OBX downpipe $72 on Ebay ! too good to be true...?

[Ringsby4]

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/151958336...cb1db1778&cp=1
So you say,wow that's cheap for a B7 Q 6M dp...
It looks the goods,so what can go grievously wrong with a DP ?Maybe fit,you hope not but that's relatively easy to fix.welds look okay.
Not so a cat pipe ,ie cheap fitted cat,bung placement wrong,serious flange error etc could be a real PIA
I'm in Oz and our $A is shite to yours,sad but true,I need to save some bucks if it workable in the medium turn,
So ,I'm thinking maybe this coupled with an 034 HFC,is the most economical for me over here=$A805 ! Scary cost of US gear now.
I only plan to keep Wolfie for < 3 years and ~70K more and if the dp is starting to burn out,its done its due's.
And BTW brethren around the world,Happy Australia day ! ,please come and visit ( with all your strong$$$'s lol )

[Der Konig]

Not bad honestly, I am interested since I believe my flex pipe is leaking and this would be a cheap alternative. Only thing I don't like is that its 304, and in northeast ohio thats bad news.

[konarider94]

Not bad honestly, I am interested since I believe my flex pipe is leaking and this would be a cheap alternative. Only thing I don't like is that its 304, and in northeast ohio thats bad news.

Why do you think 304 is bad? Its the most corrosion resistant alloy used for exhaust. Unless you found someone selling a 316L exhaust, which i doubt.

[Der Konig]

304 stainless steel has a high resistance to rust. It withstands corrosion from most oxidizing acids and is often used for kitchen and food applications. However, it is susceptible to corrosion from chloride solutions (notably saline environments with high amounts of sodium chloride). Chloride ions can create localized areas of corrosion, called "pitting," which can spread beneath protective chromium barriers to compromise internal structures. Solutions with as little as 25 ppm of sodium chloride can begin to have a corrosive effect.

That sounds like exactly the environment it would encounter underneath a car. I'm aware that it is used for quite a few exhaust systems, but is still not ideal. Actually never looked, surprised there aren't any companies offering 316L. Wasn't there a company that claimed theirs was 316L and turned out it wasn't?

[oVeRdOsE]

+1 , if you keep your car 20 years, maybe.

11 years with my previous 304 ss exhaust. The exhaust was 100% ok. here we have long winter, high humidity, and salt+calcium on the road. Your b7 body will be out before the exhaust.

The weak point is the welding and flanges. If the flange are in steel, don't worry about the rest of the exhaust.

For the flex, it's an other game, they fail 99% of the time because of the steel fatigue. It won't make any difference 316 or 304.
Make the flex bigger, lets say 3 or 3.5'', will help a lot.

One more thing, most of the aftermarket downpipe don't get the support bracket, like the oem.
OBX seems to be a good aftermarket option since it has the bracket to fix on the oem support. This will help to limit the unnecessary movement .

I have the CTS downpipe, I had to make my own bracket.

[LINDW4LL]

Not bad honestly, I am interested since I believe my flex pipe is leaking and this would be a cheap alternative. Only thing I don't like is that its 304, and in northeast ohio thats bad news.

I don't understand this comment at all. Almost all high quality exhausts use T304 stainless. Milltek, BillyBoat, Supersprint, AWE, Armytrix, etc... to name a handful.

T409 is a cheaper and more rust-prone material, and is what you want to avoid if you're worried about rust. Magnaflow systems use T409, for example.

[Der Konig]

I don't understand this comment at all. Almost all high quality exhausts use T304 stainless. Milltek, BillyBoat, Supersprint, AWE, Armytrix, etc... to name a handful.

T409 is a cheaper and more rust-prone material, and is what you want to avoid if you're worried about rust. Magnaflow systems use T409, for example.

As I already said, I wasn't aware that most exhausts were 304. So I looked a little into 304 and saw that it is rust prone in sodium chloride environments, which is what I encounter a quarter of the year up here. So again, as I said, I was mistaken and surprised that the more robust stainless isn't used.

But as overdose already pointed out for me, it isn't necessary anyways.

So my earlier comment both made sense and didn't at the same time haha

[Ringsby4]

Thanks all for your comments,we don't have salt put on the roads here fortunately so the external corrosion wont be an issue.but from my boatbuilding background I've seen a lot of Chinese made fittings with inferior ss,some even claimed to be 316 that a magnet just jumped onto.That was a few years ago.I see Milltek make a point of saying that their exhausts are non-magnetic,prob. Inferring a high grade of ss.
Overdose,good point about the flex,it looks pretty short-does the OEM have one ? I haven't actually eyeballed the lower part of the do yet .

[Gotpsi2008]

is this larger than the oem or just a different material?

