I've only had my 99 for a week or two and whilst it's in excellent condition having done only 110,000 Ks the performance was nothing special, the motor I believed needing a good mechanic to look it over and getting it running a bit sweeter, it had the normal idle drop, it didn't start first crank, and I suspected a possible cracked engine mount.
Grateful of the advice I received from this forum I had a new exhaust fitted today by Town & Country in Geelong West, a 1 1/4 hour drive but I was OK with that due to the recommendations. The staff there was great and showed me each of the parts to be fitted before they started which I thought was a nice touch. I got the steel hi-flow cat which is a really trick, a resonator, mild steel piping and a free flow sports stainless steel muffler. They only took a few hours to fit and the system looked great, all neatly done, the piping painted in black which made the polished stainless muffler look even better.
I could see the staff there were dying for me to hear it, so much so they couldn't wait for me start it so they offered to start it for me ! Wow, from the first second I was blown away, my shy little MX had found a strong healthy voice that put a big smile on my face ! It was quite a bit louder than I'd expected as I hadn't gone for headers, but it was what I would have hoped for had I. The sound was a lot deeper and sweeter than my old 90 that had commercial extractor/sports exhaust on it, and I was dying to take it for a drive to see if it preformed half as good as it sounded ! Forum member pcmx5 had kindly offered to meet me down there and show me his clubman and I took him with me for the test drive. Immediately I noticed the sharpness and smoothness of the throttle response, something that had sadly been missing, taking off it was immediate noticeable that she had more power as well as a seriously cool note. I really was very much surprized at the difference it made, it really transformed the car, it now feels and sounds like a real sports car. pcmx5 drive it back to Town & Country and I think he was impressed too.
I greatly enjoyed the trip back to Melbourne, sans the stereo which could never match the sounds coming from the exhaust pipe
It was interesting to feel the difference in the engine on the way back and luckily I had the highway much to myself so I was able to do some acceleration and power load tests and it just felt so strong and responsive. A couple of times I had to slow to 60 for road works and leaving it in 5th I accelerated back to 100 with just a smooth surge of power that sounded amazing At 100 k's in 5th (3,150 rpm) there was no hint of any droning, just sweet music. The thing that has me baffled is the idle dip has gone, the harshness of the engine is gone !. The only thing that I still need to get looked at is the starting which still isn't as good as I'd like, I'm use to my cars starting on the first fire every time. Oh, and to check out the engine mounts.
I'm just sad I didn't get a pre/post dyno check as was suggested but I honestly thought the engine wasn't quite up to it at the moment. I would have to believe it has been a sizable power & torque improvement, the difference in driveability is that great. I won’t do any more mods to the engine till I can get it on a dyno as I'm sure pcmx5 & the guys at Town & Country are just as curious as me as to what she's putting out now.
A big thanks to everyone who gave me their advice, especially pcmx5 and the staff at Town & Country, I couldn't be happier
toymx5
