Ive been trying to keep my journal updated, and as some of you may have read I purchased a M2 Performance Turbo-back Exhaust for my 2005 STi. The cost of this full system was $249.00 shipped to my door. A little back ground, M2 is a child company of Megan racing. Pretty much its a cheaper parts company start by a cheap parts company. I feel that Megan quality is very good myself, I have used a lot of their parts in the past and know others who have as well with no problems. Here are the pictures from the day I got it. As you can see (and I will get better pictures of it later) the exhaust is well made, all the welds are done right, and it comes with new gaskets and bolts. the DP has two bungs, one for O2 and one for Wideband if you choose to use one. Now I know there are a lot of people out there who will not use cheap parts on their car...they dont fit, they dont work as well as expensive parts, yada yada yada. I understand that, but I didnt have the money for a $1000+ TBE exhaust, so this is what we have. So we started last night, I have a Cobb AP but wanted to use an OTS map, and with my CAI I knew that was going to be tough. So for now, we figured we'd throw the the mid-pipe and axel-back sections on and be set. We started lining up the mid-pipe to the DP, no good. theres a 3 or 4 in. gap between the two. Fuck So at this point Im thinkin its not gonna line up (which I WAS wholeheartedly expecting to be the case since, yes, it was a $250 TBE exhaust. So my buddy Im with says "you know, I bet if we do the DP too, it will all work". he plays Devil's Advocate in way more situations than he should, but it worked so we started pulling off the DP. a little trouble with the heatshields, the DP slid out after it was un bolted, but we were thirtsy so off to the store we go. We dickeded around at Wal-Mart fr way too long, didnt get back to the house till 12:30. We start back in. HERE IS WHERE THE ONLY PROBLEM WE FACED CAME UP. As we got the DP under and up and started lining it up, the bracket closest to the top ( I guess it bolts up to or right next to the tranny) was not in the correct spot. it was very close, but it appears to have been welded on a little low and was just a bit too long. We pulled the DP back out and bent this bracket around the pipe to clear it. I will be having my shop cut it off and weld it into the correct spot and bolted back up whenever I can get to it. After we got the bracket moved, eveything else fell right into place, mid-pipe lined up, then the rear section lined up, we tightened all the bolts down twice and it was on Unfortunately we were all too excited about installing the exhaust there are no install pictures. trust me, it went on like any other TBE with the one modification of bending that bracket I listed above. This is an EXCELLENT choice of full TBE exhaust for someone on a tighter budget. It is pretty loud since there are no cats. we didnt get done till 2 am so I havent really gotten to see how loud, but I will have videos later today. Im going to baby it till I can get a Cobb SF Intake then tune it and have some fun (should be next week sometime). I will take closer pics of the welds and the exhaust under the car and some videos today for sound. Any questions feel free to ask.
YouTube - M2 Performance Exhaust on 2005 STi YouTube - M2 Performance Exhaust on 2005 STi YouTube - M2 Performance Exhaust on 2005 STi YouTube - M2 Performance Exhaust on 2005 STi
Yup, that is the only problem with some of the ebay TBE systems. They are not interchangeable with any other OEM or aftermarket parts. As long as you are happy about it, who cares what other people might think. I used an ebay FMIC core on my car for a few years without any problems.