Dec 8, 2019
448
273
VetteCoins
8,478
The one thing I absolutely hate about my C8 is the Z51 exhaust system. 90% of the time driving in the city, I hear the lifters and fuel injectors more than the actual exhaust. Today, I drove a friend’s C8 with the paragon exhaust system, and all I can say is wow. It completely changed the car for me and I cannot express how enjoyable it was to drive.

Does anyone know any shops that carry these? I can get it shipped from Paragon’s website to my US address for $2,300 USD.
 
The one thing I absolutely hate about my C8 is the Z51 exhaust system. 90% of the time driving in the city, I hear the lifters and fuel injectors more than the actual exhaust. Today, I drove a friend’s C8 with the paragon exhaust system, and all I can say is wow. It completely changed the car for me and I cannot express how enjoyable it was to drive.

Does anyone know any shops that carry these? I can get it shipped from Paragon’s website to my US address for $2,300 USD.
Use Z mode and you get great sound. Make your own adjustment.:Woohoo:
 
The one thing I absolutely hate about my C8 is the Z51 exhaust system. 90% of the time driving in the city, I hear the lifters and fuel injectors more than the actual exhaust. Today, I drove a friend’s C8 with the paragon exhaust system, and all I can say is wow. It completely changed the car for me and I cannot express how enjoyable it was to drive.

Does anyone know any shops that carry these? I can get it shipped from Paragon’s website to my US address for $2,300 USD.
Try Davenport Motorsports in Calgary. They have a good rep. I ordered my C6 exhaust shipped to me from RaceReady Garage in Ontario and installed myself. Install might be trickier with the C8 though.
 
My exhaust is always in track. You hear it intermittently. Almost like something flapping in the wind on the left side
Ah….must be annoying. I have never noticed it but I have a coupe and have yet to remove the lid. Windows down only so far. But while checking the oil for an example I don’t hear anything like what you are describing, not to say you’re hearing things… ;)
 
The one thing I absolutely hate about my C8 is the Z51 exhaust system. 90% of the time driving in the city, I hear the lifters and fuel injectors more than the actual exhaust. Today, I drove a friend’s C8 with the paragon exhaust system, and all I can say is wow. It completely changed the car for me and I cannot express how enjoyable it was to drive.

Does anyone know any shops that carry these? I can get it shipped from Paragon’s website to my US address for $2,300 USD.

Why don't you ask your friend ffs. He was right beside you in the passenger seat lol. On a side note, the stock/Z51 exhaust sucks...
 
As a mechanical engineer who has worked in the industry, I'd tend to be very selective about aftermarket exhausts for the C8, and I think there are only 2 exhaust types I'd fit to my C8: OEM, Borla.

The factory performance exhaust was designed and built by a German company called Tenneco, and it was very well designed from the aspects of durability, heat shielding, noise. With the valves open IIRC it barely comes in under most legal noise limits. If you like louder? That's fine... The factory flex joints are designed to take years of use, whereas many "universal" flex joints as used on a lot of aftermarket exhausts have not been designed for the specific bending moments of the C8, which could in turn reduce reliability. A lot of work went into the heat shielding on the OEM exhausts because heat management is an issue on the C8. Many aftermarket exhaust manufacturers will claim their exhaust are just fine without heat shielding, but wiring harnesses and hoses sometimes take years to rot out due to heat exposure. Fine on a race car, your choice if you drive in stop and go traffic with everything getting heat soaked, and you're keeping the C8 long term. Finally performance, a lot of aftermarket companies claim performance gains and weight savings, however in the real world after the ECU readjusts a lot of times gains will be less than initially present at installation, and marginal at best over the factory performance exhaust. Most weight savings are due to a lack of heat shielding.

Borla is the only aftermarket company that I know of that has put the time and engineering into designing exhausts for the C8 that match OEM requirements for heat shielding, and flex joint durability, and IIRC Borla makes the only aftermarket exhaust option offered by GM for the C8.

Some info on the engineering that went into the factory performance exhaust:

Borla videos on the C8 exhaust where David Borla discusses the challenges in meeting OEM specs, and how they were able to do it on their own exhausts:



Any other companies taking the same care and attention to detail as Tenneco or Borla to ensure long term reliability?
 
Last edited:
As a mechanical engineer who has worked in the industry, I'd tend to be very selective about aftermarket exhausts for the C8, and I think there are only 2 exhausts types I'd fit to my C8: OEM, Borla.

The factory performance exhaust was designed and built by a German company called Tenneco, and it was VERY well designed from the aspects of durability, heat shielding, noise. With the valves open IIRC it BARELY comes in under most legal noise limits. If you like louder? That's fine... The factory flex joints are designed to take years of use, whereas many "universal" flex joints as used on a lot of aftermarket exhaust will fail after several years. A LOT of work went into the heat shielding on the OEM exhausts. Many aftermarket exhaust manufacturers will claim no issue, but wiring harnesses and hoses take years to rot out due to heat exposure. Fine on a race car, your choice if you're keeping the C8 long term. Finally performance, a lot of aftermarket companies claim performance gains and weight savings, however in the real world after the ECU readjusts a lot of times gains will be less than initially present at installation, and marginal at best over the factory performance exhaust. Most weight savings are due to a lack of heat shielding.

Borla is the ONLY company that I know of that has put the time and engineering into designing exhausts for the C8 that match OEM requirements for heat shielding, and flex joint durability, and IIRC Borla makes the only aftermarket exhaust option offered by GM for the C8.

Some info on the engineering that went into the factory performance exhaust:

Borla videos on the C8 exhaust where David Borla discusses the challenges in meeting OEM specs, and how they were able to do it on their own exhaust:



Any other companies taking the same care and attention to detail as Tenneco or Borla to ensure long term reliability?

Perplexity says the same thing.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Vettenut
Old Thread: Hello . There have been no replies in this thread for at least 100 days.
Content in this thread may no longer be relevant.
Perhaps it would be better to start a new thread instead.

Similar threads

Users who are viewing this thread