[p0isin]

The obx exhaust will be a bit bigger than stock

[Der Konig]

Just to specify I think oem is 2.25" and this is 2.5"? Correct me if I'm wrong.

Sent from my SM-N900V using Tapatalk

[p0isin]

I think stock is 2". OBX says the downpipe is 2.5" and the rest is 2.25"

[aluthman]

Thanks all for your comments,we don't have salt put on the roads here fortunately so the external corrosion wont be an issue.but from my boatbuilding background I've seen a lot of Chinese made fittings with inferior ss,some even claimed to be 316 that a magnet just jumped onto.That was a few years ago.I see Milltek make a point of saying that their exhausts are non-magnetic,prob. Inferring a high grade of ss.
Overdose,good point about the flex,it looks pretty short-does the OEM have one ? I haven't actually eyeballed the lower part of the do yet .

IIRC, 400 series stainless will stick to a magnet. That's what a lot of cheap exhausts are made of that still let them claim stainless construction.

[vce1232000]

For $100.00 shipped its worth the gamble

[Ringsby4]

IIRC, 400 series stainless will stick to a magnet. That's what a lot of cheap exhausts are made of that still let them claim stainless construction.

aluthman,some 304 we used in fittings was slightly magnetic,but its along time since I started as an indentured shipwright but its to do with the alloyed ratio ? maybe ?...Oh damn,Ill look it up..
So.."Austenitic stainless steel grades exhibit low magnetic permeability, because of which they do not show any response to magnets in the annealed condition. However, they show some amount of magnetic response following cold-working process, such as heavy polishing, shot blasting, centerless grinding, rolling or wire drawing. Grade 304 steels attain quite strong magnetic response following substantial cold working, while grades 310 and 316 will remain non-responsive to a magnet in most cases."
Live and learn ( again ! )
So maybe Milltek is 316 ? You'd expect it for the price..$A1900 from their dealer here for resonated system with downpipe.

[Ringsby4]

For $100.00 shipped its worth the gamble

Heh vce,I'm thinking the same,but the ebay seller has poor engrish and isn't responsive to some basic questions although he did tell me that the freight to here is $US90 ! and that they would send the same day with USPS Int. Found that out with lots of prodding ! Funny but not funny,you guy's have some recourse if the shit hits the fan with p/pal for eg, but over here once we have got something shipped were lumbered with it as the freight is even more expeno back to the US !

[vce1232000]

Heh vce,I'm thinking the same,but the ebay seller has poor engrish and isn't responsive to some basic questions although he did tell me that the freight to here is $US90 ! and that they would send the same day with USPS Int. Found that out with lots of prodding ! Funny but not funny,you guy's have some recourse if the shit hits the fan with p/pal for eg, but over here once we have got something shipped were lumbered with it as the freight is even more expeno back to the US !

Damn I never looked where you was located. Not a bad deal here in the USA thou... A few members here ran the OBX complete DP back for the manual. If you do a search on it here, you will see the reviews

[Ringsby4]

Damn I never looked where you was located. Not a bad deal here in the USA thou... A few members here ran the OBX complete DP back for the manual. If you do a search on it here, you will see the reviews

And from memory,most were happy with OBX and jimrobbington put up a great thread about why we need to do this to our crappy OEM exhaust...
http://www.audizine.com/forum/showth...t-past-stage-1
His mate operator,I think an AZ member ,has an OBX system and an unnamed HFC and it sounds very okay ! (there's some vids down the thread a bit..)

[p0isin]

I had an obx exhaust on the car for a few years. It was good, no problems. Install was easy and fitment is nice. No rust after a few New England winters.

[konarider94]

aluthman,some 304 we used in fittings was slightly magnetic,but its along time since I started as an indentured shipwright but its to do with the alloyed ratio ? maybe ?...Oh damn,Ill look it up..
So.."Austenitic stainless steel grades exhibit low magnetic permeability, because of which they do not show any response to magnets in the annealed condition. However, they show some amount of magnetic response following cold-working process, such as heavy polishing, shot blasting, centerless grinding, rolling or wire drawing. Grade 304 steels attain quite strong magnetic response following substantial cold working, while grades 310 and 316 will remain non-responsive to a magnet in most cases."
Live and learn ( again ! )
So maybe Milltek is 316 ? You'd expect it for the price..$A1900 from their dealer here for resonated system with downpipe.

Not a chance they are using 316, I brought that up as a joke. 321 is more common than 316 for exhaust im pretty sure and it still isnt very common. The op was hating on 304 which he has recanted. Why don't we bring up inconel 625. That's the real way to go.

[Ringsby4]

Not a chance they are using 316, I brought that up as a joke. 321 is more common than 316 for exhaust im pretty sure and it still isnt very common. The op was hating on 304 which he has recanted. Why don't we bring up inconel 625. That's the real way to go.

