So, I bought a Stromung....

[1 Lucky Texan]

....muffler and am considering attaching an '06 WRX wagon to it someday. (whenever it comes in - they tell me week of the 23rd? or sooner!)

What, if any, would be the correct torque for the flange bolts?

 

tia

 

Carl

[Setright]

48Nm.

 

 

More info coming....

[Setright]

Back already! I would strongly recommend that you buy some stainless steel bolts, nuts, and washers to fit the new exhaust. Looks tidy, and if you get tired of the noise, swapping back to the original is a cinch. I do this for long trips :-)

 

Even if you choose to ignore that advice, PLEASE get a hold of this type of gasket:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Its all metal, does NOT need any Firegum to seal, and the best part is that it wont cause warping of the flanges. The normal gasket has the metal ring, but the rest is soft material and this allows the ends of the flanges to pull in and distort. If that makes sense?

 

For the same reason - avoid distortion - resist the temptation to torque higher than 48Nm. It doesn´t seem like much, but its plenty. There might be a tiny leak when you first start the engine, but once you run the car and get the exhaust hot, the gasket will mold into shape.

 

Aren´t you glad some has been down this road before you??? :-)

[1 Lucky Texan]

Back already! I would strongly recommend that you buy some stainless steel bolts, nuts, and washers to fit the new exhaust. Looks tidy, and if you get tired of the noise, swapping back to the original is a cinch. I do this for long trips :-)

 

Even if you choose to ignore that advice, PLEASE get a hold of this type of gasket:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Its all metal, does NOT need any Firegum to seal, and the best part is that it wont cause warping of the flanges. The normal gasket has the metal ring, but the rest is soft material and this allows the ends of the flanges to pull in and distort. If that makes sense?

 

For the same reason - avoid distortion - resist the temptation to torque higher than 48Nm. It doesn´t seem like much, but its plenty. There might be a tiny leak when you first start the engine, but once you run the car and get the exhaust hot, the gasket will mold into shape.

 

Aren´t you glad some has been down this road before you??? :-)

 

I will need to more closely examine the gasket and hardware sent with the muffler! Um, anti-seize or not on the bolts?

 

And yes, I can understand the issue with possibly bowing the flanges out-of-parallel especially with the mixed material gasket - though I hadn't considered it until you mentioned it.

 

Glad I asked about the torque.

 

Thanx

 

Carl

[Setright]

Sure, a bit of copper antiseize on the threads. Electroplated / galvanised bolts will rust, due to the temp stress.

[MDW25gt]

Try a Borla header in front of it. It completes the install and sounds great.

 

Very nice.

[1 Lucky Texan]

Well, the install went OK. The Stromung seems to be built very well. Some of the weld seems are very narrow - but they appear even and solid. The flange is thicker than the stock unit. The looks are very good. It could perhaps be very slightly moved more outboard, but the trailer hitch may be causing a slight illusion. It does clear the hitch quite well. Probably no more likely to ever hit/rub than stock. The sound is probably even better than I had expected! I'm very happy. Idling, a trip around the neighborhood and a run on the highway with windows down, up and radio on. all were just what I wanted. VERY deep rumble, never tinny/clattering. It wasn't cheap, and I doubt there's much performance improvement - but now the car has an appropriate sound.

 

Also, props to Dale at boxer4racing, he made me feel very confident about the purchase with several emails.

 

And thanx for the great help from the Forum too!

[Setright]

I love it when a plan comes together!

 

 

Please tell me, which gasket did you use??

[1 Lucky Texan]

I love it when a plan comes together!

 

 

Please tell me, which gasket did you use??

 

Well, do I tell you what you want to hear, or the truth?

 

Yeah, the gasket that came with it seemed to have some kind of metallized/fibrous material with the metal ring in the center. In all fairness, the stock gasket seemed the same - not sure though. The supplied bolts were better than stock so I used them instead of re-using the stock ones. I did use copper based sealant. Oh, and to additionally disappoint my mentor, with the equipment on hand I was unable to use the torque wrench, so I swithced to 3/8" drive breaker and used heavy/medium-heavy force by hand.

 

sorry

 

Carl

[Setright]

Nothing to be sorry about ;-)

 

I guess I am the strange person. How many other people do you know that swap the muffler round for short and long trips?

[1 Lucky Texan]

Nothing to be sorry about ;-)

 

I guess I am the strange person. How many other people do you know that swap the muffler round for short and long trips?

 

Actuallyt, that idea sounded good to me. And if this muffler were a little louder - I'd probably keep my stocker and do as you do for longer trips. But, we usuallly take the Outback when we travel, and , hopefully, my stock muffler will sell to someone and I can recover a little of the cost of the sport muffler. I think, if I had lifted the car more and reversed one of the bolts, I might've gotten the torque wrench on both of them. I didn't trust using it on just one - prefering the symmetry of having them face the same way and using my own power for both sides. Perhaps a smaller torque wrench (3/8" drive?) would have cleared the heat shield? I dunno. Fortunately also, the Stromung flange was an excellent match - seemed perfectly parallel, so that gave me some confidence as well. If it is leaking I cannot detect it.

 

the twin tips look good too - and no clearance issues with the sube hitch.