B&B Fusion exhaust install and impressions lots of pics
07-31-2011, 10:49 PM
#1
Melting Slicks
Thread Starter
B&B Fusion exhaust install and impressions lots of pics
I finally completed my install of the B&B fusion system on my C5. Everything except for a good follow-up realignment of the tips. I thought I’d share my experiences
The over axle pipes and mufflers install like any other exhaust.
This exhaust also has the vacuum system to open and close a pair of butterfly valves on the inner two tips, this gives it the bi mode operation.
The instructions that come with the kit explain to pull the 90* elbow off the AC vacuum port on the back of the intake manifold. I hadn’t planned to do this at all, but after cutting my hand up and not making any progress I decided the only way that was going to get done and make me feel confident there wouldn’t be any vacuum leaks was going to be to pull the manifold off. I suppose its possible to do this without removing it, but it looks damn near impossible to me. It didn’t have to come off completely, just had to move it forward a couple of inches to get clearance. Although this required pulling the vacuum lines off the throttle body, disconnecting all 8 fuel injectors, disconnecting the intake and the electrical connectors from the throttle body, and the fuel line itself.
Here is the vacuum connection, most will add a short length of vacuum line to the back of the TB because the HVAC connection is so tight, this system’s connection provides this function as well, makes it easier to get on and off in the future.
With the connection made you need to drop the vacuum line down and find it below the car. I carefully routed it around behind the AC lines and some other wires to keep it far away from the exhaust manifolds
After doing this once I never want to do it again! I didn’t feel comfortable with how close the vacuum line was sitting to the exhaust, so I managed to run a wire tie in a factory hole in the frame and out another, so I had something to wrap around to hold the vacuum line safely above the exhaust
After this point some fishtape pulled it through the tunnel.
After the tunnel the line follows the emergency brake cable up over the transmission, and differential and into the rear of the car.
Now, the instructions that come with the fusion system say to mount the vacuum accumulator box side the car, in the center storage compartment and the vacuum lines pass through holes you have to drill in the storage compartment. So it would permanently occupy a portion of that storage area
1) No
2) I have a subwoofer there, so refer to point #1
So I had to get creative. I thought about possible alternate mounting locations. I didn’t realize the instructions told me to put it there until after I had it in hand. Turns out I had always been looking at the C6 instructions when I was shopping for exhausts, they say the accumulator mounts to the back of the wheel well.
I had an idea, so I tested it out. The vacuum accumulator panel fits perfectly through one of the tail lights, and theres a lot of room in there. I had found my mounting location.
I had to remove a couple of mounts for the factory wiring harness that plug into the bumper, I drilled a hole in the accumulator panel to relocate the mount. Then located and drilled and tapped 4 ¼-20 holes in the bumper. Before mounting the accumulator I put a large bead of silicone over the holes, so it will be sealed in to prevent any moisture from resulting in rust on the steel bumper.
The vacuum lines below the car were in an almost perfect location to follow the stock wiring harness for the tail lights up between the frame and the passenger’s side tub area. The smaller vacuum line for the actuators had about 8” of line to reach the accumulator, since mine was a bit farther away I added a 3ft length of line that I bought for $0.99/ft at my local autozone. Since both lines needed to go to the same place I passed them both along the path taken by the stock wiring
The vacuum lines plug into the vacuum accumulator, one to the accumulator vessel and one to the vacuum switch. Now all that’s left is electrical.
If you follow the instructions you’ll end up with a remote controlled system, so when you want to make your exhaust louder you have to fumble around in the cockpit looking for the muffler remote. Awkward! Plus I hooked it up and tested it, the system resets every time it loses power. Its kind of backwards, if you turn it “on” it goes into quiet auto mode (loud at high throttle, quiet at low, this is the vacuum controlled mode) or the “off” mode is the loud all the time mode. So each time you start the car its always loud. It has no way to stay in quiet mode, you can’t just set it and forget it until you want a change. Not my style. Also, the power is supposed to use an add a fuse type connection in the instrument panel electrical center. This requires a wire to snake through the fuses and either the cover won’t it or you have to drill a hole. And the fuse you are supposed to tap, the BCM’s ignition in put (one of 3)
1) No
2) …well, just no. not on my car.
Testing it on a bench all that needs to happen is 12V across the vacuum switch will perform the changeover, so I hooked up a switch mounted into my switch panel and powered by a switched ignition source. I left out the entire remote control system, I’d never use it, so why bother?
