a crushed bent exhaust is fine. But what about for the people who have a turbo?

 

Spend the $$$ for mandrel bends. It will sound like crap with crush bends, and it's just not worth it IMO. (and it's just freaking ugly)



Find a machine shop locally with some scraps you can weld together...or measure it yourself and have them bend it and weld it. It'll probably be the same, or less, as a muffler shop.



What are you using/running for the turbo pipes? is it a kit...or are you fabbing them?

 

How cheap? Because for a GK I'd think you could easily get a 3" catback (with mandrel bends), then have your muffler of choice welded on, for what ever a custom 3" custom crush would cost.

 

My 2-1/4 mandrel system (bought then cut and welded in my garage) required $200 worth of materials using aluminized pipe.

 

Question time.

1. What will the car be used for,
   
2. What boost are you looking to run, and
   
3. What's the difference in section diameter to the crush diameter of the pipe?
   

 

Crush bends would be fine imho, if in doubt just go for a bigger diameter of pipe. There's no need to worry about how lovely the flow is going to be here.

 

I know a few people who have crush bent piping and are running 300+ HP in their cars. They're perfectly fine with it so if you can save money, go for it. I think theres some 2.0 Gen Coupe owners with crush bent custom CB's and DP's with no problems also.