s3 performance exhausts

Rob_B

Rob_B

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hi chaps,
im looking at getting a performance exhaust for my car, deffo gonna get a downpipe(xs power when its finally ready to buy)

i dont think i'll be going for a miltek as i haven't heard rave reviews about then - especially not with the price tag they have on them

i was thinkning about getting a custom one made and was just looking for a bit of info, ie what bore to people go for? whether or not too keep a large rear box like the stock and milltek exhaust? or go for a much smaller one like the blue flame??

im going to keep the exhaust subtle, ie get similar twin tail pipes and dont want it too boomy or loud, just want a bit more grunt when giving it the berries:thumbsup:

so any advice and info appreciated - also if you have any videos of your cars with performance exhausts that would be spot on:yes:

regards
rob
 
2.5" to 2.75" is more than enough for most levels of tune... 3" if you are heading towards 400bhp... Miltek is 2.75" and works fine... I have a 3" custom built system with a Miltek back box... works well on my setup

2.5" with a 3" DP will work... normally custom places will make a 3" system but at a price that tbh isn't worth it unless you are considering big turbo...

<tuffty/>
 
i have the pipewerx 3inch downpipe and 3inch decat, with the origional catback.
 
Most custom manufacturers will offer 2.5" or 3" pipework, it's difficult to get 2.75" as I have found out recently. Milltek & Blueflame both offer 2.75" systems but even Milltek have just increased their bore size to 3" on the Lean Cupra R cat-back systems. Personally I am going for a 3" custom cat-back system to compliment the 3" down pipe and race-cat currently on the car which should sound very ncie and chuck the gasses out well. The OE system on my car is 2.5" as it is as with the future plans (big turbo) that I have for my car, it makes sense to do this now rather than eventually having to buy two cat-back systems.

As far as I know, Blueflame systems use a smaller rear box but they normally offer their systems with a mid-silencer too. You can request that this be deleted from your system but they warn that it will be pretty loud. Companies like Milltek use a larger rear silencer and even in non-resonated form, the sound quite tame.

It's all down to personal preference really, for me the 'tame' sound of the Milltek doesn't do it as I like something a little more raw sounding so a 3" non-resonated system should work fine for me, I just now need to pick the correct rear box to determine the level & type of sound.
 
cheers for the info chaps, has anyone got any videos of there exhausts?? want to get an idea of sound for the smaller back boxes and 3" bore
 
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no but ive one of this malasian bird i met whilst golfing in vilamoura last year, the wifes not stood behind me is she.
 
Rob_B said:
cheers for the info chaps, has anyone got any videos of there exhausts?? want to get an idea of sound for the smaller back boxes and 3" bore
Click to expand...

This is what my system looked like before I fitted the Miltek back box...
20091121_IMG_3923.jpg


Fitted...
20091121_IMG_3918.jpg


Noise....


Then changed the backbox for a Miltek as while the small box sounded lush on boost it was too noisy in the car for my liking tbh..

Old back box...
20100320_IMG00012-20100320-1510.jpg


...vs Miltek...
20100320_IMG00003-20100320-1111.jpg


...fitted...
20100320_IMG00019-20100320-1727.jpg


<tuffty/>
 
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that looks like a really nice system mate, would you mind me asking how much you paid for it?

this is the exact dilemma i have whether to go for the large of small back box...i really want the car to sound a bit meaty'er however i dont want it to sound too loud etc..
 
If I was honest I have no idea of the cost... the stainless steel used is quite a high grade, maybe more so than normally used in custom exhausts but its good stuff...

As I help Bill out whatever price it cost me is irrelevent tbh... I have a feeling it didn't work out that cheap but the back box and centre box is available from Jetex's website...

I still have the smaller back box sat on my shelf at the workshop and sometimes I am tempted to do the work to refit it just for the noise but the Miltek is much nicer inside the car...

<tuffty/>
 
hmmm what to do?? maybe go for a larger rear box and no silencer in the centre section?
 
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Rob_B said:
hmmm what to do?? maybe go for a larger rear box and no silencer in the centre section?
Click to expand...