My ultimate goal would be to relocate this switch to the TC/AH panel once I remove the F45 suspension and have room on the panel for other switches. For now it’s in my stereo/lights panel, and it will work just fine in there.
Impressions:
This thing is great! The B&B has a great sound to it. I love my Borla stingers also, but wanted this multi-mode system. I think I like this sound of this system even more. Although it is quieter, even in its loud mode its quieter than the stingers were.
I drove it in loud mode only for about 2 weeks before I went back in and finished the install enabling the vacuum system. So now I have something else to compare to. One thing I did notice about the B&B is even though its quieter, it drones…more than the borla! It even drones rather badly even at idle. The drone range seems smaller, it drones at 700rpm, then goes away, then it drones again at about 1500-1600, whereas the borlas droned from 1500-2000, even though it wasn’t quite this bad. But it was time to test the quiet mode. Had the car started, idling at 700, flipped the switch. It got quieter, not a large amount, I’d say it got just slightly quieter, the tone stayed the same, but the drone itself vanished in a fraction of a second! I was grinning by this point. Hit the switch again, drone returned. Back and the drone is gone. This is going to be great! While revving the car it sound pretty similar either way, just as loud when you hit the high RPMs. I took it around the block to test how much of a difference it would make in both modes. When driving along at 25 in 2nd at 2000 the difference in the sound is definitely noticeable, it’s a good amount quieter when in the auto mode. But the tone of the exhaust doesn’t change, just the volume. I can see myself keeping it in quiet mode when its too hot or cold to have the windows down, and in loud mode when I can have the top off. I’m really going to enjoy this exhaust!
One thing I really wish it had is a 3 mode system. It would be nice if I could command quiet, loud, or auto. But that’s just me!
The over axle pipes and mufflers install like any other exhaust.
This exhaust also has the vacuum system to open and close a pair of butterfly valves on the inner two tips, this gives it the bi mode operation.
The instructions that come with the kit explain to pull the 90* elbow off the AC vacuum port on the back of the intake manifold. I hadn’t planned to do this at all, but after cutting my hand up and not making any progress I decided the only way that was going to get done and make me feel confident there wouldn’t be any vacuum leaks was going to be to pull the manifold off. I suppose its possible to do this without removing it, but it looks damn near impossible to me. It didn’t have to come off completely, just had to move it forward a couple of inches to get clearance. Although this required pulling the vacuum lines off the throttle body, disconnecting all 8 fuel injectors, disconnecting the intake and the electrical connectors from the throttle body, and the fuel line itself.
Here is the vacuum connection, most will add a short length of vacuum line to the back of the TB because the HVAC connection is so tight, this system’s connection provides this function as well, makes it easier to get on and off in the future.
With the connection made you need to drop the vacuum line down and find it below the car. I carefully routed it around behind the AC lines and some other wires to keep it far away from the exhaust manifolds
After doing this once I never want to do it again! I didn’t feel comfortable with how close the vacuum line was sitting to the exhaust, so I managed to run a wire tie in a factory hole in the frame and out another, so I had something to wrap around to hold the vacuum line safely above the exhaust
After this point some fishtape pulled it through the tunnel.
After the tunnel the line follows the emergency brake cable up over the transmission, and differential and into the rear of the car.
Now, the instructions that come with the fusion system say to mount the vacuum accumulator box side the car, in the center storage compartment and the vacuum lines pass through holes you have to drill in the storage compartment. So it would permanently occupy a portion of that storage area
1) No
2) I have a subwoofer there, so refer to point #1
So I had to get creative. I thought about possible alternate mounting locations. I didn’t realize the instructions told me to put it there until after I had it in hand. Turns out I had always been looking at the C6 instructions when I was shopping for exhausts, they say the accumulator mounts to the back of the wheel well.
I had an idea, so I tested it out. The vacuum accumulator panel fits perfectly through one of the tail lights, and theres a lot of room in there. I had found my mounting location.
I had to remove a couple of mounts for the factory wiring harness that plug into the bumper, I drilled a hole in the accumulator panel to relocate the mount. Then located and drilled and tapped 4 ¼-20 holes in the bumper. Before mounting the accumulator I put a large bead of silicone over the holes, so it will be sealed in to prevent any moisture from resulting in rust on the steel bumper.
The vacuum lines below the car were in an almost perfect location to follow the stock wiring harness for the tail lights up between the frame and the passenger’s side tub area. The smaller vacuum line for the actuators had about 8” of line to reach the accumulator, since mine was a bit farther away I added a 3ft length of line that I bought for $0.99/ft at my local autozone. Since both lines needed to go to the same place I passed them both along the path taken by the stock wiring
The vacuum lines plug into the vacuum accumulator, one to the accumulator vessel and one to the vacuum switch. Now all that’s left is electrical.
