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With our Renegade Project-X 800, we were trying to build the perfect quad that showcases some of the best names in the industry in areas of performance, protection, rideability and appearance. Like most ATV owners, one of the biggest decision we had to make was what exhaust company we wanted to use for the project. Since the Can-Am Renegade 800 is one of the baddest machines in its class, we wanted an equally bad exhaust for it. We hoped to find a company making an exhaust for the Renegade that deserved more recognition, and who had a product that would boost performance and sound great at the same time. Sounds easy enough right?!?!
After searching quite a bit for a Renegade exhaust system that looked like it would meet our high expectations, we came across AAEN Performance. Being very well known and celebrated in the snowmobile industry, their ATV product line looked very good on paper. So, we decided to go with the AAEN Performance Power Pipe Silencer for our 2009 Can-Am Renegade 800-X.
- 4" silencer body
- Ceramic coated inside and out
- Rebuildable by the consumer
- The stock tip is a turn-down, but they also offer optional tips that include a 4" Supertrapp disc spark arrestor kit or a 4" cone tip with a screen spark arrest kit
Right out of the box, you can see AAEN Performance Products' attention to detail. This ceramic coated masterpiece is nothing short of sexy, with perfect welds and an amazing finish. For our review, AAEN provided us with all three of the tips that are available for their system, each providing a bit different characteristics so you can make it your own, unlike most other manufacturers where you just have to stick with the tip that their design folks decided to go with. That may not be a major factor to some folks, but to us, it was a nice touch that they allow for this bit of customization.
Sound Impression:
Many folks that consider aftermarket exhaust systems, also consider the added noise from doing such a modification to their quad. Obviously, people that frequently ride in residential areas do not want to run the risk of upsetting their neighbors with something that is obnoxiously loud. So, it was important to us that the system we chose give a good performance gain, be durable and long-lasting, have a nice tone and not be too loud. The stock exhaust on the Renegade 800 is not quiet by any means compared to other big bore 4-wheelers and measured in at 89db at idle. After installing the AAEN, we were pleasantly surprised by the sound of it at idle. Eager to check it with our decibel meter, we found that it was only 3 decibels louder than the stock exhaust and registered 92db at idle with the quiet core installed. After swapping between all 3 tips that we received with the exhaust and checking each of the 3 on the decibel meter, we found that all 3 of them registered the same 92db with the quiet core installed, but each provided a little bit of a different sound. While the code shape tip pictured at center above provided the best sound to us, it SOUNDED like it was a little louder since the sound came straight out the back. However, on the meter, that proved to be untrue at idle.
with a decibel meter at idle, the stock proved to be louder than I originally thought and the AAEN was only about 2db louder than stock with the AAEN Quiet Core installed. *
After the sound testing with the quiet core installed proved so good, we were ready to remove the quiet core and see how much difference that made. Typically quiet core inserts on other brands are made to reduce the sound level, but generally restricted air flow, thus reducing performance. So, to possibly see additional performance gains, we wanted to see what the cost of that would be in the sound department. Again testing all 3 tips but this time without the quiet core, all 3 registered the same on our meter for 96db at idle. That accounts for a 7db increase over stock and a 4db gain over having the quiet core installed.
All in all, we preferred the look of the cone shaped tip and did not object to even the slightly louder sound of the quiet core being removed. So, our current setup is with that tip and no quiet core.
Temperature Improvements:
Most other exhaust manufacturers create their systems from either stainless or aluminum, and actually at one time, the AAEN system was not ceramic as their latest generation system are either. However, AAEN wanted to focus on the fact that when you can reduce exhaust temperatures and get the heat out the back, you can actually increase horsepower. So, for their latest systems, AAEN Performance has ceramic coated the inside and outside of the exhaust with ceramic a coating for optimum temperature reduction. Below is a chart that we have compiled from our testing that shows temperature difference between the stock exhaust and the AAEN Power Pipe after 5 minutes of idle and after a 3 miles test ride. The numbers speak for themselves!!!
Performance Gains:
Generally speaking with aftermarket exhaust for an ATV, most manufacturers talk about putting up big numbers for gains in the low-end, and mid-range with the power starting to taper off towards the top. However, in reality, while the numbers look good on paper, many times the biggest gains are in the volume of the exhaust rather than the power it produces. This is not to say that all exhaust manufacturers over-inflate their numbers, but there seem to be more floating about with false claims than those that you can really feel the results they are claiming to provide.
When we started this review, we were unsure what end of that spectrum that the AAEN Power Pipe for the Renegade 800 would fall into simply because we had never run one. With their history in sleds, we were hopeful the tradition would continue. Below are the Dyno results of the AAEN Mega Power Pipe Silencer test on the Can-Am Renegade 800 as provided by AAEN Performance.
After getting through temperature testing and sound testing multiple times, we were eager to then see how much seat of the pants difference we could feel between the stock exhaust, the AAEN exhaust with quiet core installed, and finally the AAEN exhaust without the quiet core.
Now it was time to do some test runs to really see how much we gained in top speed, 0-30mph, 0-50mph and 20-50mph. Without having a dyno readily available, this was our best test of power improvement of the AAEN over the stock exhaust. Each test would be conducted 3 times on both systems and the average taken of each. As you will see below, the results are worth gold.
Renegade 800-X Stock Exhaust:
Top speed - 72.4mph
0-30mph - 2.23 seconds
0-50mph - 5.66 seconds
20-50mph - 5.26 seconds
Renegade 800-X AAEN Exhaust:
Top speed - 73.6mph
0-30mph - 2.17 seconds
0-50mph - 5.42 seconds
20-50mph - 4.84 seconds
Those numbers alone say a lot about the gains of the AAEN Mega Power Pipe over the stock Renegade Exhaust System purely from a performance standpoint. From 0-30mph, there is roughly a 3% increase in acceleration. From 0-50mph, we recorded gains of right at 5% with the AAEN and finally from 20-50mph, we saw an improvement of 8% over stock. Clearly, this is what we were hoping we would achieve and Mr. AAEN has done a fine job getting to this level of perfectness.
Overall Impression:
Immediately when opening the package, you can see that the AAEN Mega Power Exhaust Pipe is a well made unit. from it's large diameter can for maximum flow (and capability to hold more packing than the competition) to the ceramic coating, it begins to impress you before you even get it installed. We were very happy to see that, unlike other exhaust systems we've tested that claimed big numbers but couldn't produce them, AAEN really has brought their A-game with all of the R&D of this latest release of their product. Going from the earlier generation of this exhaust that was aluminum, to this finely done ceramic coated production, was a great thing that AAEN Performance has done. You saw the numbers above just as we did, and as did yours, our jaws hit the table when we saw the temperature improvements. There's really not enough we can say about the AAEN Mega Power Exhaust for the Renegade 800.
What Impressed us about the AAEN:
- ceramic coating inside and out for superior heat reduction
- a perfect fit that takes no tweaking at all to make it not rub things that it should not rub.
- rebuildable by the consumer
- large diameter for increased flow and ample sound deadening
- decent power gains on the low end and great gains in the mid to upper range of the power band.
AAEN Performance Parts
(Web Site) Aaen Performance - High Performance products for Snowmobiles and Polaris ATV's
(Phone) (262) 552-8981
(Address) 316 Sheridan Road, Racine, WI. 53403 USA
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