Aftermarket RS Exhaust Systems (reopening the can of worms)

[Fireside]

Hey guys,
I know that this topic has been truly and utterly exhausted (pardon the pun), but I think with all the hoo-har, hear-say and product praising that's gone on in previous posts, there are a few unanswered questions on the subject.

I'd like to reopen the discussion on AM exhausts to answer the following questions before fitting a full system including tune.
Assuming we're talking about the main players in the manufacturing of systems for the Octavia RS 2.0L TSI, (them being
Milltek, APR, Jetex and BSR - let me know if there are any others), here are the questions:

1. Which exhaust system has the highest gains (does anyone have dyno comparisons)?
2. Has anyone experienced any problems since fitting? ie. warning lights, rattling, rust or bluish taint over time.
3. What's the best bang for your buck system, and is it worth spending the extra for a tried and tested unit?

What I hope to achieve here is not to start an argument on "what I got is better than yours" etc, etc, but try and approach the subject from a facts and figures point of view. Dyno numbers, faults, gains, good and bad experiences and overall we can all benefit from the comparisons made here.

So, consider the flood gates open....!
Which is the best Full Turbo back Exhaust System for the Skoda Octavia 2.0L TSI?

[CSR]

Only thing I can contribute to this is that the "bluish taint" you are talking about is oxidation and will happen with any stainless steel / titanium exhaust if the temperatures get too hot, which I doubt will ever be the case in your car.

The bluish taint can just be polished away anyway.

[Fireside]

Ok, just to get the ball rolling a bit, I came across this link with some Dynos on it:

JKM Performance - JKM Skoda VRS 2.0 TSI

Just wondering if anyone's had a Jetex or APR installed, APR has a winter sale on at the moment and it'd be good to take advantage of it.

[Corey_R]

In your first post, you say "Full Cat back Exhaust System".

Do you mean "Full Turbo Back Exhaust System"? Or "Cat back Exhaust System" ? Not sure which word is incorrect...

I'm assuming you meant turbo because otherwise you wouldn't be talking about dyno graphs and stuff being that cat backs are for sound/looks improvements, not performance.

[Tim]

dp makes power. cat back makes noise.
What are you trying to achieve?

[Fireside]

Sorry fellas, it was late when I posted the first call out.... I meant FULL TURBO.
Thanks for the heads up, my mistake.

[Fireside]

dp makes power. cat back makes noise.
What are you trying to achieve?

Hey Tim,
I'm after maximum street legal gains.
I've been saving my pennies hard over the last few months so I wanna put my money to it's best possible use.

I was under the impression that with the stock Octavia Cat, I wont be able to get great gains with just the DP cos the OEM Cat back restricts airflow a fair bit on the Octy.

But I'm perfectly happy to add some noise to the otherwise super soft note.

[Corey_R]

I haven't got your car (obviously), but on the VW's with the same engine, the stock catalytic converter is basically smack-bang up against the turbo. It's also a very high density number of cells. So yes, it's restrictive. However, it is the aftermarket downpipes which remove the OEM cat, and then place their own "motorsports"/"hi-flow" cat underneath the car in the transmission tunnel.

A "cat back" exhaust is just the pipes after that. So the central resonator (if your aftermarket exhaust of choice has one), rear silencers, tailpipes. So confusingly, the "cat back" doesn't actually touch the cat!

Here's a diagram from APR (of the MK6 Golf GTI exhaust) which marks out the "Downpipe", "Cat Back" and "Turbo Back" areas:


So specifically for the Skoda RS, here's the downpipe (and the high-flowing 100-cell metal high flow catalyst):

It's identical to what I had on my MKV Golf GTI.

And here is the full system so you can see what the cat-back section looks like too:



Hope that helps

[Lucas_R]

Fireside - i just came across this place (based in Australia) that has Milltek exhausts for the Skoda RS on special at the moment.

Bad news is that you are still looking at around $3.5k for a complete turbo back exhaust which is highway robbery in my opinion.

Best Exhaust - Skoda OCTAVIA

[Fireside]

Thanks for the link Lucas, I reckon Milltek is the way to go, great gains, not so great price tho, but I'm willing to compromise price for performance. I managed to get a a decent price on a full system (just under $2700) plus $300 for installation. Not sure how much the software will be but I have a few weeks before my exhaust gets shipped so I can try and budget for it.