My First Performance Mod on My Ikon 1.6

abhik · 11th May 2008, 03:55

For the first time since i bought my car i loved rattles coming from the back of my car. The rattles were from the stock mufler which now lay in the car's boot.
Why was the mufler in the boot? Because i just got rid of it!

I started of my day going to a workshop at an IOC petrol pump near Nizamuddin to get my busted fuel pump fixed, not that i needed it as my car also runs on CNG but i had to get it done.
I casually asked the mechanic that if he could get rid of the cat-con and replace it with a straight pipe and with a smile on his face he knew my intentions and hapily said that he had done so before and started explaining that it would result in a minor pick-up gain and help the engine exhale better. It was a surprise to me as i did'nt expect him to even figure out why on earth i would do such a thing in the first place but my good luck that he had the basic knowledge of the work asked.

Well i know, as previously discussed in another thread about BHP increase with removal of the cat-con and its pros and cons, i just wanted to experiment.

First of all i had to take a look at the Ikon's cat-con to see if at all it was restrictive enough to give me any advantage in performance and this was cleared out when we went to an exhaust system mechanics shop in Bhogal(near by Nizzamuddin), who told me that the Ikon's cat-con is a high flow design with very little restriction and after taking a look at it i too thought the same. So dropped the idea of getting rid of it.

Then looking through his shop i noticed a mufler which resembled a free-flow type as stock muflers and exhaust have a recogniseable shape and design that IMO a layman would recognise.
A Desert Storm Gypsy M413 was standing close by modded with a roll-cage, Sparco seats etc. The mechanic then poped the hood and showed me the headers and said he designed them and then showed the exhaust manifold (a 2x1+2x1 design, odd as i expected a 4x1x2 or 4x2x1 set-up but sounded really good). My luck again that i found a guy with the know how, who would do a decent job at a cheap price

.
So i told him to fit his designed mufler on my car, guess what? he would just charge me Rs1800 for it including fitting, so why not give it a shot...i anyways wanted to experiment so what the heck...thats what i thought.

The Ikon's exhaust set-up is a performance enthusiast's nightmare as it is made of odd twists and turns and the worst part is the end mufler section which goes into a S bend after the mid-mufler which straight off would make one think that the engine might really be struggling to exhale and choking on the exhaust gases.

So a half-hour job with the welding torch and i had a free flow mufler in place. The mechanic told me that with this set-up i would help gain a little pick-up and that i have got rid of the most restrictive part of the exhaust so the engine would be smoother. Also if need be he would get rid of the mid-mufler aswell later.
The stock pipe diameter was maintained throughout(as the 1.6 has a larger diameter pipe already)and the end pipe was also borrowed from stock. So the mufler is not visible as such, and the set-up looks stock. The mufler is made out of galvanised metal(looked like aluminium-as it was light weight)and was filled with glass wool.

Now i would'nt really call it a shabby job because it was executed well, but i had to drive it to know the difference.
First of all i loved the light humming at idle and then the roar after 2000RPM, there was a prominent difference after 2000RPM as if the car gets a boost and pulls away smoothly with the lovely music from the exhaust note especially when changing gears, in short just the mufler brought noticeable difference to mid-range performance and helped the low-end rev range too with me carrying higher gears for a longer duration resulting in lesser down shifts.
Now i am planning to get rid of the mid-mufler and check out the difference. But am concerned about adequate back-pressure.

Well just incase if you guys are wondering that in a forum where people talk nothing less than HKS, MagnaFlow, Resmus, Automech and comendable tuners, why would i go in for a job like this? Is because i am not planning to keep the car for long and would'nt like to spend money on it and rather like to save money for my next car, a project that has for a long time been lying on papers and thoughts.

NOS Power · 11th May 2008, 07:12

That's just awesome

. Your experiment has born a large fruit and this is a lesson for others who swear by phoren maal. we indians could also bring out something good like this. As a matter of fact most new rally drivers find out such local garages to get their work done. It's only the big boys that go for equally big tuners.

But still the tuner industry is small so one will not get such kind of harvests at any possible local mechanic. But nice find and congrats.

By the way as an indian i'm asking that question again. How has it affected your FE.

Akshay1234 · 11th May 2008, 09:37

sorry to burst the bubble but i dont think a muffler would give you any performance gains. its probably all in your head because of the sound. would love to hear a clip of this sound.

VJ_MAVRICK · 11th May 2008, 11:42

So was it just the muffler and not the headers you were mentioning that you got it done @ the workshop. And again,just as Akshay bhai said, just by changing the muffler alone is never going to show a difference in the performance and yea surely the roar might be music to your ears.
Post some pics too

Jaggu · 11th May 2008, 23:06

Quote:

Originally Posted by akshay1234

sorry to burst the bubble but i dont think a muffler would give you any performance gains. its probably all in your head because of the sound. would love to hear a clip of this sound.

