Hey, what's up, guys.
Ryan here from ExtremeTerrain and today I'm here with the Borla Touring axle-back exhaust
with black tips, fitting your 2018 and up Jeep Wrangler JL with that 3.6-liter motor.
This is gonna be for the JL owners that are looking to ditch that factory muffler for
a little more grunt and sound out of their Wrangler.
Now exhaust upgrades are great for the Wrangler because you're normally gonna get a little
more low-end torque and this is great for a ton of applications.
Whether you're playing around on the trails, towing, or if you're looking to make your
daily commute just a little more enjoyable, you should be checking out this exhaust system
from Borla.
Now, this system is gonna free up exhaust flow over that factory muffler.
It's gonna give you a little more power and sound which is gonna result in unlocking some
ponies that you didn't even know you had.
Now axle-back systems are gonna range anywhere from $300 all the way up to $850 and currently,
this one is coming in right around $640.
Now, this is a little on the high side but you get exactly what you pay for.
I think that it is well worth the money for a high-quality stainless steel system from
a very reputable company, one of the best names in the business and especially for the
fit and quality that you're getting with this system.
Now, these systems can range anywhere from standard steel with an aluminized coating
on the lower scale all the way up to 304 stainless steel.
Now, of course, those cheaper systems are gonna be more affordable but they're not gonna
last as long as a high-quality stainless steel.
You're going to pay a little more for that stainless steel option but it's gonna last
you a long time.
Now, this one is made from high-quality stainless steel and on top of that it has a very nice
high tint black powder coating which is gonna make it last a long time and it's well worth
the money.
With this system, you're getting the symmetry of a dual exhaust system which is gonna give
you a really nice look.
And of course, it is black which is gonna add to that aggressive off-road styling.
Like I said Borla makes some of the best exhaust systems in the aftermarket and they make a
number of systems ranging from mild to wild, so you want to make sure that you pick the
right exhaust system for your liking.
Now as far as sound goes on a scale of one to five, I'm gonna rate this about a two out
of five.
This system is a little louder than your stock exhaust system and it's gonna give you a very
nice rumble in tone with minimal drone but it's really not gonna be overbearing.
As far as installation goes, I'm gonna give this a one out of three wrenches on the difficulty
meter as you can get this system installed in about two hours and you just need basic
hand tools.
Now with that being said let's hop into the install.
Tools we used for this install: 3/8 drive impact, socket extensions, 13-millimeter wrench,
15-millimeter socket, 13-millimeter socket, exhaust hanger removal tool, and some lubricant.
Install is relatively simple.
We are gonna be switching out our muffler right here so there's not a lot that holds
this in.
We got two hangers, one on each side, and we also have a band clamp that we need to
loosen for the over the axle pipe.
Now I have the Jeep up on the lift because it's just a lot easier for you guys to see
exactly what I'm doing and also for me to access all this stuff.
But you don't have to do it on the lift, you can totally do it on the ground.
So the first thing we're gonna do, we're gonna loosen up that band clamp.
So gonna take an impact with a 15-millimeter socket, we're gonna get up in there and loosen
up that clamp.
Loosen it up a little more.
Just want to get this clamp pretty loose.
Just a band clamp, after that it'll slide off.
So now we're gonna work on getting our hangers off.
So after you get the clamp off the next thing we're gonna do is get our hangers off.
Now it's really hard to get the muffler out of these rubber hangers.
There's not really much room to get in there so what we're actually gonna do is unbolt
the mounts.
So you're gonna have a bolt right here and you're also gonna have a bolt at the very
top.
You can see the tip of it poking out.
Both of these are going to be a 13-millimeter.
So I'm gonna do the top one first.
I'm gonna use the 13-millimeter socket on a long extension to get that out.
Now the next one, the bottom one, I'm gonna use a 13-millimeter wrench because that once
again this is a very tight spot.
I'm just gonna crack that loose and then we'll get that bolt all the way out.
So now we'll move over to the other side, we'll do that same thing.
First thing we're gonna do is take out that top bolt and once we get ready to take out
that bottom bolt we're gonna support our muffler at the same time.
So basically, what you want to do, you want to support your muffler at this point in time
because we're ready to take out this last bolt for the last mount.
You can get someone to hold it for you, you can hold it yourself.
So what I'm gonna do is I'm just holding it up with my hand.
I'm gonna take this last bolt out, that's gonna free up that mount, and then we'll go
ahead and pull the whole muffler assembly out.
So we're gonna slide both of these mounts out of the frame brackets.
