aFe MACH Force XP Race Pipe for BMW E9x M3. Has anyone installed this??

[Nisfro98]

I'm convinced anything added to the mpe makes it sound horrible. That vid has reconfirmed I need a whole new setup.

[91foxbody]

I bought one of these yesterday and should have it in my hands in a few weeks. I have a Megan cat-back and as far as I can tell, no one documented/filmed this combo. I'll take some crappy iPhone videos after install and put them up here.

[Richbot]

Originally Posted by Nisfro98

I'm convinced anything added to the mpe makes it sound horrible. That vid has reconfirmed I need a whole new setup.

I wouldn’t say it’s horrible - it has its downsides but also some big upsides. It sounds amazing at wot - on a track it sounds perfect. And it’s still pretty dang quiet at cruise, quieter at light throttle than the totally stock E63 we have.

But it’ll rasp a bit in the right conditions for sure

I have the Karbonius plenum so I also have moar induction noise than most people which helps balance it out. It was a little exhaust heavy before the plenum.

[ExcelonGT]

Originally Posted by Nisfro98

I'm convinced anything added to the mpe makes it sound horrible. That vid has reconfirmed I need a whole new setup.

Im glad I found this thread. I recently got an e92 that came with an MPE.. love the MPE but i literally just want a volume knob to turn up the dBs. started researching x-pipes to mate to the MPE, but it doesn't look so straightforward

[ExcelonGT]

Anyone have the RKP (either street or sport) mated to an MPE?

[91foxbody]

Just finished the install. It fought me quite a bit, and one of the O2 bungs was welded crooked so I had to do some dremel work, but so far so good.

[91foxbody]

Did anyone else lose some ground clearance with this install? I never used to scrape leaving my garage but now the cats graze the concrete just slightly on the garage-to-driveway juncture.

[wyatth]

^ Not sure I’ve read about AFEs scraping, but most replacement midpipes with cats in the primary position (eg ESS, Fabspeed, AA) do scrape because the cats are round and now hang lower. The original cats are pancaked shaped for this reason.

[Richbot]

My car is relatively high for a car on coilovers (maybe 10mm lower up front than ZCP, if that) so I don't have any clearance issues that I didn't have before, but it's definitely about 1/2" lower than the stock pancake cats, and the cats are now the low point on the car. Going over the really big gradual speedhumps that the car has to straddle to cross is the only place I've had an issue, and then only once in 2.5 years, when I forgot to slow down and didn't go sideways either.

Fitment wise, that sounds about right. It wasn't exactly an easy bolt on/bolt-off. The good news is, once you've got it all put together in one piece, it will go in and out in one piece too. Was very easy to get in and out when I did my carbon driveshaft

[91foxbody]

Originally Posted by Richbot

My car is relatively high for a car on coilovers (maybe 10mm lower up front than ZCP, if that) so I don't have any clearance issues that I didn't have before, but it's definitely about 1/2" lower than the stock pancake cats, and the cats are now the low point on the car. Going over the really big gradual speedhumps that the car has to straddle to cross is the only place I've had an issue, and then only once in 2.5 years, when I forgot to slow down and didn't go sideways either.

Fitment wise, that sounds about right. It wasn't exactly an easy bolt on/bolt-off. The good news is, once you've got it all put together in one piece, it will go in and out in one piece too. Was very easy to get in and out when I did my carbon driveshaft

Interesting. I'll grab a couple of pics this weekend to post for comparison. I put it on in sections, which in hindsight I regret. I wish that I would have put it together in one piece and then slid it under the car. The center section really did not want to mate up to the test pipe sections. Additionally, the bolt tabs on the test pipe section refused to match up with the hanger, so I actually unbolted the hanger from it's mount, bolted the test pipes on, and then remounted the hanger.

[_X]

Originally Posted by 91foxbody

Interesting. I'll grab a couple of pics this weekend to post for comparison. I put it on in sections, which in hindsight I regret. I wish that I would have put it together in one piece and then slid it under the car. The center section really did not want to mate up to the test pipe sections. Additionally, the bolt tabs on the test pipe section refused to match up with the hanger, so I actually unbolted the hanger from it's mount, bolted the test pipes on, and then remounted the hanger.

