So I am putting together the pieces to my Mini and exhaust is very important to me for a variety of reasons. What I am looking for is an exhaust that produces not only the best HP WITHOUT a tune it needs to sound great inside and out (as in not drone me out while on trips).

Right now I am looking at AKrapovich's system currently because of their track record with me on the Honda motorcycles for the track and the Porsche community.

The Akrapovich weigh 4KG less and produces +8WHP and +5ftlb of torque on a stock system without a tune and sounds excellent to boot. The system is the downpipe back. Whatever exhaust I purchase will undergo a very important modification so I am probably going to add about 1-2lbs to the system so weight isn't entirely a big concern.

I looked at Alta performance and I am rather skeptical of their claims. They show their exhaust created +10WHP but produced no numbers on torque and considering some of their parts (i.e. their intercooler) and their claims of 5-10 HP from replacing a hot side tube I am really skeptical.

So, does anyone here have dyno charts from replacing their downpipe back out without a tune for the exhaust? If so, what other mods are on there?

 

I wouldn't count on any real gains without replacing the downpipe.

 

Yeah...this isn't going to be a half *** build, entire exhaust is being done. I just love Akrapovich but if someone has a better overall solution I will take it.

ON that note, I have only found one company making a Turbo manifold for this engine, anyone else have a recommendation?

Overall I am building a street car for the track...not a track car for the street so reliability is a major factor as well which is why my tuning is limited to two possible companies. Picky is the name of the game!

 

I would love to help out, but I just had my exhaust installed (NM engineering DP back exhaust). They claim 15-18HP which I find to be hard to believe. Maybe Decibels louder The drone isn't bad at all - but under throttle it is a conversation stopper.

I'd love to get it to a dyno to find out. Sometimes I think those claims are just because people don't have access to a dyno to check. I purchased mine for pretty much the same reason as you - a street car for the track if needed. My issue was that I didn't want to pay the 1600+ for the Akrapovich only to need 500 ish more for the tips.

The NM engineering ones have stainless tips.

Just a side note, I do like the look of the Akrapovich Carbon Fiber tips.

 

Invidia Q300 with a catless DP is the awesomess.

 

I would recommend the NM DP back system. Install is a breeze, fit and finish is superb, sound is great, quality is outstanding. Stainless from front to back. Power gains, hmmmm??? Maybe noticed a little. Hard to tell. good luck in your choice!

 

this is my next major purchase and I have been doing some of the same kind of research as you are doing. Exhaust with SOME hp gain, but my two main concerns are sound (no drone) and it doesnt make my mini sound like a honda.

I have come across that everyone speaks wonders of the akropavich (or however its spelled) with the DP to be the best on the market, as far as install, hp gain, and sound goes. The NM seems to be another great sounding exhaust but i dont believe they claim any HP gain. My last piece of advice and I am not steering anyone away from ALTA as my car has a lot of their parts and i use their license plate holders but its said that because their exhaust is 3" it weights a bit more and its unnecessary for Mini type S. If you can afford get the Akropavich, if not the rest of the exhausts are all about the same price. check out NM's

hope my 2 cents helped

ps. with the Akrapovich you still have to purchase the tips for an extra 600 or something like that :( :( :( rich man stuff ..

 

Akrapovic= $1635 with either the carbon fiber or Titanium tips.

I've seen it in person, and rode in the car just after install. No droan at all. It really is a work of art.

The Invidia I bought, only stayed on the car for about a week. The droan was horrible. especially at 70 to 80 on the highway.

 

Heading to the dyno this week. I don't have any tune or other mods, so we'll see what / if any power increase there is. I am not expecting anything huge from the standard 181 of the 2012.

On NM's website they say 15-18HP - which I am really skeptical about. http://nm-eng.com/nm3088562-nm-eng-d...st-system.html

These look like an extra 600 bucks.

 

Hmm I was thinking that the exhaust came without the tips.

WMW has them listed as an option: http://www.waymotorworks.com/akrapov...6-r57-r58.html

Dunno, maybe thats incorrect.

 

those are some bad *** tips but that also is half a plane ticket to somewhere exotic in this world lmaooo just for TIPS !! but the more i procrastinate and stall the easier the AK exhaust and DP seem to justify ... been saving for a while just need to make my mind up one of these days :-/

 

i only no of 1 man who makes a turbo manifold for this engine and he is czar he post on here regular so you could try him and see what he says, i looked for a long time and couldnt find a different turbo manifold to the 1 the mcs comes with, where did you find yours?

 

The $1630 price should include either of the tips. The basic exhaust is $1150 or so. But I don't think most normall tips will fit.

 

I looked at the Invidia and decided against it. POS IMO and it sounds horrible. Customer service was rather mundane and ignorant.

Thus far it is looking at Akrapovich is my clear answer to this and well worth the money. After that I am getting it coated by swain tech.

The turbo manifold: http://www.waymotorworks.com/turbo-e...5-r56-r57.html

 

thanks for the link i looked at that some time ago but its not much different to the stock 1 i thought you wanted a tubular 1 like a proper manifold?

 

If I decide to go with a tubular one I will need it custom made and I am not entirely too sure if that will do anything other than look ugly underneath the hood.