I'll try and get a video of my current setup once I have put the car back together tomorrow...

<tuffty/>
 
tufftybloke said:
I'll try and get a video of my current setup once I have put the car back together tomorrow...

<tuffty/>
Click to expand...

Your car probably sounds a lot different from are due to your setup ini. Would love to hear it at full chat
 
awesome cheers pal, im gonna get a quote from my local custom exhaust guys very soon, so would be good to give him the details of what im after
 
What downpipe/decat are people going for that is a 100% straight fit? I'm going for a Milltek cat back but dont fancy a sports cat or the massive price tag that goes with Millteks downpipe lol...Any other suggestions??
 
Rob_B said:
hmmm what to do?? maybe go for a larger rear box and no silencer in the centre section?
Click to expand...

Correct, get rid of the mid-silencer and play about with the rear box, it's also easier to make changes to your exhaust this way if you want it louder/quieter like Tuffty has done.

I pretty much have no idea what i'll come out with next week when this is done. I'm aiming for something along the lines of Astra VXR Nurburg Ed with Remus exhaust but with a slightly more noticable burble on idle and town driving.

Pipewerx DP & Race-cat here too, perfect fitement and connect to OE cat-back perfectly.
 
JamJay said:
Pipewerx DP & Race-cat here too, perfect fitement and connect to OE cat-back perfectly.
Click to expand...

This was my plan, although I reckon Ill go hybrid and I dont want to pay for the exhaust twice so the new plan is pipewerx dp and cat with a non res milltek, I added it up yesterday - £1010 before labour:faint:
 
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Interesting.
Exhaust is high on my list of things to improve next... cheers for the info and videos.

I might go for a custom 3" DP and sports cat (or de-cat depending on price difference) from my local Longlife place and see about getting a cat-back to suit at a later date.
Won't be for a couple of months though - spent waaay too much on the car recently!
 
Dane said:
This was my plan, although I reckon Ill go hybrid and I dont want to pay for the exhaust twice so the new plan is pipewerx dp and cat with a non res milltek, I added it up yesterday - £1010 before labour:faint:
Click to expand...

It's not cheap :(. Exactly my thoughts though, I plan to go hybrid or BT some time so I want to get a decent cat-back made now. I'd be happy with a free flowing 2.75" but custom places jump from 2.5" to 3" so I'm stuck with 3" and have to hope that it doesn't sound like a bucket attached to scaffolding. I want some nice pops on the over run so I need a high flow rear box which i'm fearful will be too loud so perhaps I should add in a mid-silencer as a compromise? It's tough, you reall don;t know what you're getting until your fire the car up afterwards.

JS1500 said:
Interesting.
Exhaust is high on my list of things to improve next... cheers for the info and videos.

I might go for a custom 3" DP and sports cat (or de-cat depending on price difference) from my local Longlife place and see about getting a cat-back to suit at a later date.
Won't be for a couple of months though - spent waaay too much on the car recently!
Click to expand...

You're looking at about a £200 difference between decat & race-cat (£360 vs £570 for Pipewerx). Nothing wrong with 3" DP and decat/race-cat on OE system for an interim measure though, it boosted my torque up insanely :).
 
jay you're dead right about not knowing what you have until its actually fitted, i think im going to go with no centre silencer and a have a slightly have a slightly larger backbox then tuffys original one, that coupled with 3"bore and a 3"downpipe decat...hopefully the noise will be to my liking

when are you getting yours fitted?? hopefully its soon so you can upload a vid and i can hear what it sounds like...you can be my ginnie pig lol ;)
 
Sounds like a good route to go down, Rob. I'll be going for something similar I would imagine so I'll get some videos afterwards if that would help you make your choice. I'm pretty much a guinea-pig for doing this, even over on SEATCupra.net people havent experimented too much with custom setups. It'll be louder than a Milltek but I just hope not too loud :)

I hope my car becomes the bench mark at which to have a racey sounding car rather than a 'how not to' guide for exhausts.
 
haha fingers crossed mate, when you doing yours??
 
