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So, you saw a cool looking exhaust pipe and said to yourself “yep, I’m so buying that, it’s going to make my Land Cruiser sound sick!”. Well, rad aesthetics aside, there is more to the exhaust system than just the looks and the sounds. The main purpose of the exhaust system is to let your vehicle breathe out all the gases it produces in its fuel combustion process.
Simple enough, all exhaust systems can do this, but some can perform better than others. For instance, most stock exhausts are made to be cheap, light and tiny. This is not to say that they are of poor quality, they’re just fine for the Average Joe driving around town.
However, if you want to take your Land Cruiser off-road and through more demanding terrain, you will need an aftermarket Toyota Land Cruiser exhaust system that’s performance-oriented. For the sake of reference, I’m going to talk about my experience with my own Land Cruiser exhaust system and how it gave my ride the much-needed step-up.
Key Performance Features on an Aftermarket Exhaust
Well, for starters, thanks to the aftermarket performance exhaust I got, my engine chokes a lot less. This may sound like a banal thing to the uninitiated, but Land Cruiser owners know how their hearts feel when they hear their engine choking, coughing and wheezing. Sometimes the issue is not having enough oil in your engine, but more often than not, it’s that the car is not expelling as much gas as it needs to run as smoothly as possible.
Stock exhausts do the job just fine at low city speeds, but once you reach the highway or an off-road track, things start to fall apart. This is where the aftermarket option shines. Thanks to the restriction-free exhaust flow and wider piping, the aftermarket Toyota Land Cruiser exhaust system turned my vehicle into a finely tuned machine of road mayhem.
Restriction-Free Exhaust Flow:
The aftermarket exhaust system manages to eliminate restrictions by forcing more air out of the engine, and faster too, to provide a smoother flow of exhaust gases. How does it do it though? By making the pipe mandrels bent, gas backpressure gets alleviated, creating a more continuous flow.
Wider Pipes:
Being made of a much stronger material such as stainless steel, gives aftermarket Land Rover exhausts the option of having wider pipes. The increased flow diameter means more gas can flow out, meaning backpressure gets reduced significantly.
Noise Canceling Resonator:
We all like a good growl now and then, but for the most part, we don’t want to make too much noise when travelling around populated areas or when going hunting with our Land Rover. Plus, too much noise coming out of the exhaust is illegal in Australia.
Most stock exhausts rarely feature a resonator, whose purpose is to eliminate finally tuned sound frequencies from the whole system and make your vehicle sound a lot calmer. With an aftermarket exhaust, you get to choose how loud or how silent you want your vehicle to be.
With all of that in mind, what are the performance improvements you can expect?
– An increase in power – A good Landcruiser exhaust can increase the power of up to 5%. Even though it doesn’t seem like a lot, trust me, this pays off in the long run. The engine suffers less wear and tear and performs a lot better, giving you that increase in power and torque.
– A decrease in fuel consumption – Simply put, all this extra horsepower has to go somewhere. You can either go faster at similar engine strains, or you can carry/pull/push more. If you’re not doing either, then the car doesn’t need to use its normal amount of fuel to go at previous speeds.
– Better sound – Whether you want it to be louder, or quitter, an aftermarket exhaust has got you covered.
– A slicker look – No doubt about it, a good exhaust can make your car classes above its factory counterparts. True, aesthetics isn’t really a “performance improvement”, but, if flame sticker logic is any indication, if your car looks cooler, then it’s obviously faster. Simple science!
Extra Performance Tips
Now that we’ve settled that, I assume you’re in a hurry to pick up your brand new exhaust system, but hold your horses. I’d be remised if I didn’t mention a few other tips to increase your vehicle’s output. In short, it goes like this:
– Use a cold air intake – A simple aftermarket addition to your car, it provides colder air to enter the ignition chamber. Cold air is denser and contains a lot more oxygen. When heated, air expands, and denser air means more air to expand. More oxygen means stronger combustion and more power transferred from combustion to the wheel.
– Install a performance chipset – This is an onboard tiny computer that can adjust the gas combustion ratio, timing, anti-lock brakes, etc. It works best with modern vehicles due to their abundant sensors, but older models can also install a chipset though it may cost extra.
– Reduce weight – If you really want to increase your car performance, cutting the weight is definitely a way to go. A lighter car is a faster car, so if it’s more speed you’re after, replacing a couple of heavy parts with lighter alternatives, losing the extra seats and finally cleaning out your trunk will give you a noticeable nudge up!