The manifold in question here is straighter, smoother on the inside and the diameter is slightly larger which should help produce better power output.

I am going to purchase everything sort of one step-at-a-time and install it quickly; however, I want to put on just the Akapovich to see how it does without a tune and then add the new manifold to see if we see anything with that (of course with no tune).

Perhaps some day in the long term future (when this isn't my daily driver) I will pull the head and have it looked over to see how much it flows currently and where we can add more flow. That is a wish but a guy can dream too.

 

I have the Invidia and I love it. You simply can't beat the build quality and sound quality for 600-700 shipped. The sound is deep, not at all raspy, and is truly quiet unless under load. When I was doing research for which exhaust to buy, the consensus was that 99% of exhausts for the mini will drone on the highway...and the Invidia (like many others from what I understand) does. I just turn up my stereo :-)

Like others have said, you need a catless DP to really get HP from the exhaust system. By replacing the DP, you remove the last remaining cat in the car. It gets louder, raspier, and may cause some drone.

 

Yeah....that isn't going to change my mind on it being a POS. Akrapovich has been building quality time and time again and they have a comprehensive video of how it sounds in the car and outside. Invidia rep provided me some ridiculous sound clip of their exhaust that sounded like crap.

The AKrapovich system does have a downpipe option that you can purchase and that is the intention I had, (read the original and throughout).

Turning up my stereo isn't an option either because it sounds like something the 16 year old kids do with their riced out Hondas. Invidia is out of the question. Thus far I am researching the NM exhaust and I am looking at some options at Way Motor works.

Once again, building a street car that can go on the track, not a track car for the street.

 

I'm really not the type to take these things personally (it's not like I made the exhaust, and I'm happy with my choice). But it's one thing to ask people advice and make your decision accordingly. It's quite another to react by saying Invidia exhausts are pieces of sh*t and that they make your car sound like a riced out honda. Just ignorant...you heard one sound clip over the internet. And the "turning up the stereo" comment was what we here call "humor."

Anyhow, good luck in your search for the ultimate exhaust. I hope you find what you're looking for.

 

Yeah, somehow I don't think the title implied "humor welcome". Repeating a choice that was stated was no longer an option is synonymous to me telling a customer they should choose Juniper when they obviously stated it was no longer an option would make me look really stupid.

The sound clip THEY provided and the lack of spelling and grammar in their response tells me they aren't a company I desire to do business with especially because they wouldn't even take the time to spend ~$50 to put a car on a dyno with their exhaust.

 

What is your deal? Relax. Just trying to help. Do what you want to do and have fun!

 

My friends, read carefully!
This exhaust manifold advertised by WMW, IS the JCW stock part! Don't be fooled...it is different than any other stock manifold both S and JCW being indeed the last part number you can order from BMW-Mini. All the other JCW manifold are discontinued.
So, how do you think is going to be a better option than stock is beyond me...

Not to mention the exhaust ports of the head and the turbo flange to the exhaust manifold DO NOT MATCH...

 

I have contacted Way on the manifold and have not heard anything from them yet, once again it isn't a final buy yet unless I find other options.

Yes, I understand the head ports will not initially match at this time but having them ported is some day in the plans (when I can afford to have another daily driver).

Your post makes very little sense, do you care to fix your grammatical errors so I can discern that you really meant to say "Isn't any different versus it is different"? There are other characteristics to the manifold that I am looking for such as the interior of the turbo manifold.

From the days where I learned to build on older V8's we borrowed a lot of Smokey Yunick's philosophies and one of which happens to be paying close attention to small design characteristics such as how the inside of things like intake manifolds and exhaust manifolds are formed to ensure better flow characteristics. There were plenty of times (for budget purposes or availability of service) we couldn't match exhaust ports to the manifold and had to run it like that and still experienced a gain in HP, once again, not the numbers we wanted but an increase was there.

If this isn't anything special I am sure there are others out there (albeit difficult to find) or (gasp) I may have to end up getting one made.

 

If you go to the WMW site and take a look at the picture with the two manifolds stock and "improved" , what you are actually looking is two stock JCW manifolds! The upper one which is labeled as stock is the discontinued part by BMW and the lower one which is labeled as "improved" is the new stock JCW manifold. From my personal observation, cause I had both, is that the material is different, the weight is different (the new one is lighter) , smoother on the inside, straighter runners as well, and more efficiently designed. Nonetheless its flange is NOT a perfect match with the turbo flange.
Now prior installation I have made the adequate work for port-flange matching between the manifold and the turbo. Better flow and no more hot spots...

As far as the Akrapovic is concerned, simply a masterpiece! Very expensive though, but the best out there. And those cf tips are hot! Just don't forget to buy the DP as well cause it has the biggest gains. And the sound is just perfect! Not too loud, not too raspy, no drone, but when you put the pedal to the metal it sounds wonderful!

 

I wouldn't worry about the OP much Dr. Fox. I was all about giving my 2 cents to be helpful but after reading his response to you, I no longer care much for his build. You did the right thing by suggesting something that you enjoy/recommend.

Keep it up and don't let some stuffy know-it-all ruin the MINI sense of community.