Mandrel bent or stock tailpipe?

retroflow · Jun 1, 2007

Ok, it's come to pass that I will be replacing just the tailpipe on my 2.5L TJ. Just to clarify, tail pipe as in, the pipe from the muffler to the air behind. The one on there already was a 2.0" pipe and has been temporarily adapted to fit to the 2.25" Muffler out. Not great.

I just replaced last week, the cat and the muffler. Both are CarSound/MagnaFlow hi-flow items. In and earlier post, I mentioned my "cat" died, so it was a legit swap-out. Anyway, with tis kind of set-up, how important is it now to have either a mandrel bent tail pipe or a corrugated one? Will it make a difference, except in cost, in terms of real performance results or anything? I intend to get a 2.25" tail pipe so I can avoid using another adapter to fit a 2.50" pipe.

Hi flow cat, hi flow muffler...do I need a mandrel bent pipe to make it all worthwhile, or can I get by with just a cheepie Walker/Dynomax pipe? Afterall, it's a 2.5L 4-banger.

TIA,

Adam

BlueFlame · Jun 1, 2007

There's 3 different types of pipes mentioned in your post.
Mandrel bent, normal bent, and corrugated.
Avoid corrugated piping.
For your 2.5 you will see no difference between normal bent (there is a slight crimp at the bends, like the factory pipes have) and mandrel bent (smooth bends, nice.)

You might see if someone who upgraded their entire exhaust on a 4.0 has a perfectly good tailpipe laying around. They are 2.25" and ready to go.

barry1me · Jun 1, 2007

BlueFlame said:
There's 3 different types of pipes mentioned in your post.
Mandrel bent, normal bent, and corrugated.
Avoid corrugated piping.
For your 2.5 you will see no difference between normal bent (there is a slight crimp at the bends, like the factory pipes have) and mandrel bent (smooth bends, nice.)

You might see if someone who upgraded their entire exhaust on a 4.0 has a perfectly good tailpipe laying around. They are 2.25" and ready to go.

your correct there are 3 types of pipe bending:

Madrel---least amount of backpressure, compression bending, and corrugated. I wouldnt waste to much energy or thought on your exhaust...worry more about the pipe OD. I made a mandrel bent 2.5" OD exhaust at work with a straight through 2.5" bottle ressonator and didnt notice any increase in performance.

Crashnburn80 · Jun 1, 2007

retroflow said:
Ok, it's come to pass that I will be replacing just the tailpipe on my 2.5L TJ. Just to clarify, tail pipe as in, the pipe from the muffler to the air behind.

At this point in the exhaust system, even if there was a lot of flow, the exhaust temp would have cooled so much and the gases become more condensed vs the begining of the exhaust system, that it won't matter what you do. Even if you left the pipe at 2" you wouldn't see a performance loss. I'd say just do whatever is cheapest.

Mandrel bent or stock tailpipe?

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