Noticeable performance gain? How does it sound with the Megan?

[91foxbody]

Originally Posted by _X

Noticeable performance gain? How does it sound with the Megan?

Yes. I haven't done the stage 2 tune upload yet and it's been fairly wet the last few days, but it's significantly quicker so far. The sound is borderline erotic. It takes the somewhat bass-y/muscle car-ish Megan and adds a growl and makes it sound significantly more exotic.

[Richbot]

Originally Posted by 91foxbody

Interesting. I'll grab a couple of pics this weekend to post for comparison. I put it on in sections, which in hindsight I regret. I wish that I would have put it together in one piece and then slid it under the car. The center section really did not want to mate up to the test pipe sections. Additionally, the bolt tabs on the test pipe section refused to match up with the hanger, so I actually unbolted the hanger from it's mount, bolted the test pipes on, and then remounted the hanger.

I had to re-drill one of the holes on one of the forward transmission hanger tabs (on the midpipe, didn't have to modify the hanger) to get it to play nice.

Like I said in my initial review, fit is a hot mess compared to the super-nice and/or one-piece setups out there. I don't know if it would have been better assembled as a piece beforehand, but in retrospect, I don't see how that would have made things any worse so long as the header pipe to X pipe connection was left loose enough to take side load out of the connection until you crank it down at the header

I agree on the sound. It sounds absurd in my absurd edge/corner-case example video, but that's because it has a lot of range from "not obnoxious at all, quieter than an OEM AMG exhaust at part throttle on the highway" to "WTF WAS THAT" at WOT under an overpass

[91foxbody]

Some pics from my install, including the necessary dremeling to get the driver front O2 sensor to fit (shitty weld alignment). You can see how far the cats hang down.

[Crazy8.M3]

Originally Posted by ExcelonGT

Anyone have the RKP (either street or sport) mated to an MPE?

I had the RKP Street with MPE v2 before and really liked the sound. I thought with the RKP Street it gave it a fuller, deeper tone.

Changed out the MPE for a Meisterschaft GT2 that just made it louder.

I did just order the AFe Power Mach Force XP Race Pipe - Resonated so we'll see how this sounds with the Meisterschaft GT2.

[nodemgr]

Originally Posted by NorCal24

I have the RKP Street with MPE v2 before and really liked the sound. I thought with the RKP Street it gave it a fuller, deeper tone.

Changed out the MPE for a Meisterschaft GT2 that just made it louder.


I did just order the AFe Power Mach Force XP Race Pipe - Resonated so we'll see how this sounds with the Meisterschaft GT2.

One of the greatest exhaust comparison videos of all time, nice work.

[Crazy8.M3]

Originally Posted by nodemgr

One of the greatest exhaust comparison videos of all time, nice work.

Appreciate that, thanks!

[North.E92]

Dumb question but will this xpipe pass Cali emissions? Asking out of interest

[roastbeef]

Originally Posted by North.E92

Dumb question but will this xpipe pass Cali emissions? Asking out of interest

Not legally, but it might if they don't look at it.

[Crazy8.M3]

Paired the aFe MACH Force race pipe (resonate) with my Meisterschaft GT2 and I absolutely love how it sounds now. Got a few compliments on how it sounds yesterday on a cruise I did too. Performance wise it feels more responsive or I just think it's faster because it's louder. Cold starts are louder and WOT just puts a big smile on my face.
Will try and put together a new video soon.

[m34m]

Originally Posted by Crazy8.M3

Paired the aFe MACH Force race pipe (resonate) with my Meisterschaft GT2 and I absolutely love how it sounds now. Got a few compliments on how it sounds yesterday on a cruise I did too. Performance wise it feels more responsive or I just think it's faster because it's louder. Cold starts are louder and WOT just puts a big smile on my face.
Will try and put together a new video soon.

Video please

[Richbot]

For what it's worth, this thing has now passed two sets of OBD checks on my car. My O2 monitors are active with an Evolve Stage 1 tune on the car and I've had it on the car for quite a while now. Still loud as hell at WOT with the MPE, still pretty quiet at part throttle except at cold start idle. Whatever they used for cats, they seem to be enough to keep the OBD O2 sensor monitors happy with their performance.