Upgrade Your C8 Corvette With A Killer New Exhaust System!

Hello everyone my name is Siran this is my 2021 Corvette C8 and as you can see I am going to be upgrading the

exhaust

system

on this car so this

exhaust

system

is built by 2m Fabrications they are a manufacturer and This exhaust system really caught my attention. when I read on one of the Corvette forums that they make exhausts for other companies like Paragon and when you look at this it looks almost identical to Paragon performance exhaust systems especially the Paragon Touring exhaust Paragon is a reseller they don't manufacture. their own exhaust systems, so I wouldn't be surprised if 2m Fabrications makes exhaust systems for other brands, so let's take a closer look at this new exhaust system.

Like I said, it looks almost identical to the Paragon Performance Touring version of their exhaust. it even has this resonator built in like the Paragon touring exhaust and if you look inside, I don't know if you can catch it on camera, but it's drilled on the inside so the welds look great on this exhaust system, but all the Para To me the wells look almost identical to Paragon as even the B clamps are identical and even the size of the exhaust tip so I went with the polished steel with the 2m one you have two options it's this one or black and with this exhaust system I also got the two simulators.

I am very impressed with the quality of these 2m manufacturing rear exhaust systems, they are made from TIG welded T304 stainless steel tubing and come with a lifetime warranty and the system is 50lbs lighter than the original in terms The cost of the 2m backup system is half of most exhaust systems, for example the Paragon Performance Touring exhaust which for me is identical to the 2000 us, this is about half the price. The 2m manufacturing produces high flow cats for the C8 which is very popular. Modification done by many C8 owners to give them that extra sound and performance without replacing their entire exhaust system.

The 2m build is well known for their high flow cats, but they don't get much attention for their rear exhaust system, so I went for it. Go ahead and give it a try but so far my initial thought is that I am very happy with the quality of the exhaust system packaging, it was perfect everything was included so like I said with 2m you only have two options for

your

exhaust tips exhaust: black or polished and I like the polished tips. I feel like it stands out much more than black. I think the black exhaust tips are a bit invisible, you don't even see them on this install.

I'm going to remove both. rear wheels just a couple of safety tips you guys should consider always use a jack stand when jacking up

your

car don't rely on your jack alone and don't forget to chalk the front wheels starting underneath the car we are going to remove These three bolts 7mm and do not remove them as they are not attached to the bumper and then repeat on the other side. Next, we need to remove both T15 screws. There are two on each side. Well, next we need to remove this plastic. piece here so just use a pry tool and it comes off pretty easily and then it looks like we have these two screws to remove both screws are seven and then repeat on the other side so we can go ahead and pull this wheel liner off. back, so inside the wheel liner, this is on the passenger side, there are two 7mm bolts and towards the rear, above that blue circle, there is a 10mm nut that needs to be removed, so There are those 10 mm that are very high.

It literally took me 10 minutes to get this out because there's so little room, so I find the tool that works best is to have a flexible extension like this and a piece here on the end, which is basically like a ratchet but without the handle. I found this is the only thing that worked. Now we can go ahead and remove these screws holding the bumper on. These are a T15 and there are 14 of these screws and then you can see there are two more, one on each side, so 16 in total. The bumper should be ready to remove from the car now.

I went ahead and put this stool under the bumper just to hold it up since I'm doing this alone so I had a hard time removing these connectors from the bumper so my advice. What I did was I just took a flathead screwdriver and I put it underneath and I just pried it up and then it came out. I tried pulling on it and it was there fine and it just wouldn't come off, so the trick was to just pry it up with a flathead screwdriver. I removed the bumper, it's just sitting on carpet and foam padding to prevent scratches.