Sorry akshay, have to differ at this point. As pointed out last can is a nightmare with gas flow and freeing it up does free a bit of usable power

Had it on my car and few of my friends who have driven it acknowledged this, no unlike Remus and all sound factor is minimal and no placebo there.

Its one of the cheapest mod, but a pain coz to get the pipe routing correct (without touching the suspension) is a nightmare!

abhik · 12th May 2008, 01:23

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jaggu

Sorry akshay, have to differ at this point. As pointed out last can is a nightmare with gas flow and freeing it up does free a bit of usable power

Had it on my car and few of my friends who have driven it acknowledged this, no unlike Remus and all sound factor is minimal and no placebo there.

Its one of the cheapest mod, but a pain coz to get the pipe routing correct (without touching the suspension) is a nightmare!

Well Jaggu i agree with your point there as i did mention earlier that the Ikon's mufler setup is very very restricted and so freeing the same and straightening the same made a difference.
Thankfully the guy had enough knowledge to cut and fix the mufler with proper routing to make it as straight as possible avoiding the rear suspension which i was concerned about mainly too.

abhik · 12th May 2008, 01:29

@Akshay n @VJ Mavrick
I know and have my facts right about FFE working and systems but as i mentioned freeing the restricted mufler did make a "little" difference not phenominal but it is surely not something in my mind or my butt dyno.

As far as the sound is concerned. in the cabin its just a tad bit louder than the stock so the sound did'nt make a mental factor for performance gain.
The difference after 2000RPM is evidently visible.

abhik · 12th May 2008, 01:31

Quote:

Originally Posted by NOS Power

That's just awesome

. Your experiment has born a large fruit and this is a lesson for others who swear by phoren maal. we indians could also bring out something good like this. As a matter of fact most new rally drivers find out such local garages to get their work done. It's only the big boys that go for equally big tuners.

But still the tuner industry is small so one will not get such kind of harvests at any possible local mechanic. But nice find and congrats.

By the way as an indian i'm asking that question again. How has it affected your FE.

Thank bro, i hav'nt ever measured Fe after CNG installation and even on petrol i drive with a heavy foot on the throttle so dont know but i am happy that the engine is breathing well. I am going for a stock replacement K n N to help it further.

ramie2400 · 12th May 2008, 01:34

hey abhik congrats man please post the pics of the muffler too cheers

Ramie

abhik · 12th May 2008, 01:36

Quote:

Originally Posted by ramie2400

hey abhik congrats man please post the pics of the muffler too cheers

Ramie

Thanks Bro will do so in a while.

snaronikar · 12th May 2008, 13:10

Has it affected the FE by any chance i.e., any decrease or increase?

abhik · 15th May 2008, 02:46

Quote:

Originally Posted by snaronikar

Has it affected the FE by any chance i.e., any decrease or increase?

Cant really say about FE as when you here a nice roar when pushing the throttle your driving style changes i.e your start shifting at higher RPM which also means higher speeds, rev unnecessarily at signals, show it off to your friends by reving it etc etc, all to hear that roar out of the exhaust resulting in a lower FE otherwise if you refrain from all these activities then ideally a free-flowing exhaust should idealy increase FE as a restriction is being removed for greater efficiency of the engine overall.

I too end up doing all of the above and a little more probably and have a very aggressive style of driving so i anyway end up with low FE

but the car is on CNG so does'nt really make a difference to me.

abhik · 15th May 2008, 06:46

Ok guys a little more experimentation carried out yesterday with the removal of the center muffler but the result was saddening.I thought by doing so the exhaust would not only be derestricted completely but i would also get a smoother sound out of it aswell.
But what i ended up with was a car that sounded like a bus/truck and the way it was struggling at lower RPM when revved, loss of back pressure was evident.
On the brighter side i got to know that my center muffler was damaged and ruptured and coincidently the mechanic had an original used muffler which i got replaced from him. My stock center muffler was rattling with broken pieces when i shook it and exterior was damaged probably due to speedbreakers, rocks etc.
Took the car to Ford for a check on the exhaust for any leakage and found a leakage, which i had suspected, at the joint between the cat pipe and end pipe and that was fixed and a little hole in a welding which was fixed at the exhaust fitter as he is located very close to my workplace so got it done on my way to work.
After getting the leakage and mid-muffler fixed now i am getting a deep roar which sounds very good when shifting gears and generally aswell. And my main motive of freeing the highly restricted stock muffler has been fulfilled also giving me a slight, noticeable improvement in performance over stock aswell. So all in all i got what i wanted and am happy i got it cheap.

