Ultimate-Racing.com downpipes

[JeST]

Just placed an order last night for their high flow cat downpipes and have already received confirmation this morning its been shipped. Thoroughly impressed!

Anyone have experience with their product (quality, fitment)? Planning on having them ceramic coated to try and keep temps down.

[StatenEye]

Originally Posted by JeST

Just placed an order last night for their high flow cat downpipes and have already received confirmation this morning its been shipped. Thoroughly impressed!

Anyone have experience with their product (quality, fitment)? Planning on having them ceramic coated to try and keep temps down.

You went with the catted variant? What did the rep have to say about performance vs the catless variant?

[JeST]

Originally Posted by StatenEye 535i

You went with the catted variant? What did the rep have to say about performance vs the catless variant?

Didn't speak with the rep before purchasing. The decision was made solely because I transport my kids in the car from time to time.

Judging by the stock cats overall size I would guess flow rate to be that much better. Will be upgrading my stg 1 hex tune to stg 2.

Another reason im doing this is from the heat generated. Hoping the ceramic coating, higher flowing cats, and exhaust wrap will greatly help.

[JeST]

Had the high flow cats ceramic coated and installed this week. First impressions... quality of the downpipes are excellent (truth be told didn't have very high expectations given the price), turbo spool is instantaneous, power is effortless, and engine temps feels much cooler than before

[JeST]

[mitch808]

You should find a turbo blanket too, it makes a dramatic difference in heat reduction and can improve spool

[JeST]

Originally Posted by mitch808

You should find a turbo blanket too, it makes a dramatic difference in heat reduction and can improve spool

True, didn't even occur to me. I wound up not even wrapping the downpipes because the stock heatshields we were able to modify and put back on. Between the headshield, higher flowing cats, and ceramic coating i didn't think it was necessary to go any further. The engine temps are significantly cooler than it was before.

[denaliman]

Originally Posted by mitch808

You should find a turbo blanket too, it makes a dramatic difference in heat reduction and can improve spool

Any recommendation for where to get and what brand of turbo blanket? I have a set of Ceramic coated AR Downpipes w/race cats on the way.

[JeST]

Originally Posted by denaliman

Any recommendation for where to get and what brand of turbo blanket? I have a set of Ceramic coated AR Downpipes w/race cats on the way.

http://ptpturboblankets.com/BMW-S63-Turbo-Blanket.html

[denaliman]

Expensive for some rockwool insulation!

[mitch808]

PTP makes arguably some of the best fitting stuff. I rock it on my larger than stock Subaru turbo.

[Crazy1323]

Do you have a stock or aftermarket exhaust?

Do you feel a decent performance increase? I'm considering some high flow cats for my X5M.

[JeST]

Originally Posted by Crazy1323

Do you have a stock or aftermarket exhaust?

Do you feel a decent performance increase? I'm considering some high flow cats for my X5M.

Stock exhaust (exhaust valves permanently opened). You can definitely feel the performance increase.

[JeST]

Follow up update.

Even with the high flow cats the car triggered a post o2 sensor fault code (p0156). Took a little over a month of driving to trigger but they came on nonetheless. Doesn't really matter however since I'm upgrading my tune here soon.

[gixxerboy63]

Hmmmm - Should Gixxer pull the trigger on this?

[JeST]

Originally Posted by gixxerboy63

Hmmmm - Should Gixxer pull the trigger on this?

I dont regret it at all. The tune made the biggest difference but the dp's did add some and the noise you get from the turbo's are worth the price of admission, lol.

[Toneaero]

Are the OEM heat shields mandatory or highly recommended? Active Autowerke's downpipe write-up says not to re-install them. I didn't install my heat shields back on and haven't noticed any adverse effects yet. Should I be worried? Should I install them back on?

[mitch808]

Originally Posted by Toneaero

Are the OEM heat shields mandatory or highly recommended? Active Autowerke's downpipe write-up says not to re-install them. I didn't install my heat shields back on and haven't noticed any adverse effects yet. Should I be worried? Should I install them back on?

More often than not, aftermarket downpipes do not have a provision to reinstall heatshields, or some downpipes come coated with a thermal coating to retain heat.

If you don't have a coating, you should put the factory heat shields on or use a wrap and turbo blanket. period. There isn't an exception to this. heat is bad.

[theaudir8fan]

I wouldn't go without heatshield especially when BMW places so many different plastic bits around the area. There won't be adverse effects to the exhaust or the hotside of the turbo, if issues arise, it would be to the other parts in the engine bay that is caused by over exposure to heat.

[gixxerboy63]

I already have the Active Autowerkz tune and I am very impressed with it. Downpipes are the next performance step for me, however they (AA) want to sell me their downpipes for $1699 (ouch!) including a software upgrade for the tune that I already have.... I have been tempted to go with a more economical solution and have even considered buying a set of de-catted OEM downpipes, however, I have also been led to believe that the tune should match the downpipes (AA tune + AA downpipes) for optimal performance....

What do you guys think?

[JeST]

Originally Posted by gixxerboy63

I already have the Active Autowerkz tune and I am very impressed with it. Downpipes are the next performance step for me, however they (AA) want to sell me their downpipes for $1699 (ouch!) including a software upgrade for the tune that I already have.... I have been tempted to go with a more economical solution and have even considered buying a set of de-catted OEM downpipes, however, I have also been led to believe that the tune should match the downpipes (AA tune + AA downpipes) for optimal performance....

What do you guys think?

I'm not completely sold that the downpipes and tunes need to match. A pipe is a pipe and the tunes are all comparable. I'm thinking they want you to go with the same company so they can make their profit margin that much better with selling you on both ends of the dp's and tune.

I purchased the dp's after I had already upgraded to the vf-engineering hex tune stage 1. After the downpipes, VF is only going to charge me the difference between the stage 1 and stage 2 tune.

[gixxerboy63]

Originally Posted by JeST

I'm not completely sold that the downpipes and tunes need to match. A pipe is a pipe and the tunes are all comparable. I'm thinking they want you to go with the same company so they can make their profit margin that much better with selling you on both ends of the dp's and tune.

I purchased the dp's after I had already upgraded to the vf-engineering hex tune stage 1. After the downpipes, VF is only going to charge me the difference between the stage 1 and stage 2 tune.

If I buy a set of downpipes other than Active Autowerkz, they want $400 to adjust their tune... Basically turn off rear O2 sensors is all they were going to do, based on my conversation with them.