Here at 4WD Supacentre, we sell a large range of exhaust systems to suit most popular 4WDs. Every single one of our exhausts are hand-built right here in Australia, by Berklee Exhausts in their factory in Ballarat. These ultra-clever 4×4 exhausts are designed to bolt straight up to a large range of popular 4x4s, with no cutting, welding or grinding required. They’ll make your rig sound a heap tougher, but they’ll also produce more power in the process. Ever wondered why a bigger exhaust makes more power though?

Okay, so it makes logical sense that a bigger exhaust will extract more power from your motor, but when you start to think about it, fitting a bigger 4×4 exhaust system doesn’t change anything in terms of how much fuel or air go into the motor, which are the things that make power, right? To understand why a 4×4 sports exhaust makes more power, we need to delve into the technical side of exhaust systems.

The most important concept to understand here when it comes to 4WD exhaust systems is that of ‘back pressure’. Back pressure refers to how much build-up of exhaust gases there are on the exhaust manifold side of the engine bay. The motor goes through its four-stroke cycle of ‘intake’ (of air and fuel), ‘compression’ (of the air/fuel mixture), ‘ignition’ (the big bang) and ‘exhaust’ (spitting out the spent exhaust gases and does this thousands of times per minute. All those exhaust gases have to travel away from the motor otherwise it just ends up fighting itself. The bigger the exhaust system, the quicker those gases can be extracted and the less back-pressure there is. Too much backpressure from a tiny, factory exhaust and the motor can’t expel those gases quick enough, so it ends up fighting against itself which limits the output of the motor.

So, knowing this simple fact, why don’t we just run 10inch wide exhausts that hammer the exhaust gases away? The answer is two-fold. First, a 4wd exhaust that big would be extremely noisy and wouldn’t pass roadworthy inspections. Secondly, too little backpressure can actually be a hindrance to power production. The right amount of backpressure creates a vortex-like effect in the exhaust which not only speeds up the gases flowing away from the motor, but actually helps suck more gases along with it.

Diameter of the exhaust is not the only thing you should be looking for in a 4WD exhaust system. Each bend in the exhaust has the potential to create a bottleneck at each bend because traditional methods of bending exhaust piping kink the pipe at the bend and reduce its inner diameter. Every single Domin8r exhaust system features ‘mandrel’ bends, which are created on a special machine known as a mandrel bender, which not only bends the pipe to its correct angle but also stretches the material in a way that the same inner diameter is maintained right throughout the exhaust. This means the exhaust gases can flow as quickly as possible without being held up anywhere.

The benefits of a Domin8r exhaust don’t just stop at more power production, however. Our exhausts are ultra-tough, whether you choose the stainless steel or the aluminised steel option, and they’re designed for an ultra-easy fit thanks to the clever pipe-through-flange design that makes linking up each section of exhaust ultra-easy.

Our 4×4 exhaust system is also built tough as nails too, and is genuinely designed for the rigours of off-road work. You can see that in the ultra-thick 10mm flanges for each section of exhaust pipe, along with the ultra heavy-duty exhaust mounts and hangers. You can bang these 4WD exhausts around, knock or scrape them up against rocks and they’ll come back for more, time and time again!

Increased power production is one major benefit of a larger diameter exhaust, but did you know that it can also improve fuel economy too? Because there’s less restriction on your motor, you don’t need to sink your boot in as much at any given time to make the vehicle go up a hill or maintain speed. The less you sink the boot in, the less fuel you use – it’s that simple! Domin8r exhausts have a bucketload of benefits, so the only real question is, why aren’t you running one already?