Next Saturday, 19th Feb. This weekend I'm battling with Bill's 3" TIP, it's all go go go!
 
sweet...well i think im a couple of weeks away from getting mine so it should work out perfectly....for me ;)
 
got a price for my exhaust now, custom 3" downpipe and decat then 2.5" system with small centre silencer and small back box...much like tuffty's ones £550 :)

theres a 2week wait to get it done - this will give me the time to see how yours is jay ;)
 
Nice Rob. That sounds like the price I got from Hayward & Scott in Essex but I deemed it a little too expensive as it overtook Milltek in price.

Tomorrow dude, 9am so come lunch time all will be perfect (touch wood) :).
 
yeah but that includes the downpipe and decat too jay :) the cat back was £350
 
Ahhh I see, I got quoted £550 for just cat-back. Errrrr...lol.

I'm not paying that though, about £350 too. I'm going for 3" bore, the general rule across the internet is that 3" is suitable for 250bhp+ which it is, 4" would be ridiculous and I'd lose too much low end torque besides, that's 400bhp+. I already have a 3" DP & race-cat so the worst will have been done to low down torque anyway but if I'm honest the car felt 100% better all over after that mod.
 
hmmm i can go 3" but it will cost me about £50 more and the chap building it said it will be a bit loud...suppose you answer that question for me ;)
 
Well I've done my research and asked a couple of professionals and 3" shouldn't be too loud at all. Basically as a turbocharger produces its own back pressure and in essence is a restriction in the exhaust flow, it dampens the sound. The reason some exhausts sound louder than others is down to the baffling in the silencers hence having a full 3" decat system will be very loud while a resonated version will be rather tame. Take the 3" system designed by 42 Draft Designs this sound very loud but they use a very free flowing rear silencer and that's it, this is the same reason that Jap cars are loud in general, those cylindrical back boxes do next to nothing other than tune the sound a little.

I need to decided which way I'm going to go. Have a look at 42 Draft Designs on Youtbe, there's a Jetter 1.8t on there which sound great at full chat but tractor like at low revs, this isn't what I want so perhaps a slightly more restrictive rar box is need although not one so restrictive that it stops the pops that I want from it.

A member from SCN cut his OE system up, threw away the rear box and then welded the mid silencer where the rear box would have been. He took that thing on the track and it used to pop and flame alot and this was with OE 2.5" pipework.
 
It was a non-starter I'm afraid. I got to the garage and I walked in, they were as moody as hell and tried to talk me out of getting 3" and buying 2.5". I found that the reason for this was because they don't have a pipe bender big enough for 3" so they'd have to do more work to make mine (admitted by them), no-one mentioned this on the phone so that didn't start off well. I then went to choose a tailpipe and they didn't have the one I wanted and I was told it was special order (6x4 oval...really?) and again no-one mentioned this on the phone. They tried to offer me other ugly cr@p that they had in stock but I just told the guy that if they welded that onto the end of my pipe all I'd do is come back next week and tell you to chop it off and give me what I wanted originally. So to sum it all up I rebooked for 2wks time but if I'm honest I am going to look elsewhere for the work to be done.
 
ah thats a **** mate..the chap im gonna use isnt going to bend the pipe i dont think he will use pre bent pipes and tig it together..so will look similar to tuftys one :)
 
Yeah that's the technique that they will be using on mine except I just don't think he could be bothered to weld if I am honest.
 
ive been doing a little more thinking about mine...i've decided to go 3" all the way from the turbo to the centre silencer, there i will reduce it to 2.5" and go for a smaller rear box, hopefully it will be a nice balance of sound and performance :)
 
Sounds good Rob, I look forward to hearing it. Mine is booked for this weekend but I'm a little less confident in the company now and may rebook elsewhere. If they'll do it, get them to reduce the pipe from 3" to 2.5" rather than flange it and create a 'wall', as such which will block flow a little more.
 
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I'd walkaway Jay they obviously don't give a monkeys about customer requirements.
 
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