Catless downpipes save me the moneys, but I'm wondering how much extra sounds I'm looking at getting from a catless downpipe versus a catted dp. Thoughts on the subject?
If you spend the right money on an exhaust, you will hear almost no difference between a catted and catless downpipe. LITTLE less raspy with a catted one, IMO.
2010 STi. I thought I'd settled on a Maddad Whisper for the least noise, but I'm sizing up that $1,600 + shipping next to what I would call a "reasonable budget" just for a turboback and I'm starting to reconsider the catless downpipe rather than their V2. [edit] My bad on the mods question. No other mods. I'm going for a stage 2 setup. AEM Intake, Maddad Turboback Whisper with a coated catless downpipe.
1. Skip the CAI and save some money. 2. Look into the Turbo XS pipes. I put the DP and cat pipe on my fxt (catless stealthback) for under $400 shipped. You hvae your choice of catbacks at that point. On the FXT there is really only 2-3 different catbacks to pick from. Russ
Russ, you're probably right. I don't need the CAI unless I plan on upgrading the turbo (a project that's probably a ways off in the future). Nevertheless, since I do plan on upgrading the turbo someday, I may just end up getting the AEM anyway (a ****s-and-giggles arrangement). I'm looking at several options here. It seems like each parts developer has their strengths, and then there's Perrin. Perrin's exhaust-port-to-tip kit can't be beat for the money, especially considering the hassle of trying to do the job piece-by-piece. But here is what I'm thinking for a stage 2: 1. AEM Cold Air Intake 2. ScoobySport Up-pipe 3. Perrin Headers 4. TurboXS/Maddad Catted Downpipes 5. Maddad Whisper Catback Exhaust It seems to me like these parts are the strengths of their respective developers. AEM makes the best cold air intake, with proper MAF. ScoobySport (apparently) makes a good up-pipe, though I wonder how "great" an up-pipe can really get. Perrin's headers are reasonably priced, though I've considered the AMR 3" race headers. TurboXS is cheap downpipe, but popular. Maddad does have a full turboback option, and I would prefer to keep the turboback a single brand, but the silence offered by their catback is what I'm really after. Does any of this make sense or do you think I'm complicating things? This probably should have been my first post.
You can also get all the performance of a "tuner" catback exhaust at less than half the cost by having a custom catback built, instead of buying an off the shelf unit. Won't have that blinging polished finish, but if that bugs you, you can have it ceramicoted for a higher performance more functional finish and still save hundreds of dollars.
This is a general rule of thumb that holds true almost all the time. DP and cat pipe is 90% gains, 10% sound catback is 90% sound and 10% gains And really with the stock turbo, catback really doesn't amount to a whole lot at the end of the day. Russ
