Off the shelf or custom exhaust?

lordrobs

lordrobs

lordrobs

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Anyone who has driven an Octavia vRS will know that it lacks that all important warm hatch exhaust note to make you think you are going faster than you actually are. I've accepted this point until recently when within about 3 minutes I had a mk5 Golf GTi, Focus ST and a Focus RS go past with a bit of welly and I was jealous of the soundtrack.

Now I've been thinking about what to do. Milltek and Blueflame are quite well regarded. Neither has a tip design that I like... well the 2.75" Milltek has but its an extra £200 which is a bit much for a nicer tip :p

Our work experience guy has just told me that he was very happy with the service from our local Powerflow franchise and that got me thinking about going for a custom system? Possibly with the standard (but I would buy a new one as mine is scabby) tip welded on?

What are the collective OCUK thoughts on off the shelf versus custom? I'm only looking at CAT back if that makes a difference.

Thanks.
 
Not been a fan of the quality of work on any powerflow systems I have ever seen . I think its worth paying that little bit extra to get an off the shelf system
 
just had a powerflow cat back fitted to my volvo and it now sounds like the god of thunder :p, i specified quite a loud setup as i dont use the car all that much
quality of the welds and bends was spot on and turnaround time was just over 2 hours all in for £325
one thing i did notice was that it reduced the back pressure dramatically and it spools up quicker as well :D
the quality may differ between outlets tho
 
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i had a powerflow exhaust done a few years ago and was very pleased with the quality and workmanship (think this depends on the dealer), even made an exhaust a bit quietier for me a few weeks later without charging for labour.


Its nice to be able to choose how loud or what tip you want.
 
Powerflow are a franchise so quality of the fitment is all that peoplke question. The tips they provide are decent quality. The one I had on my old 206 cost a bit less than a standard mild steel OEM replacement and it did 40k miles more than the 15k the standard exhaust managed.

They also let me make sure it didn't sound crap before they put it together properly by offering different sized boxes.
 
powerflow are terrible, persoanlly id get on the owners club and see what they reccommned for a bit of a power increase aswell.

My friend has a clio 182 with a blue flame exhaust and it had a nice note, but it droned a lot on the motorway.
 
Wouldn't touch Powerflow again with a barge pole and I'm quite sure any reputable exhaust manufacturer would tell you the same. You don't know what the internals are like and whether or not the system is as wide as you specify all the way through. Took mine to Mongoose to have it examined and the guy just laughed at the welds and said get your money back - so I did.

I had a Blueflame on my vRS, great note and not too loud. Tip was slightly larger than the standard exhaust
 
Nip to your local scrappy, or one near DannyW, you could get one for £2 if you look hard enough!!

More seriously, I've got a Blueflame on the Mondeo and its great, not very loud at all when going steady, but it does bark when you put your foot down!!
 
Depends on what characteristics you want, amount of drone, loudness, tone etc.

Surely there must be some user experiences of Skoda built systems on some owners forums? Failing that, see what YouTube has to show.

I personally would avoid a custom built one. All the quality kit systems generally have a fair amount of R and D and testing/niggle fixing on a donor vehicle.
 
If you want a properly tuned custom system then Tube Torque are the boys to talk to.

If you just want middle of the road half decent, then of the shelf janspeed and Peco systems are are very good.
 
Totally depends on the dealer when it comes to Powerflow.

If you decide to go there, make sure they use stainless welding wire... I've read a few dealers don't! Also, make sure the bends are mandrel bent rather than crush bent.

A good mandrel bent free flowing exhaust will free up a few ponies.
 
Thanks for all the advice. You Tube throws up bugger all for the Octavia and the bulk of current owners have Blueflame or Milltek.

There is a local guy that has done some work on a fellow OCUKers car. He is a Jetex distributor and could make me up something from the generic jetex bits and bung my tip on it which is another option.
 
Why can't you just buy a tip design that you like, then pay an exhaust specialist to chop the old one off and weld the new one in place? Hell, would've thought many places would do this for you, and will cost peanuts - especially in comparrison to a custom setup.
 
Firestar_3x said:
Custom catback from a company who do good work.
Click to expand...

This really. I wouldn't bother with brands, just go to a well known exhaust place with a good reputation and ask for a T304 cat-back. They will have a selection of tail-pipe designs and will ask how loud you want it.
 
MoNkeE said:
Why can't you just buy a tip design that you like, then pay an exhaust specialist to chop the old one off and weld the new one in place? Hell, would've thought many places would do this for you, and will cost peanuts - especially in comparrison to a custom setup.
Click to expand...

Basically I want a nice sounding exhaust but the off the shelf products don't have tips that suit my car (IMO) and there is no way I would chop the end off of a £300+ exhaust and lose my warrenty. Hence why I was wondering about custom jobbies.

Currently it looks fine (apart from it being wonky like 1/2 of the Octavias I see on the road :( ) but is too quiet.
 
Have you been down to SCA? Last time I was in there they seemed to be making a big deal of the fact that they build bespoke exhausts.
 
blueflame are actually one of the OEM manufacturers for some car brands

im sure they can do you a custom tip if you ring and ask.
 
I'd never use Powerflow again either. I went for a full staright through system on my previous Celica. It sounded nice, but the welds were terrible, they were always breaking and the exhaust blowing out. As it was a large jap style pipe they welded some supporting bracket things which also snapped. Awful. Poor service too.

The best I ever had, was an overprice Halfrauds installation, a Mongoose full system. That sounded superb on a turbo diesel, it had a deep note but the turbo whine sounded fanstastic considering it was a diesel.
 
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