Yes of course,any exhaust would be way too expensive in 316 although it is along with 304 common in quality marine fittings.

[keaton85]

what is the different between the manual and auto (non-CVT) downpipe? my flex pipe is going as well and would much rather go with a stainless OBX but I am auto..

[vce1232000]

what is the different between the manual and auto (non-CVT) downpipe? my flex pipe is going as well and would much rather go with a stainless OBX but I am auto..

The dp is configured differently of the 2 different dimensions of the transmissions

[aluthman]

The dp is configured differently of the 2 different dimensions of the transmissions

The tiptronic tranny is a gigantic lump of and as a result, there isn't much clearance for anything larger than a stock DP.

[vce1232000]

The tiptronic tranny is a gigantic lump of and as a result, there isn't much clearance for anything larger than a stock DP.

.............

[Jake@JHM]

The tiptronic tranny is a gigantic lump of and as a result, there isn't much clearance for anything larger than a stock DP.

We make a downpipe for the tip

[Ringsby4]

We make a downpipe for the tip

And yep Jake,your HFC/dp is honestly awesome but for your poor cousins over here in Oz, is just plain un affordable for a 10 yo car.$US1=.70c Australian plus outrageous freight
Soz,I gotta be a cheapskate and prob go OBX pipe and 034 HFC ( partic. with your gasket set as an extra,you've really priced the HFC high unfortunately)

[king_j]

All the ppl interested in this DP, you'll be using stock mufflers?

Last year there was a sale on the mototec catback system. That mated to this DP would be a good exhaust at a decent price. (Assuming piping matches)



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Jake@JHM]

And yep Jake,your HFC/dp is honestly awesome but for your poor cousins over here in Oz, is just plain un affordable for a 10 yo car.$US1=.70c Australian plus outrageous freight
Soz,I gotta be a cheapskate and prob go OBX pipe and 034 HFC ( partic. with your gasket set as an extra,you've really priced the HFC high unfortunately)

I know the price isn't the cheapest out there, but the quality of the cat material we use is very high. Our cost just on just the cats cost more than some companies test pipes!

[Operator]

The tiptronic tranny is a gigantic lump of and as a result, there isn't much clearance for anything larger than a stock DP.

I fit the OBX Manual DP on my TIP. And I now have a 3" custom DP on my TIP.

[gonemtbiking]

I fit the OBX Manual DP on my TIP. And I now have a 3" custom DP on my TIP.

How much did you end up having to spend for the 3" custom?

[mpv314]

buy it, you have buyer protection. worst case scenario you ask for a refund and if the seller doesn't honor it you can raise a claim.

[Ringsby4]

All the ppl interested in this DP, you'll be using stock mufflers?

Last year there was a sale on the mototec catback system. That mated to this DP would be a good exhaust at a decent price. (Assuming piping matches)



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Thanks for the input,Moto are marketed as BSR for a reasonable price here in Australia and ROW.I was actually considering that system after listening to the proposed HFC/dp combo...

[vce1232000]

I was actually considering that system after listening to the proposed "Test Pipe"/dp combo...

TFY. Test pipes are for people that wanna ........lol

[Operator]

How much did you end up having to spend for the 3" custom?

I forget, but it was done with the rest of my exhaust, so it would be hard to ID exactly what the DP cost.

[Ringsby4]

I fit the OBX Manual DP on my TIP. And I now have a 3" custom DP on my TIP.

Which one did you have on for the vids on jim r's great thread ? I thought your setup sounded great !

[Ringsby4]

TFY. Test pipes are for people that wanna ........lol

Heh vce,.I said "I was actually considering that system after listening to the proposed HFC/dp combo... "But I know where you're coming from.
Big trouble over here when caught with no CAT .Various Ford and other muscle car forums here have stories ( they're just the types to mess with the legality of stuff !-.....I'm maybe one of those on occasions ! lol )

[vce1232000]

Didnt know the land down under was like that............lol I feel your pain

[projectb7avant]

I also have 3in custom on my tip. Its doable so companies like Europa came of as lazy saying anything bigger then stock won't fit.

Sent from my HTC6525LVW using Tapatalk

[Ringsby4]

....lazy and maybe have done some market research re which parts sell
A lot of older models B5,B6,stuff is dropping off for them now,Unitronics stopped making the B6 HFC/downpipe combo for eg
But custom's defin. an option.
Trouble is exhaust guy's charge $A110 ph here, same as a top grade auto shop.~ 4 hours would disappear building a HFC/DP by the time the air filter etc is stripped and getting that SOB clamp apart +CAT,bungs,tube etc and me supplying a presentable looking turbo flange, water jet or laser cut.Costs add up and next thing I could possibly get one from the US for less .Still thinking this through...when you're retired you have nothing but time,time and more time lol