Ofcourse if one is looking for an outright performance that can be extracted from the exhaust one should consult a tuner, for expert knowledge, calculated application and execution of work and optimum performance and output. As these local roadside mechanics though capable are not well versed with text book knowledge and most of the work done would be with hit and try and guessing methods thus inaccurate. If you are looking for outright performance i would not recommend a road-side mechanic and would highly recommend a good tuner instead as they would get you performance for your buck.

I did ask the mechanic how much he would charge to do my Ikon's complete exhaust done from the headers and he quoted me a price of 45-50k

. And i thought he would do it within 10-15k

. I guess our tuners here on T-BHP would offer a better deal! Would'nt you?

Shan2nu · 15th May 2008, 10:40

Yup, i ran my car without the end can for almost 2 years and it did free up the engine a bit (but nowhere close to what a performance header is capable of).

Heres a vid of me revving my bone stock car with just the end can removed.

YouTube - vtec tacho

Shan2nu

krazydriver84 · 15th May 2008, 11:06

@ ABHIK,

Can you please tell me the exact location of this mechanics workshop, would love to get some work done on my 800 and thus free up some more power.

If possible do provide me with his phone number.

Thanks.

11th May 2008, 03:55	#1
abhik BHPian Join Date: Aug 2007 Location: New Delhi Posts: 847 Thanked: 13 Times View My Garage	My First Performance Mod on My Ikon 1.6 For the first time since i bought my car i loved rattles coming from the back of my car. The rattles were from the stock mufler which now lay in the car's boot. Why was the mufler in the boot? Because i just got rid of it! I started of my day going to a workshop at an IOC petrol pump near Nizamuddin to get my busted fuel pump fixed, not that i needed it as my car also runs on CNG but i had to get it done. I casually asked the mechanic that if he could get rid of the cat-con and replace it with a straight pipe and with a smile on his face he knew my intentions and hapily said that he had done so before and started explaining that it would result in a minor pick-up gain and help the engine exhale better. It was a surprise to me as i did'nt expect him to even figure out why on earth i would do such a thing in the first place but my good luck that he had the basic knowledge of the work asked. Well i know, as previously discussed in another thread about BHP increase with removal of the cat-con and its pros and cons, i just wanted to experiment. First of all i had to take a look at the Ikon's cat-con to see if at all it was restrictive enough to give me any advantage in performance and this was cleared out when we went to an exhaust system mechanics shop in Bhogal(near by Nizzamuddin), who told me that the Ikon's cat-con is a high flow design with very little restriction and after taking a look at it i too thought the same. So dropped the idea of getting rid of it. Then looking through his shop i noticed a mufler which resembled a free-flow type as stock muflers and exhaust have a recogniseable shape and design that IMO a layman would recognise. A Desert Storm Gypsy M413 was standing close by modded with a roll-cage, Sparco seats etc. The mechanic then poped the hood and showed me the headers and said he designed them and then showed the exhaust manifold (a 2x1+2x1 design, odd as i expected a 4x1x2 or 4x2x1 set-up but sounded really good). My luck again that i found a guy with the know how, who would do a decent job at a cheap price. So i told him to fit his designed mufler on my car, guess what? he would just charge me Rs1800 for it including fitting, so why not give it a shot...i anyways wanted to experiment so what the heck...thats what i thought. The Ikon's exhaust set-up is a performance enthusiast's nightmare as it is made of odd twists and turns and the worst part is the end mufler section which goes into a S bend after the mid-mufler which straight off would make one think that the engine might really be struggling to exhale and choking on the exhaust gases. So a half-hour job with the welding torch and i had a free flow mufler in place. The mechanic told me that with this set-up i would help gain a little pick-up and that i have got rid of the most restrictive part of the exhaust so the engine would be smoother. Also if need be he would get rid of the mid-mufler aswell later. The stock pipe diameter was maintained throughout(as the 1.6 has a larger diameter pipe already)and the end pipe was also borrowed from stock. So the mufler is not visible as such, and the set-up looks stock. The mufler is made out of galvanised metal(looked like aluminium-as it was light weight)and was filled with glass wool. Now i would'nt really call it a shabby job because it was executed well, but i had to drive it to know the difference. First of all i loved the light humming at idle and then the roar after 2000RPM, there was a prominent difference after 2000RPM as if the car gets a boost and pulls away smoothly with the lovely music from the exhaust note especially when changing gears, in short just the mufler brought noticeable difference to mid-range performance and helped the low-end rev range too with me carrying higher gears for a longer duration resulting in lesser down shifts. Now i am planning to get rid of the mid-mufler and check out the difference. But am concerned about adequate back-pressure. Well just incase if you guys are wondering that in a forum where people talk nothing less than HKS, MagnaFlow, Resmus, Automech and comendable tuners, why would i go in for a job like this? Is because i am not planning to keep the car for long and would'nt like to spend money on it and rather like to save money for my next car, a project that has for a long time been lying on papers and thoughts.
	() Thanks

