FR/Borla exhaust observations

Thank for all the great information and support from Borla, I am planning to acquire one of the ATAK systems soon for my 350

I just finished installing The FP by Borla.

As most already have talked about I ran into the same kind of issues

First for the good:

The sound is good, basically what I wanted and the volume I wanted. It slightly increased the flat planeness and upper rpm tone. Valves closed the exhaust sounds better too.

The bad: alignment isnt good. I could have taken more time but I was doing the job at home on jackstands. It seems you can only line up one of the two tips on either side and the other would be off. I can see from a mass manufacturing point of view since the tips are hidden within the valance tips I fear borla didn't pay as much attention to this area in development. I understand from an ROI point of view.

I won't talk too much about it, I guess I sort of expected what I got. I'm lukewarm on the product. Not thrilled, but not excited.

In hindsight, I should have probably paid an additional $1500-2000 to have Unobtanium Welding build me a custom titanium unit. Part of going catback was for the weight savings and the borla unit is 10lbs lighter.

Using my unscientific bathroom scale, OEM was 62lbs and borla 52lbs.

Over and out.

EDIT: Forgot to add that some of the MIG welds I could have done myself and I've never welded. Fairly sloppy but I just hope the penetration is good. Tons of slag left over. Furthermore, I'm well aware of TIG vs MIG. I wasnt expecting super tight TIG, but this MIG is like year one apprentice stuff. Haha. It is hidden under the car, no one will see it.

Shouldn't be any slag as Borla has to be using gas and not a flux core wire on their MIG machines. Spatter, yeah there is some but as long as the penetration is good all is well.

Has anyone received a borla exhaust for this car and NOT have any alignment issues as far as tips go? Its a serious question, not sarcastic by any means.

UnhandledException said:

Has anyone received a borla exhaust for this car and NOT have any alignment issues as far as tips go? Its a serious question, not sarcastic by any means.

Click to expand...

I think I can get the tips aligned to perhaps 80% satisfaction. I'll need another pair of hands and a lift.

Now as I said above, since the tips sit within the factory valance tips there was little return to take more time with them. You can't notice them while driving and other drivers won't notice.

However now that I've digested my exhaust for a night I'll honestly and confidently say it's overpriced. Based on previous exhausts it's about $500-1000 too much.

My other previous exhaust I bought was a catback 3" full race (company name) for a civic $600. It was as good quality as the borla. No valves, but valves are cheap.

For completeness, it looks like Borla has continued to improve the design on this exhaust system. I purchased and installed a Ford Racing Borla exhaust system (largely based on this review), and have the opportunity to update a few changes.

The box is fixed; July 7 2017 manufacture date, no change to the instruction manual.



It didn't look like major changes...



...the big change is the x-pipe




I'm still working through a couple heat cycles, but the clamps appear to be holding the muffler in place without allowing rotation at the rated 35 ft lbs torque. I had no toubles aligning the muffler tips in the valence, so maybe the bend changed a little bit on later releases.

As many times before, thanks for the detailed review.

Hmm. So why the change?

What about existing customers that just purchased a couple months prior?

Lastly, it's good to see Ford performance finally getting the label right and reading Gt350 exhaust and not mustang GT.

mkonrad said:

For completeness, it looks like Borla has continued to improve the design on this exhaust system. I purchased and installed a Ford Racing Borla exhaust system (largely based on this review), and have the opportunity to update a few changes.

The box is fixed; July 7 2017 manufacture date, no change to the instruction manual.

It didn't look like major changes...

...the big change is the x-pipe

I'm still working through a couple heat cycles, but the clamps appear to be holding the muffler in place without allowing rotation at the rated 35 ft lbs torque. I had no toubles aligning the muffler tips in the valence, so maybe the bend changed a little bit on later releases.

As many times before, thanks for the detailed review.

Click to expand...

Active exhaust? How's it sound?

Superb. Matt, a huge thanks for sharing the changes that have been made.

A big thanks to Borla for listening.

I pulled my Borla system to access the driveshaft and put everything back in today. It really is a robust system and I'm thankful for the attention to detail.

I don’t see where Dave ever came back to address the different x pipe.