There's a nice little Easter egg right there, that's the date this car was built, August 2, 2021, and I took delivery of my C on September 1, 2021, okay, we need to remove this mat , so I'm going to go ahead and remove this latch from the top of Target, they're held on by four T15 screws and then I'll repeat for the other side, then we can move on. and remove these latches with everything removed now we should be able to remove the carpet liner okay we have more screws to remove so we are going to have to remove all these screws with all those T15 screws removed we can move on. and remove this access panel, okay, now I can start removing this exhaust, so I'm going to start on the driver's side, so there are two nuts on the driver's side there and back here, and those are 15mm, the another one that is in the I left it for some reason, this one is very difficult to get out, so this one is very difficult for some reason.

This one I loosened initially and then I was able to remove it by hand, but in this one you can see how much I've already loosened it and even with my hand, even with my hand, I can't move it, it's there pretty good, okay, now I can get it, so on the passenger side there will be three bolts so you can see the two are here and the other one will be on the bottom these nuts are 13mm for some reason so the driver side is 15 and these are 13 oh wow, that's tight in there. Why is it so tight?

So it's there pretty good. I don't know why it has to be like this. Being as super tight as I said, uh, this one on the right side was extremely difficult to remove, it had to feel like 100 foot-pounds of torque to loosen it, so I'll try this one, yeah, super tight. Because? Okay, so I'm going to try this with my breaker bar, so I'm just going to loosen them up and then I'm going to work on the one at the bottom. Okay, on the passenger side, the nut underneath. It can be accessed from under the car, so that's what I'm doing now, so there's quite a bit of room accessing that nut from under the car and right under the driveshaft, so there's that bolt where you need to remove it. nut and so you can access it from under the car pretty easily, that's the last one with any aftermarket exhaust system on the C8 Corvette, you have to deal with the AFM modules, so these two cables here are for your AFM modules, so if you follow this It will go below and just above the exhaust, there is one right there and the other one is located right above, so we need to disconnect them.

This is the active fuel management module or AFM, so it needs to be removed when your vehicle comes out of 8 cylinder and 4 cylinder mode, you control this mechanism here, okay, like this, so the passenger side was super easy, the driver's side it looks like there is a lot less room that's what I'm trying to access if I had very skinny arms it might be I was able to get in there but I have a way it looks like I need to push this red tab on the back okay , so here's a good look at what you need to do so you can see that little green tab which is what locks the module. place it so that when you press this red tab it lifts up but it doesn't move much so what I did was take a flat head screwdriver and lift up the black tab so it lifts up and over the green tab and then it just pops out so we're making pretty good progress so far so I think what I can do now is remove these brackets for the exhaust and they're held on by a couple of 13mm bolts, it's coming down and I have my stool right under the exhaust in case It might want to fall off, but I can tell this exhaust has some weight at this point.

The only thing holding this escape. Sy, it's these hangers on the side, so there's the rubber. hanger I'm trying to remove lift the exhaust a little and pull, here we go so I think I've removed the exhaust completely now the only thing holding on is my stool, yeah it has some weight to it, super easy hey. If you have a rolling stool like this, removing this exhaust is definitely a one person job, get it out well so the exhaust is good. I think I'm going to call it a day right there, it's day two. I have the exhaust removed yesterday and my garage looks like a mess but that's okay.

I'm looking forward to today because I'm installing the new exhaust on the C8 Corvette; However, before we continue with the installation, there are a couple of things I want to address, one of what I want to do is darken these heat shields that go behind the tips and the reason for doing that is that the tips that I'm going to use are polished stainless steel and I want to have a really nice contrast with a black background with the chrome polish tips on the front so I'm going to continue cleaning both heat shields and painting them with some high temperature paint and the other thing I need to address They are AFM modules.

I want to make sure these heat shields are clean. before I put a coat of paint on it so I'm just going to spray it and wipe it clean it's a little dirty I taped it around the heat shields and put some paper around the areas I don't want to spray on excess, is it necessary? probably not, but I don't think it will hurt, so I'm going to go ahead and apply a few coats of matte black high temperature thermal paint. I think it's much cleaner and will give a better contrast to these new ones. new tips I want to see how strong this paint is that was on Max and it didn't bubble at all.

