I said I wasn’t going to do it. I wanted to try and keep this car as low-key as possible, so I told myself I wasn’t going to add an exhaust. I spoke with Brian from Vermont Tuning about the performance benefits of an exhaust upgrade since he has a great deal of knowledge and experience with power upgrades on the Cruze, and surprisingly enough, he informed me that it wouldn’t do much. More reason NOT to do it. Why spend money on something you aren’t getting much benefit from? If you’re reading this, you know why!
I shouldn’t have, but I did. I think the biggest reason was to get rid of that massive, disgustingly giant monstrosity of a catalytic converter, not because it’s very restrictive, but because I hated looking at it.
ZZPerformance was the only company I could find that made a complete exhaust for the Cruze. They offer a mid-pipe section with or without a catalytic converter. I went ahead and ordered one with the cat. The kit comes with a Magnaflow muffler and all the piping and clamps included.
Probably the most challenging part of the stock exhaust removal was the downpipe with the massive cat on it. It has a few bolts that hold it in place, and one is difficult to access. Also, the factory pipes are welded into the muffler, so those needed to be cut to get the muffler out.
The installation was pretty straightforward. I ordered a new seal and clamp where the downpipe attaches to the turbo and gaskets for the mid-pipe because they are not included with the ZZP kit. The key to the installation is to get all the clamps snug but not tight. Then, you can twist and adjust the pipes to get everything tucked up where you want it.
The clamps that are provided by ZZP are decent, but not the best. They keep the pipes from slipping out but don’t keep them from twisting. I have mine as tight as I can get them, and the pipe going over the rear crossmember has dropped down and started rattling on the crossmember. I would recommend having a custom exhaust shop do the installation so they can weld the pipes together that are accessible, then slot and clamp the ones that can’t be welded (see images). The slot will allow the outer pipe to be pinched on the inner pipe, preventing it from twisting.
I have an RS model, so the exhaust tip doesn’t quite fit well with the extended bumper cover. I took it to Robert’s Custom Exhaust so that he could modify the tip for me. I wanted it to be a little more stealthy in the factory location. Robert did the exhaust on my Saturn race car, and his work is outstanding. He is one of the best in the business, in my opinion.
Overall, I was pretty pleased with ZZP’s setup. It has a reasonably deep tone and is not very obnoxious once you get to cruzing speed. Ha, see what I did there?
DS
