Its very common for people to take out their stock wrx upipe and gut-it (remove the cat). The gains from this easily compare to any aftermarket uppipe. Best of all, its free.
thts true its free but a small debris left and the turbo can choke on it and here comes new turbo and larger intercooler (smile) I like the clean look of the PDE and as it is i hate to say it the engine chamber of the wrx looks like "unplanned"
how much I dont plan on gutting mine I like to get a clean looking one How much did you pay for yours? ebay ?
I love my Perrin UP, cost $179 or so. The PDE one Milo mentioned is really sweet, but I think it's closer to $300... then again, it's coated and everything which is nice.
I love Perrin's stuff, but I still like a flex UP. THe TXS flex is only $199... PDE's used to be $289 but now they're $229 straight from pde... still high quality stuff, they just cut out their retailers SS
Is the flex section really necessary ? for install or or for less stress ? MOving the sensor - do you guys keep the sensor on the up pipe ?
Discussing flex vs. solid is like arguing religion, politics or abortion... IMO, either works, I preferred the solid one because I don't think a flex joint is necessary if installed carefully. Some uppipes retain the sensor--it won't do any good, honestly, and there's a minor risk for it breaking off... I'd leave it out, and replace it with a 2.2 kohm resistor. You CAN use it for EGT readings, but the uppipe isn't a particularly good place to do that; better off tapping the manifold.
I've got a crucial racing uppipe, and love it! Ceramic coated...ooohhh, aahhh You can read more about it here: http://www.crucialracing.com/products/uppipe.php They make a lot of other very nice products as well.
honestly, its probably the hardest part to see when its installed in ur car... engine bay blingage could come more from other parts
how much is the install, bro? It sounds like the UP is the best thing to replace, for the stock turbo lag, is that correct? i've done nothing to my car so far.
I have the HKS up-pipe. This does not have the flex joint. I think the pipe is like less than $100 (www.nopi.com). The install was the worst part about it. It took more than an entire day, because the turbo return line forgot to get reconnected. I was very inexperienced when I first did it, but don't be afraid of it. Go to scoobymods to see how the install should be done. I couldn't do it by removing the engine mount bolt and jacking the engine up, instead I loosed the turbo brackets and went in from that way. Overall it took about 12 hours with all hand tools, but some of it was just getting a broken exhaust bolt off my downpipe to intermediate pipe. This up-pipe didn't remove that much turbo lag, most of it can be removed by changing what happens after the turbo. So both the up-pipe and downpipe cat delete systems will be very beneficial to remove lag. Or just going to a ballbearing design.