Where can I find a 2.25 inch exhaust system for my first gen 22re 1986 4runner?

 

Pacesetter, doug thorley, lc engineering, & hedman come to mind...

Search is your friend.

 

What are you looking for. A certain sound? Performance?

What most people do are fully custom exhaust done by a shop.

This is what I've noticed from all my exhaust. I've found that these trucks perform best with a 2 1/4 pipe from the header to the muffler. From the muffle back I'd stay with a 2" pipe.

Are you running a header or manifold?

I personally like my TriY header better then any other type. As for muffler, I love the 30 series flowmaster. It's really deep and no drone if running a tail pipe.

 

I want it to be real loud and some performance. Right now I have stock manifold but Ill have lc headers next week

 

take a straight pipe off the header and put a cheapo glass pack on it and dump it in front of the rear tire or above the axle, you wont be able to even talk while the truck is running I had a glass pack off the end of my header on my celica and you could talk hardly at idle but its good performance wise atleast butt dyno anyway

 

I would go with a custom exhaust .

You don`t need to go loud to get your best performance.

Why attract attention unless you like being pulled over.

 

^ this is what you're looking for.

I had to drive my truck 5 miles with basically an open header (downpipe cut off before o2 sensor/front of crossmember) to the exhaust shop after my CAT was stolen. It sounded great at idle but like poo poo when above 2k RPMs. Didn't have any power either due to no back pressure or frequency dampening from muffler. I would at least make pipe as long as the drivetrain is and put some sort of muffler on it, like a glass pack or straight through turbo muffler(quieter) ought to do it for some back pressure and would be loud depending on how long you go.

Since you got LCE header which is 4-1 header you will need some sort of back pressure if making a really short exhaust before rear axle - especially if you want any power at normal RPMs, so keep it in mind. 4-1 header is good for high rpms like racing applications. Stock is 4-2-1 design which gives back pressure for lower rpm driving (stop/go, trails, etc)

Your only option besides a stock replacement will be custom via a shop or DIY.

 

If you're looking for performance at 2.25", you'll want to go prefab as that's the best way to get mandrel bends -- unless you want to go custom by having your custom exhaust shop buy a bunch of mandrel bends someone else produced and then weld them together for you...

Point being, just a handful of exhaust shops nationally can mandrel bend exhaust with diameters of less than 2.5" (most mandrel shops are 3"+ and cater to the big diesel crowd...) And mandrel bends are IMO the single best way to remove restrictions from your exhaust system (especially the jog over our rear axles) with replacing a 20 year old cat with a new high flow one. Headers are the last piece, but least important IMO.

For catbacks, Pacesetter is aluminized steel while LC Engineering is stainless. If you're in areas prone to rust, go with the latter -- or you can paint your pacesetter after installed (you don't want paint inside of any of your slip joints and until fitting the system and if wanting to weld some sections together, it makes the most sense to wait).

For performance headers, Thorley are ceramic coated, not sure about Hedman. LC Engineerings I don't think are ceramic, but they are stainless like their catback I believe...

 

it's your truck, but i think you will get get tired of excessive noise if you drive for any length of time.

i have a 2.5" system with a turbo muffler and headers.
sounds throaty but not too loud. can't hear it above about 45 mph, worked and sounded good with the 22r before the swap.
link in my sig to hear.
think long term, i am coming up on the 200k miles mark i have driven my truck after buying it with 88k miles.

 

You don't need a kit, you need to go to an exhaust shop. That's the easiest and best way to go.

 

unless you can weld go to a shop

 

My point is that by buying a kit you know it's mandrel bent. Mandrel bent exhaust has, on average, 25% more area and at least +10% hp gains over a crushed exhaust (net +5-6% total hp gains).

You can still have a shop install it for you, including adding flanges, but you're damned sure of the quality of the diameter of your exhaust, etc. Finding a good exhaust shop is hard...

Dollar for dollar, the slight cost increase for mandrel bent over crushed will ultimately be one of, if not the most cost effective power mods on rig.

 

^true, but on a 90hp 22re you're not going to see enough of a gains to justify paying the difference in price because the engine simply won't go there without many other mods to the engine - and most of us aren't doing circle-track with our rigs, we're driving them slow on trails. there are not many upgraded exhaust kits for the 22re on the market, and when you do find one, it's significantly more expensive than just having a custom job done at a shop. also, if you have mandrel bends you can get away with a 2" exhaust. reason why everyone gets 2.25" exhaust for their 22re is because of the fact most shops don't have mandrel bender, so increase slightly in diameter to compensate. works for pretty much 95% of the upgraded 22re exhausts and they're not complaining simply upgrading your stock exhaust to larger diameter will be a HUGE upgrade, especially if you're eliminating your stock restrictive CAT and muffler for straight-through versions

 

Check with LCE to see what they have for 4Runners. That's the only company that I would think MAY have exhaust for your truck.

Your best bet is to have your local exhaust shop build you one or build it yourself. I just barely finished up my exhaust today. I used a Trail Gear Rock Ripper stainless header, 2.5" braided steel flex pipe (to lessen the exhaust movement on the headers/head - most modern trucks utilize these), aluminized steel 2.25" piping and Thrush Welded muffler. Everything is welded together with the welds ground flat. I'll eventually paint the piping and muffler with John Deere black muffler paint (a friend of mine used it with excellent results and durability). I used 2 crush bent 45* elbows to tuck muffler up under the bed and 3/8" steel bar for hanger hooks. I know you can get marginally more power from mandrel bent piping, but with a 22R you probably won't even notice a difference given the fact that the motors don't push that much air through. On a high performance V8, that's a different story. Besides, most local exhaust shops can't do mandrel bends on anything less than 2.5" piping. My exhaust ending up costing under $100 plus $348 for the header. Spending $250-500 more for a HP or two isn't worth it to me considering my truck will be a DD and not a hot rod.

Here's some pics for you:

 

for a second there i was like "6x6 wtf?" nice makeover...shiny!

 

Careful not to go to big, you'll lose low end power with a too free flowing exhaust. I've seen it many times.

 

Most people do not even change the front exhaust pipe and keep it at 2". In my opinion, for the 22RE 2.5" is too big, it doesn't have enough airflow to keep backpressure. I have the V6 and all the muffler shops I went to said not to go bigger than 2 1/4", so even more so for the 22's. I noticed a good increase in HP and MPG (if you care) by putting a Flowmaster muffler on, but it's not obnoxiously loud.

If you want some good opinions, just walk in the muffler shop and ask. They install mufflers of all kinds every day and can tell you right away which ones would have the sound you are looking for.