ksandman
Ready to race!
I figured I'd share my experience with the beluga downpipe since I can't find much info on it from recent days. (All are older post.)
This won't be picture heavy unfortunately as I was rushed after work to get it on, but if you want to do some reading, stick around.
First off, what in the f&$k kind of packaging is this?
Box was destroyed but thankfully the downpipe wasn't. Nice job patching a box rather than using a new one? Haha anyways. Bubble wrap used to wrap the down pipe was below average in quality. One thin sleeve around it. Nothing inside to keep damage down and downpipe from rattling around and causing damage. There was maybe 2 small dings. Nothing serious.
Now quality of downpipe.
The welds looked decent. This now uses a two bolt flange rather than a v-band clamp which I originally though it was. Not much of a problem though as 2 bolt is fine. The metal was pretty thin, but not tin can thin. It was nice and shiny as well lol.
All of the flanges needed to be belt sanded. You could straight up see that there was a slight curvature on the flanges and using a straight edge proved it to be true. I'm lucky in my case that my shop has a fabricator and he did it for me for no charge, but I do want to warn people to check the flanges!! Especially the turbo to downpipe flange!! I've read some threads where people used the turbo to downpipe gasket provided with the downpipe blow out. It's probably due to the fact that the flange may have been wrapped but also that gasket should honestly be put in the trash can. Get an oem style gasket and save yourself the time. They're cheap!
Other than the flanges, the fitment was pretty damn good. I think the rear section could have been longer so it would be closer to my stock catback piping inside the wedge clamp thing used to combine the two together. I don't think it's much of an issue though.
Overall, for $170 bucks shipped to my house, I honestly can't complain. I have it matted to my stock catback and it is the perfect sound. I'm getting older and like my ride to sound stock when cruising, but when I punch it, there is a very nice sporty tone to it. I previously had the Cobb 3in turboback with a non resonated downpipe and it was way too loud. So much drone. This set up, like I said, for $170 I am very pleased.
I mainly made this thread to address the flange issues to warn people if they do decide to buy this downpipe they should check them to make sure they're flat so they won't have a leak at the turbo or the mid section where to downpipe is connected.
ALSO! This did taper from 3in into stock diameter, which I was very happy to find out when I opened it up, but some out there may not want that cause they think they're getting a full 3in. This is not the case. It tapers.
At the end of the day a downpipe is a downpipe. Now I did come from the Cobb setup and that thing was beautiful, but this pipe does the exact same thing at a way lower price, but we will see how it stands up over time.
If you're thinking about getting this, I say go for it. You might be slightly disappointed but really the issue I pointed out are easily fixed.
Hope this helps some future beluga buyers!
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
This won't be picture heavy unfortunately as I was rushed after work to get it on, but if you want to do some reading, stick around.
First off, what in the f&$k kind of packaging is this?
Box was destroyed but thankfully the downpipe wasn't. Nice job patching a box rather than using a new one? Haha anyways. Bubble wrap used to wrap the down pipe was below average in quality. One thin sleeve around it. Nothing inside to keep damage down and downpipe from rattling around and causing damage. There was maybe 2 small dings. Nothing serious.
Now quality of downpipe.
The welds looked decent. This now uses a two bolt flange rather than a v-band clamp which I originally though it was. Not much of a problem though as 2 bolt is fine. The metal was pretty thin, but not tin can thin. It was nice and shiny as well lol.
All of the flanges needed to be belt sanded. You could straight up see that there was a slight curvature on the flanges and using a straight edge proved it to be true. I'm lucky in my case that my shop has a fabricator and he did it for me for no charge, but I do want to warn people to check the flanges!! Especially the turbo to downpipe flange!! I've read some threads where people used the turbo to downpipe gasket provided with the downpipe blow out. It's probably due to the fact that the flange may have been wrapped but also that gasket should honestly be put in the trash can. Get an oem style gasket and save yourself the time. They're cheap!
Other than the flanges, the fitment was pretty damn good. I think the rear section could have been longer so it would be closer to my stock catback piping inside the wedge clamp thing used to combine the two together. I don't think it's much of an issue though.
Overall, for $170 bucks shipped to my house, I honestly can't complain. I have it matted to my stock catback and it is the perfect sound. I'm getting older and like my ride to sound stock when cruising, but when I punch it, there is a very nice sporty tone to it. I previously had the Cobb 3in turboback with a non resonated downpipe and it was way too loud. So much drone. This set up, like I said, for $170 I am very pleased.
I mainly made this thread to address the flange issues to warn people if they do decide to buy this downpipe they should check them to make sure they're flat so they won't have a leak at the turbo or the mid section where to downpipe is connected.
ALSO! This did taper from 3in into stock diameter, which I was very happy to find out when I opened it up, but some out there may not want that cause they think they're getting a full 3in. This is not the case. It tapers.
At the end of the day a downpipe is a downpipe. Now I did come from the Cobb setup and that thing was beautiful, but this pipe does the exact same thing at a way lower price, but we will see how it stands up over time.
If you're thinking about getting this, I say go for it. You might be slightly disappointed but really the issue I pointed out are easily fixed.
Hope this helps some future beluga buyers!
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