Once we get it down, we're gonna hold both sides of it.
All right.
So we got the stock muffler out which was a pretty easy uninstall and we're just about
ready to get this new exhaust system installed.
But before we do that I want to talk about some of the differences between these two
systems as well some of the benefits that you're gonna get from an aftermarket system
such as this.
Now the first thing that I want to talk about is your factory system.
Now you can see the first part that the exhaust enters from your over-the-axle pipe into this
system is going to be this little neck right here.
You can see that this neck is crushed kind of looking like a cobra.
What that's gonna do is it's gonna change up airflow, it's gonna cause turbulence.
Now over here you're gonna see that on this system you have a very nice entrance.
This is mandrel bent tubing so this is going to be the same size all the way through.
It has very nice curves unlike crushed pipe which is gonna have crushed little sections
in there in the bends.
Now after it gets through that piping the next thing it's gonna do is enter this muffler.
It's gonna enter this rather large muffler and the whole point of muffler is to decrease
sound.
Now in doing so, that's also going to hinder flow which is gonna hinder performance and
cause back pressure.
Your engine is gonna work very hard to not only draw air in but to get that exhaust out.
Now you can see over here that this muffler is a very tiny muffler and this is a high
flow muffler.
Borla uses a single core designed to create high flow and a very nice sound.
Now, your stock system is gonna have a single exit.
Now, this is a dual exit system, it's giving you very nice symmetry and also because it
has two exits, that's gonna increase flow as well.
This piping is two and a half inches so this is gonna bolt right up and they even give
you a brand new clamp.
They finish it off with these very nice tips and these are three and a half inch tips which
are gonna add to that very nice styling of your Wrangler.
Now your stock system is an aluminumized steel and while it does a pretty good job at handling
up to corrosion, this system is going to be stainless steel.
So stainless steel is way more corrosion resistant.
Now you're gonna pay a little more for a stainless steel system but you're not going to deal
with rust issues that you're going to deal with in aluminized steel.
So if you're an avid off-roader, you really like getting in the mud, driving over rocks,
going through really tough trails, or if you live on the East Coast where we have a lot
of salt, we deal with really wet conditions, you really want to spend the extra money on
a stainless steel system, gonna last a lot longer and it's gonna handle up a lot better.
Now for those of you that are not a fan of shiny chrome and shiny exhaust systems, Borla
has coated this in a very nice black powder coating that's gonna add to that aggressive
styling.
It's also going add even more corrosion protection for this whole system.
Like I said this system is completely bolt-on, all we have to do is switch over these hangers.
We got a brand new clamp to install.
So with that being said let's get these switched over to the new system, show you how to get
it installed and what it looks like on the Jeep.
I'm gonna use an exhaust hanger removal tool and I'm just gonna pop this one off and slide
it over on the other one.
Now if they are causing a little bit of an issue, you can always lube them up with some
rust busting lubricant like WD-40 or, what do we got, PB B'laster.
So what I'm going to do is just take some of this stuff, PB B'laster, gonna spray that,
lube it up a little bit and then that's gonna allow me to slide that right on.
And you can just take a rag, wipe the excess off.
And we do the same thing with the other side.
So at this point time, all we have to do is throw the muffler up there and then get it
connected.
We have to re-hook both of those mounts and of course, we're gonna start with that over
the axle pipe and just wiggle this thing on.
Now I did put my clamp on.
I oriented the same exact way that the factory one is that way we have access to it when
we want to tighten it up and it's in there.
Now I would recommend grabbing a friend to help you get this up there and wiggle it in
and that way you can have someone hold it while you get these mounts in.
So I'm gonna pick it up and we'll get started.
So we're gonna slide this little section up into that little bracket that we have up there
and then all we're gonna do is just put our factory bolts back in.
So we can start with this bottom one here.
It's easily accessible.
Get that one, we'll get this top one started.
So while we're on this side we're gonna go ahead and tighten it up.
We're gonna use the same 13-millimeters and what we want to do when we do this is just
push this up in the air just a little bit.
We're gonna use our trusty 13-millimeter ratcheting wrench, tighten up that last bolt, then we'll
move on to the other side.
We'll swing our other clamp up, get those bolts started.
Then same thing, we're gonna go ahead and tighten these up.
So the last thing we have to do is tighten this clamp right here.
What we're gonna do is use that same 15-millimeter socket to tighten it up.
Once you get it tightened up you can torque it down to 32 to 35-foot pounds of torque.
So that's gonna wrap it up for my review and install.
For more videos and products like this, check us out at extremeterrain.com.