If you follow the instructions you’ll end up with a remote controlled system, so when you want to make your exhaust louder you have to fumble around in the cockpit looking for the muffler remote. Awkward! Plus I hooked it up and tested it, the system resets every time it loses power. Its kind of backwards, if you turn it “on” it goes into quiet auto mode (loud at high throttle, quiet at low, this is the vacuum controlled mode) or the “off” mode is the loud all the time mode. So each time you start the car its always loud. It has no way to stay in quiet mode, you can’t just set it and forget it until you want a change. Not my style. Also, the power is supposed to use an add a fuse type connection in the instrument panel electrical center. This requires a wire to snake through the fuses and either the cover won’t it or you have to drill a hole. And the fuse you are supposed to tap, the BCM’s ignition in put (one of 3)
1) No
2) …well, just no. not on my car.
Testing it on a bench all that needs to happen is 12V across the vacuum switch will perform the changeover, so I hooked up a switch mounted into my switch panel and powered by a switched ignition source. I left out the entire remote control system, I’d never use it, so why bother?
My ultimate goal would be to relocate this switch to the TC/AH panel once I remove the F45 suspension and have room on the panel for other switches. For now it’s in my stereo/lights panel, and it will work just fine in there.
Impressions:
This thing is great! The B&B has a great sound to it. I love my Borla stingers also, but wanted this multi-mode system. I think I like this sound of this system even more. Although it is quieter, even in its loud mode its quieter than the stingers were.
I drove it in loud mode only for about 2 weeks before I went back in and finished the install enabling the vacuum system. So now I have something else to compare to. One thing I did notice about the B&B is even though its quieter, it drones…more than the borla! It even drones rather badly even at idle. The drone range seems smaller, it drones at 700rpm, then goes away, then it drones again at about 1500-1600, whereas the borlas droned from 1500-2000, even though it wasn’t quite this bad. But it was time to test the quiet mode. Had the car started, idling at 700, flipped the switch. It got quieter, not a large amount, I’d say it got just slightly quieter, the tone stayed the same, but the drone itself vanished in a fraction of a second! I was grinning by this point. Hit the switch again, drone returned. Back and the drone is gone. This is going to be great! While revving the car it sound pretty similar either way, just as loud when you hit the high RPMs. I took it around the block to test how much of a difference it would make in both modes. When driving along at 25 in 2nd at 2000 the difference in the sound is definitely noticeable, it’s a good amount quieter when in the auto mode. But the tone of the exhaust doesn’t change, just the volume. I can see myself keeping it in quiet mode when its too hot or cold to have the windows down, and in loud mode when I can have the top off. I’m really going to enjoy this exhaust!
One thing I really wish it had is a 3 mode system. It would be nice if I could command quiet, loud, or auto. But that’s just me!
The following users liked this post:
awsum97 (06-01-2016)
08-01-2011, 09:05 PM
#6
Former Vendor
Great write up!!
Thanks again for your business Mike
The delays from B&B on shipping sound to have been worth it!
Dennis
Thanks again for your business Mike
The delays from B&B on shipping sound to have been worth it!
Dennis
08-01-2011, 09:46 PM
#7
Melting Slicks
Thread Starter
B&B apprently had a problem with their die for oval tips. They said they trashed many blanks trying to get a good set. the final result was great but my order was out there for about a month and a half before I finally got them. no one's fault and no big deal. the wait was well worth it.
08-01-2011, 10:13 PM
#9
Team Owner
Member Since: Mar 2004
Location: Oklahoma City OK
Posts: 58,259
Received 1,675 Likes
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1,298 Posts
C6 of Year Finalist (appearance mods) 2019
Great write up!
12-17-2012, 03:42 PM
#10
Burning Brakes
BB fusion install
Thanks everyone! it was a fun project, and I'm really enjoying this exhaust! and definitely thanks to Dennis, he was my vendor of choice. great service and good prices.
B&B apprently had a problem with their die for oval tips. They said they trashed many blanks trying to get a good set. the final result was great but my order was out there for about a month and a half before I finally got them. no one's fault and no big deal. the wait was well worth it.
B&B apprently had a problem with their die for oval tips. They said they trashed many blanks trying to get a good set. the final result was great but my order was out there for about a month and a half before I finally got them. no one's fault and no big deal. the wait was well worth it.
