Cat-back & LDP's. All your questions answered.

[Tranzor Z]

Today I got my Stillen Competition cat-back and ebay Mo-Powa lower down pipes installed. Everything I learned....

Pricing:
I'm a firm believer in "you get what you pay for". Be careful who takes your money! RaceBox quoted me a ridiculous $375 for LDP's and $325 to hang my exhaust. You gotta be shitting me! Absolutely NO WAY!

I have an exhaust guy with a 4.9 on Google that is cheap, fast and probably rare in form. Him and his 2 other guys did everything in under 90 minutes and charged me $200 OTD! Fair but probably underpaid.

LDP's middle bracket:
Not fucking necessary. I heard all the bitching about this. 9 bolts hold these guys on, the middle mount is not needed. Period.

LDP's fitment:
My ebay seller had a 100% feedback and is a veteran. Happy to do business with him and the fitment was fine. I assume all this stuff is Chinese, but I can't confirm. I paid $290 for them.

CEL:
LDP's DO NOT throw a check engine light. UDP's will.

Ceramic Coating or wrapping:
Why? You're replacing hot pipe with hot pipe. I don't see the point and didn't do anything about it. I'd only justify this if anything was near an intake.

Sound:
I expected worse. I'm almost straight piped and It's loud but quieter than I expected.

Power:
The car absolutely picked up enough to notice from the stock spaghetti exhaust.

I'm Ron Burgundy???

 

[el mágico]

Today I got my Stillen Competition cat-back and ebay Mo-Powa lower down pipes installed. Everything I learned....

Pricing:
I'm a firm believer in "you get what you pay for". Be careful who takes your money! RaceBox quoted me a ridiculous $375 for LDP's and $325 to hang my exhaust. You gotta be shitting me! Absolutely NO WAY!

I have an exhaust guy with a 4.9 on Google that is cheap, fast and probably rare in form. Him and his 2 other guys did everything in under 90 minutes and charged me $200 OTD! Fair but probably underpaid.

LDP's middle bracket:
Not fucking necessary. I heard all the bitching about this. 9 bolts hold these guys on, the middle mount is not needed. Period.

LDP's fitment:
My ebay seller had a 100% feedback and is a veteran. Happy to do business with him and the fitment was fine. I assume all this stuff is Chinese, but I can't confirm. I paid $290 for them.

CEL:
LDP's DO NOT throw a check engine light. UDP's will.

Ceramic Coating or wrapping:
Why? You're replacing hot pipe with hot pipe. I don't see the point and didn't do anything about it. I'd only justify this if anything was near an intake.

Sound:
I expected worse. I'm almost straight piped and It's loud but quieter than I expected.

Power:
The car absolutely picked up enough to notice from the stock spaghetti exhaust.

I'm Ron Burgundy???

OEM uppers have a bracket. It's helping secure your lowers.

 

[Tranzor Z]

OEM uppers have a bracket. It's helping secure your lowers.

The lowers have 9 bolts. Not worried about it.

 

[kevinbonds]

The lowers have 9 bolts. Not worried about it.

Thanks for your input. The mounting brackets are important. They isolate vibration from the engine and transmission, which keeps those forces from being transferred into the turbo outlet and exhaust seals, and also helps cut down on rasp and vibration in the cabin. With engine movement, the bracket is the main support for the upper and lower downpipes, preventing shear on the turbo flange. This is standard across manufacturers, and most performance downpipes include brackets for the same reason. From an OEM-plus perspective, it’s just the right way to do it.

If you do not care about trying to maintain and OEM style engineering with your build, then that's understandable, but saying the brackets are useless, isn't entirely true, and it's the reason I bought the spool downpipes, because they have a bracket.

 

[Bumflik]

Today I got my Stillen Competition cat-back and ebay Mo-Powa lower down pipes installed. Everything I learned....

Pricing:
I'm a firm believer in "you get what you pay for". Be careful who takes your money! RaceBox quoted me a ridiculous $375 for LDP's and $325 to hang my exhaust. You gotta be shitting me! Absolutely NO WAY!

I have an exhaust guy with a 4.9 on Google that is cheap, fast and probably rare in form. Him and his 2 other guys did everything in under 90 minutes and charged me $200 OTD! Fair but probably underpaid.

LDP's middle bracket:
Not fucking necessary. I heard all the bitching about this. 9 bolts hold these guys on, the middle mount is not needed. Period.

LDP's fitment:
My ebay seller had a 100% feedback and is a veteran. Happy to do business with him and the fitment was fine. I assume all this stuff is Chinese, but I can't confirm. I paid $290 for them.

CEL:
LDP's DO NOT throw a check engine light. UDP's will.

Ceramic Coating or wrapping:
Why? You're replacing hot pipe with hot pipe. I don't see the point and didn't do anything about it. I'd only justify this if anything was near an intake.

Sound:
I expected worse. I'm almost straight piped and It's loud but quieter than I expected.

Power:
The car absolutely picked up enough to notice from the stock spaghetti exhaust.

I'm Ron Burgundy???

I love it!

 

[VR30Infection]

Ceramic coating is actually amazing as it helps keep the heat inside with less heat radiating to surrounding surfaces and items. It is proven to do so. Now, is it a “need” ? No. But neither are downpipes for that matter. Now, whether or not it’s worth the money, now that is the question. Which is subjective for each to choose for their own. My Cousin had his minibike exhaust ceramic coated and the header measured 200* cooler.

 

[KrackaC8]

Ceramic coating is actually amazing as it helps keep the heat inside with less heat radiating to surrounding surfaces and items. It is proven to do so. Now, is it a “need” ? No. But neither are downpipes for that matter. Now, whether or not it’s worth the money, now that is the question. Which is subjective for each to choose for their own. My Cousin had his minibike exhaust ceramic coated and the header measured 200* cooler.

Yup, ceramic is very effective. I just dropped my B6A LDPs off this morning to get coated.

 

[el mágico]

I ceramic coated and titanium wrapped my full down pipe. It lets off very little heat (relatively).

I always had my mind set on the wrap, but didn't want any rust to form. I don't drive in the rain. Puddles are my worst nightmare

 

[trackratZ]

If any of you interested in Ark Performance exhaust? Heard they also sell suspension parts. Cars & Coffee coming up if you're local.

 

[trackratZ]

Z1 really went over the wall with this! I'm sure tons of R&D went into it!!!