11th May 2008, 07:12	#2
NOS Power BHPian Join Date: Jun 2004 Location: Kolkata Posts: 404 Thanked: 81 Times View My Garage	That's just awesome . Your experiment has born a large fruit and this is a lesson for others who swear by phoren maal. we indians could also bring out something good like this. As a matter of fact most new rally drivers find out such local garages to get their work done. It's only the big boys that go for equally big tuners. But still the tuner industry is small so one will not get such kind of harvests at any possible local mechanic. But nice find and congrats. By the way as an indian i'm asking that question again. How has it affected your FE.
	() Thanks

11th May 2008, 09:37	#3
Akshay1234 Distinguished - BHPian Join Date: Dec 2006 Location: Mumbai Posts: 10,327 Thanked: 12,914 Times	sorry to burst the bubble but i dont think a muffler would give you any performance gains. its probably all in your head because of the sound. would love to hear a clip of this sound.
	() Thanks

11th May 2008, 11:42	#4
VJ_MAVRICK Senior - BHPian Join Date: Jun 2007 Location: Sydney Posts: 1,239 Thanked: 34 Times View My Garage	So was it just the muffler and not the headers you were mentioning that you got it done @ the workshop. And again,just as Akshay bhai said, just by changing the muffler alone is never going to show a difference in the performance and yea surely the roar might be music to your ears. Post some pics too
	() Thanks

12th May 2008, 01:29	#7
abhik BHPian Join Date: Aug 2007 Location: New Delhi Posts: 847 Thanked: 13 Times View My Garage	@Akshay n @VJ Mavrick I know and have my facts right about FFE working and systems but as i mentioned freeing the restricted mufler did make a "little" difference not phenominal but it is surely not something in my mind or my butt dyno. As far as the sound is concerned. in the cabin its just a tad bit louder than the stock so the sound did'nt make a mental factor for performance gain. The difference after 2000RPM is evidently visible. Last edited by abhik : 12th May 2008 at 01:34.
	() Thanks

12th May 2008, 01:34	#9
ramie2400 Senior - BHPian Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Mumbai Posts: 1,903 Thanked: 66 Times View My Garage	hey abhik congrats man please post the pics of the muffler too cheers Ramie
	() Thanks

12th May 2008, 13:10	#11
snaronikar Senior - BHPian Join Date: Jun 2007 Location: Bengaluru Posts: 2,845 Thanked: 31 Times View My Garage	Has it affected the FE by any chance i.e., any decrease or increase?
	() Thanks

15th May 2008, 06:46	#13
abhik BHPian Join Date: Aug 2007 Location: New Delhi Posts: 847 Thanked: 13 Times View My Garage	Ok guys a little more experimentation carried out yesterday with the removal of the center muffler but the result was saddening.I thought by doing so the exhaust would not only be derestricted completely but i would also get a smoother sound out of it aswell. But what i ended up with was a car that sounded like a bus/truck and the way it was struggling at lower RPM when revved, loss of back pressure was evident. On the brighter side i got to know that my center muffler was damaged and ruptured and coincidently the mechanic had an original used muffler which i got replaced from him. My stock center muffler was rattling with broken pieces when i shook it and exterior was damaged probably due to speedbreakers, rocks etc. Took the car to Ford for a check on the exhaust for any leakage and found a leakage, which i had suspected, at the joint between the cat pipe and end pipe and that was fixed and a little hole in a welding which was fixed at the exhaust fitter as he is located very close to my workplace so got it done on my way to work. After getting the leakage and mid-muffler fixed now i am getting a deep roar which sounds very good when shifting gears and generally aswell. And my main motive of freeing the highly restricted stock muffler has been fulfilled also giving me a slight, noticeable improvement in performance over stock aswell. So all in all i got what i wanted and am happy i got it cheap. Ofcourse if one is looking for an outright performance that can be extracted from the exhaust one should consult a tuner, for expert knowledge, calculated application and execution of work and optimum performance and output. As these local roadside mechanics though capable are not well versed with text book knowledge and most of the work done would be with hit and try and guessing methods thus inaccurate. If you are looking for outright performance i would not recommend a road-side mechanic and would highly recommend a good tuner instead as they would get you performance for your buck. I did ask the mechanic how much he would charge to do my Ikon's complete exhaust done from the headers and he quoted me a price of 45-50k. And i thought he would do it within 10-15k. I guess our tuners here on T-BHP would offer a better deal! Would'nt you?
	() Thanks

15th May 2008, 11:06	#15
krazydriver84 BHPian Join Date: Oct 2007 Location: Kolkata + Gurgaon Posts: 428 Thanked: 44 Times View My Garage	@ ABHIK, Can you please tell me the exact location of this mechanics workshop, would love to get some work done on my 800 and thus free up some more power. If possible do provide me with his phone number. Thanks.
	() Thanks