I am looking into buying a cat back exhaust and have found a system on jack it.com it is a jba cat back and I was wondering how it sounded and fitted to the vehicle any help would be great thanks guys.

 

I got a JBA catback from ajusa.com for under $300 shipped for my '98 4Runner with the 3.4. It may have been a fluke, but I needed another clamp other than what was included in the kit (easy, picked it up at a parts store), and I needed to dig up some hardware for the O2 sensor and the flange to the cat. On the stock exhaust, the O2 sensor mounts on studs, and the JBA piece just has threaded holes. I ended up needing to grind off the bolts in the flange between the cat and the pipe to the muffler, so I needed to dig up some new hardware for that as well. Also, I don't know if I'm inexperienced with exhaust, I got a funky kit, or if this is just how the kit is, but the inlet to the muffler was far too large to even begin to seal with just the clamp. I ended up using a sawzall to cut four notches in the inlet tube, bending it down to size, using some muffler tape then clamping it to get it to mount and seal. Other than these couple problems, fit and finish is great - good welds, hangers match up well, and the polished tip looks great.

Regarding sound - it sounds great. It has good tone, it's not too loud, and gives nice burbly details that are lost in the stock muffler. Inside, you don't hear those nice details though, just the tone. While it's not extremely loud, there's an odd loud resonance between 1500 and 2000rpm, especially under load.

I'd try to get some pictures and video/sound clips, but my truck is dirty and I'm busy trying to pack it up so I can ship it out to school tomorrow.

 

have a GOOD/non-midas muffler shop weld up a 2.25" or 2.5" catback with a magnaflow, flowmaster, or cherry bomb muffler. it's only $200-$300 and will sound great.

i have a 2.5" catback with a flowmaster 40 muffler.. cost me $180... and i love it!

 

The JBA system is quite affordable as well - I got mine for $300 shipped. Not bad for 304 stainless.

 

I tried to mount the 40-9010 JBA EVOL cat-back on my 97 last week and there must be a bad bend in my kit because the muffler does not come even close to lining up with the hangers. The angle of the tubing coming off the back of the cat puts the muffle way too low to reach the hanger. I also have the same problem with the size match between the muffler and the tubing. Cranking down very hard with a good 1/2" drive ratchet on the supplied clamp and the muffler will still just slid off the tubing. I have already emailed JBA and they want a pic of the parts. If the tubing from the cat to the muffler and the muffler to tip are both 2 1/4" why was there a need to use a 2 1/2" muffler? I had planned on clamping is up tight and them taking the whole thing off as one piece and having it welded up all the way around at a good welding shop where they would actually use the correct SS rod for it, not just the the cheapest crap they can find for carbon/mild steel like a muffler shop uses.

 

I emailed JBA Friday to ask them about this and received a response this morning. I'm inclined to think it was a fluke based on their response, but who knows.

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Date: Mon, 8 Sep 2008 07:28:39 -0700
From: Alex Conger <aconger@jbaheaders.com>
To: ed@************.com
Subject: RE: Online Customer Irquiry

Bung for O2 sensor has 2 studs. System is 2 1/4", expanded at ends to
accomodate 2 1/2" muffler. Be careful what you read on the internet. I am
glad you took the time to check with us.
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Just FYI for anyone else out there. Would still love to hear a clip of the exhaust though.

-e

 

I got mine while they were just developing them and it came as a perfect fit. I had mine switched in about half an hour. The fit was seamless. Used all stock clamp locations and everything. Mine came with a K&N muffler because they didn't have their own yet. It sounds great with increased horsepower and torque and decreased engine temps.
From my experience I would recomend the JBA Evol kit for sure.
Or just have an exhaust shop custom make one, that would be good too.
About the same price.