It was a bad idea, but it didn't bubble at all, so I'm pretty sure this paint will hold up because That's incredibly hot, so I painted those shields completely black and they look great, so that was one of the things that I need to address before I install the exhaust and the other thing I want to address is these wires here for the AFM module. so there's one here and then there's this one here. I don't like how they are here and exposed, so what I'm going to do is reroute these cables to a different area of ​​the car to make it much more accessible, so what I'm going to do first is disconnect this from the transmission that they're being held back. for these Christmas tree plugs and I'm going to redirect it.

I'll remove them from the stream and redirect. in the trunk on the passenger side, this is held by this Christmas tree plug and there's another clip up here, okay, on the driver's side it's held by what it looks like oh, there's a Christmas tree plug over there that's held on by a zip tie so let's remove this plug okay these wires here are for your AFM modules so I went ahead and removed them from the transmission so I'm going to fish them up there let's go okay perfect okay then These are the cables for the AFM module, so I think I'll install the modules right here.

I think this is a perfect place. I don't like how they were hanging off a transmission and kind of exposed and close to the exhaust system, I think here. It looks much cleaner if I ever need to repair these accesses much easier. I think going through the trunk instead of potentially removing the bumper and going under the vehicle because it's a big task, but it will be very easy to access in the future. If I need to service these modules and I think I'll protect them by having them away from the exhaust, plus I have this heat shield here that's perfect, so I'll build them up somehow.

This xpipe pattern so I'll zip tie them and then I think maybe I could just zip tie this whole harness to this heat shield and I think it's going to work great so let's try it so here are the AFM modules that come with a 2m manufacturing catback exhaust they look identical so I don't think there is a left and a right side so I think the install is pretty straight forward it just goes this way. I think it's like this, no, okay, like this, okay until I hear that click, okay, then this one is backwards, okay, that click is perfect, so I can put them together like this kind of quick time until there and I think it's going to look really nice and clean, okay, so I think I'll leave it. the Christmas tree plugs as they are in case you ever want to get back to the escape factor.

I'll have them on hand right there, so maybe I can start by joining these wires together with two holes here and two holes here and then. just run my zip ties through, I think it'll look really cool or you know, I could just tuck them under that way so it would work really well, now that I think about it, I could probably just tuck this under that way and I don't think that's going to go nowhere it's all thermal protection underneath so this could go in more so yeah I think this would workPretty good, so you know, I'll leave it at that.

I think he's perfect, oh. yeah, okay, I like it more this is really good. I don't think it's going anywhere. It is safe. It's right above this heat shield. It will be well protected. It will be easy to get to if I ever need it. Yeah I think it's perfect so yeah much cleaner IMO do it this way now that I've painted the heat shields are black and since I've rerouted those AFM modules to put them under this coating right here I'm ready to start installing this exhaust so i have the passenger side lined up so after a few tries of trying to tighten them. bolts I think the easiest method is to access those bolts from the back of the car, so with a long extension, accessing that bolt from the back of the car was the much easier way to go, so I'm on the final. stages of tightening these nuts, so I'm going to tighten them to 35 ft-lbs, there you have it, it's 35 ft-lbs, the x pipe is installed now, let's take a moment and appreciate how beautiful this xpipe is I'm really impressed with the quality of this 2m manufacturing CAT package system.

I think it's a big improvement in quality over some of the other well known brands, for example the awe draining your xpipe is nothing like this, first of all it's not this shiny stuff. and xpipe on the awe system, like many other exhaust systems, this one here would be connected by a clamp, but this one is welded on, so it's like a complete piece, which I really like most of the exhausts I've seen. This xpipe is basic basically. just cut it like here and then you would have to connect it here with your clamps, but I like how it's all as a complete unit.

