Kooks headers for 350r?

[Bryanh24]

Has anyone installed a set of kooks headers with their green cats with the otherwise stock cat back? How did you like it? Thanks.

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[alan0614]

@madlag has spent quite a bit of time dialing in his Kooks setup on his R. I'm sure he can offer some good advice.

 

[Bryanh24]

@madlag has spent quite a bit of time dialing in his Kooks setup on his R. I'm sure he can offer some good advice.

Awesome! I'll just wait and let him respond then when he gets a chance.

 

[Meraki Autoworks]

Yes Kooks are a great setup. Any reason you want the green cats? Most of our customers go catless or just regular cats.

-Josh

 

[Bryanh24]

Yes Kooks are a great setup. Any reason you want the green cats? Most of our customers go catless or just regular cats.

-Josh

Don’t want the rasp from catless and I have a Whipple so I’d want the green cats since they can withstand the heat and stress from the blower.

 

[Ninjak]

I have the Kooks, with their X pipe then stock OEM outback. Sounds really good, and I have no rasp.

 

[Meraki Autoworks]

Don’t want the rasp from catless and I have a Whipple so I’d want the green cats since they can withstand the heat and stress from the blower.

Makes perfect sense.

Let us know if you'd like a quote.

-Josh

 

[Bryanh24]

I have the Kooks, with their X pipe then stock OEM outback. Sounds really good, and I have no rasp.

Thats what I might have to do if its still raspy even with the green cats. Throw on some gt350 resonators onto the stock R exhaust

 

[madlag]

Awesome! I'll just wait and let him respond then when he gets a chance.

As Alan said, I’ve spent a ton of time with Kook’s R&D team (I’m local to them). I tried their catless headers with my factory R exhaust... I’ll be completely honest here: below 3500rpm it sounded like shit. Raspy, empty, hollow and drone. At 5000+RPM it sounded awesome (like an F1)but was just too damn loud. So I added back resonator. Then I added another set of Kook’s resonators. The sound just wasn’t right to me. Keep in mind, ours will sound different because we’re moving way more air with the blowers... The sound of the above set up changed drastically for the worse after I installed the blower...

What I ended up with was a complete custom system. Catless headers that go to a set of small resonators meant to look like cats, X pipe, custom built long resonators, H pipe and custom mufflers. It’s deeper, less raspy, consistent and has minimal resonance and drone. They put in a lot of work to make sure it didn’t vibrate or trip knock sensors. Kook’s engineering was on point.

Having said all that... if I had it to do all over again I’m not sure I’d go through it again lol. Factory R exhaust sounds so good as is. Unless you’re just trying to squeeze every bit of performance out of it I’d be tempted to leave it alone. If you’re like me, chasing perfection and being dead set on increasing performance vs degrading it, you’re in for a serious journey. Good luck and let me know if I can help.

 

[madlag]

For your viewing pleasure.

 

[Bryanh24]

As Alan said, I’ve spent a ton of time with Kook’s R&D team (I’m local to them). I tried their catless headers with my factory R exhaust... I’ll be completely honest here: below 3500rpm it sounded like shit. Raspy, empty, hollow and drone. At 5000+RPM it sounded awesome (like an F1)but was just too damn loud. So I added back resonator. Then I added another set of Kook’s resonators. The sound just wasn’t right to me. Keep in mind, ours will sound different because we’re moving way more air with the blowers... The sound of the above set up changed drastically for the worse after I installed the blower...

What I ended up with was a complete custom system. Catless headers that go to a set of small resonators meant to look like cats, X pipe, custom built long resonators, H pipe and custom mufflers. It’s deeper, less raspy, consistent and has minimal resonance and drone. They put in a lot of work to make sure it didn’t vibrate or trip knock sensors. Kook’s engineering was on point.

Having said all that... if I had it to do all over again I’m not sure I’d go through it again lol. Factory R exhaust sounds so good as is. Unless you’re just trying to squeeze every bit of performance out of it I’d be tempted to leave it alone. If you’re like me, chasing perfection and being dead set on increasing performance vs degrading it, you’re in for a serious journey. Good luck and let me know if I can help.

Thanks for the information man. Yeah wow it definitely seemed like a journey to get the exhaust to your liking. I have heard gt350's with headers and catless x pipe with resonator delete and I just can't seem to get myself to think that sounds better than stock. Only think I have heard that sounds pretty good is the Full ARH system but I don't know if I want to mess with the entire R exhaust like that. It'd be a pain to have an entire stock exhaust setup taking up way too much space in the garage.

I definitely agree with you that the exhaust sounds MUCH different with the blower. I had the car bone stock for a little bit before the whipple and when I got it back its like I did some sort of exhaust mod as well it SCREAMS now with the whipple on there. Sounds like my best bet is to just leave the stock exhaust alone and enjoy it how it is. The stock exhaust is pretty phenomenal as is, maybe I'm just bored because of the quarantine lmao. Thanks again for the information!

 

[madlag]

Thanks for the information man. Yeah wow it definitely seemed like a journey to get the exhaust to your liking. I have heard gt350's with headers and catless x pipe with resonator delete and I just can't seem to get myself to think that sounds better than stock. Only think I have heard that sounds pretty good is the Full ARH system but I don't know if I want to mess with the entire R exhaust like that. It'd be a pain to have an entire stock exhaust setup taking up way too much space in the garage.

I definitely agree with you that the exhaust sounds MUCH different with the blower. I had the car bone stock for a little bit before the whipple and when I got it back its like I did some sort of exhaust mod as well it SCREAMS now with the whipple on there. Sounds like my best bet is to just leave the stock exhaust alone and enjoy it how it is. The stock exhaust is pretty phenomenal as is, maybe I'm just bored because of the quarantine lmao. Thanks again for the information!

I agree with you completely. And, I'll add that this is a very unusual experience for me... just ask @alan0614 , I'm usually the first to help spend the shit out of other peoples money on car mods LOL. But in the is case, I just cant justify it. Hope I've helped you

 

[Cinco]

I have the Kooks, with their X pipe then stock OEM outback. Sounds really good, and I have no rasp.

I have this same setup, and sorry if this has been answered but I'm new to the game. I bought my GT350 Recently and it came with Kooks headers and Xpipe. Now my CEL keeps popping up due to an O2 sensor codes. Did you run into the same issue? Did you have to get a tune to fix it? Again sorry if this has been answered or is the wrong place to ask.

 

[madlag]

I have this same setup, and sorry if this has been answered but I'm new to the game. I bought my GT350 Recently and it came with Kooks headers and Xpipe. Now my CEL keeps popping up due to an O2 sensor codes. Did you run into the same issue? Did you have to get a tune to fix it? Again sorry if this has been answered or is the wrong place to ask.

Was the car tuned when the headers were put on? if so, you probably just need to replace that O2 sensor. Otherwise you may need to do an out of the box lund tune.

 

[Cinco]

Was the car tuned when the headers were put on? if so, you probably just need to replace that O2 sensor. Otherwise you may need to do an out of the box lund tune.

I believe it was tuned, but the car did not come with the actual tuner. I replaced both downstream sensors as those were the ones giving the fault. I was looking at tuners and was stuck between the SCT BDX and the nGauge. I wanted more of a handheld that you can stick in the glovebox so I was siding more towards the BDX. Thoughts? Also, thanks for the reply!

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