Oh, this looks very good. I'm very happy with it, okay, I'll move on. and mount this now I have to install these V clamps I think the easiest way to do this is to just take it apart just go through like this so I put the adjustment nuts on the back because I wanted this clean look on the front here so I think which now looks a little better. I will continue on the other side. Well, I've got the driver's side up and that's almost a perfect match, so I'm going to go ahead and put my clamp on that and tighten this thing like I'm doing.

Really impressed with the quality of this Paragon, oh sorry I mean the 2m manufacturing exhaust. I still think this is a Paragon exhaust, where's my nut? Where is my nut? Here's what it looks like with everything screwed together so far. I must say that this is a beautiful EX of everything. Fits perfectly. I don't have any clearance issues so I have plenty of room here. I can easily place my fingers underneath. The only thing that worries me a little is that this seems a little low and too close to this. plastic piece, so it looks very good, everything fits perfectly.

I think it's time for a cold start. This is the first boot with the new 2m manufacturing catback exhaust which sounded great. Wow, that sounded so good, so I don't know if you heard that. but my son said the whole house was shaking. I didn't think it was that strong, I mean, it was a little. It sounded similar to The Factory on Startup, but according to my son it shook the house, so the whole house shook. a little bit, yeah, really the wind was blowing, oh, no way, welcome, it's really okay, do you want to start again?

That sounded amazing. I know, oh my god, oh my god, dude, that sounded so fucking good, oh my god, oh my god, wow, these exhaust tips are. 4 which is the same size as the Paragon exhaust tips and smaller than other aftermarket exhaust systems, for example the exhaust tips are 4 and 1/2 and when I bought them I knew they were 4 inches and I always thought maybe I would have to

upgrade

them because I thought they would be too small, but now that I see them on the vehicle I don't think they are small at all. I think they fit pretty well in that area and, uh, no.

I don't think it's really necessary to

upgrade

the size of these to 4 and 1/2 in one. The entire installation is practically finished. The only problem I had was that one of the clamps got damaged, so I have to buy another set. I contacted the supplier and they have not responded now about the quality of this 2m manufacturing exhaust. I am very happy with it. 2m manufacturing is not known for their best customer service and, you know, when I told him I had a problem with the. uh, one of the clamps asked if they could send me a new one.

I never got a response so I ended up ordering one online from Amazon so it should arrive tomorrow but no big deal, this exhaust looks incredibly good looking. not just the quality, I mean the quality, it looks great, I like the Tig Wells, the stainless steel tubing, this resonator, the tips, everything about this kit is really nice. I'm very happy with this purchase. I was kind. I'm skeptical because this 2m build kit is literally half the price of other exhaust systems and I haven't really found any YouTube videos where a seat had just the 2m backrest system so I thought I'd take a chance and Until Now I am very happy with it.

I mean, the beginning sounds amazing, so I'll be making a lot more videos when I can get this out on the road. I'm glad I went ahead and painted that heat shield black instead of leaving it silver, I think. it makes the tips stick out a little more, in my opinion, it just looks cleaner without seeing that silver heat shield back there, so you can see it right there. It's painted black, so it looks so good, everything looks so good. I'm happy with it, the only problem I had was with one of these clamps, so one of these vband clamps broke.

I asked the supplier to see if he could get a replacement. I never got a response before purchasing from 2m Fabrication. I knew they have a reputation for not having the best customer service, but that's the only downside to purchasing this exhaust system. They really don't seem to care too much about making their customers happy. I will give them credit even if they build. A fantastic looking exhaust system, really high quality at a more than affordable price. I never understood why some of these exhaust systems for the Corvette C are in the thousands, at least 2000 to start three fours.

I have seen 5 6000 and I don't understand why they are just pipes, like I bought a MagnaFlow exhaust system on my C6 Corvette, I paid 1000 dollars and that one has a lot more pipes than the C8 exhaust system, but that is part of the Corvette tax , it is a new vehicle, so in time you will know. The costs of these aftermarket exhausts will go down, but I took a chance, so a billion of us and, uh, no, I can't say enough, but enough talking, let's do another cold start because it sounds amazing, Dr.