Valvetronic X pipe review

drwankel · 09-17-2021, 04:55 PM

Hey Everyone.

I've been waiting a bit to post this review, but was waiting for this situation to be resolved before sharing my experience.

As some of you know, I have a harrop supercharger kit on the car. I previously just had a MPE catback, and that was it as far as exhaust went, and I really never intended modifying the exhaust beyond adding the MPE.

Fast forward to ordering the harrop, once I ordered it, I was strongly advised that the main cats need to go when running this supercharger. Not what I intended to do, but my desire to get a harrop supercharger greatly outweighed my wish to keep the main cats on the car. I went ahead and ordered test pipes to install with the supercharger.

Once the install was all done, I was thrilled with the supercharger, but the test pipes absolutely ruined the sound of the MPE, adding tons of rasp everywhere. It became apparent that I was going to have to completely re-think my exhaust setup.

I started watching every exhaust setup video I could find, and found the one I believed to be the unicorn. The ESS x pipe plus Corsa rear. Was the best sounding setup for the S65 I've ever heard by a longshot. This video in particular sold me on it:

Now this was in 2020 that I installed the supercharger, and there was a big problem with trying to replicate this setup- the ESS x pipe was no longer in production. The bit that supposedly made this combo work, was moving the X farther forward.

I went ahead an ordered a Corsa rear, and installed in on my factory x pipe that was modded with test pipes. Sounded great. The secondaries still kept the smell under control, and the sound was pretty good. I now started to pursue getting the second piece of the puzzle to reproduce this exhaust setup, the x pipe.

The requirements were pretty straightforward. I wanted something with the X moved forward, and something that used HJS 200 cell high flow cats in the secondary position.

Shortly after I saw some facebook posts from valvetronic about their x pipe that was relatively new to the market. The x was moved forward, and they claimed they were using HJS 200 cell high flow cats. The design looked good, and seemed like it would flow well. The picture below is the catless version, but should illustrate the point well.

Before ordering the exhaust, I was a bit skeptical- namely at the price. The Catless version was $899, and the catted version was $1299. It seemed odd to me that they could get HJS cats for that price, so I wanted to be extra sure before i ordered, so I sent them a mail asking them to confirm the location and manufactuer of the cats:

Valvetronic isn't exactly a no name company, so I figured maybe they just got lucky and had a few pallets of these cats sitting around they got for cheap or something.

Fast forward to finally receiving the exhaust after a few months. I get the box, open it, and immediately notice an issue. The cats are in the primary position, not the secondary position. Not ideal placement- but other people have run them and been fine so I figured I'd give them a shot.

I finally got around to installing the x pipe. First impression was not good. This was a catted x pipe? It smelled completely catless. I've run catless cars before, so I know what I should be smelling, and these cats seemed like they were doing nothing. In addition, the drivers side resonator flange was a few mm shorter than the passenger side, which made fitting the catback a bit interesting.

So it smells, but how does it sound? Well.... not good. It unfortunately didn't sound anything like the ESS x pipe plus corsa rear combo in the video. The tone didn't match at all- and it was VERY loud once you stepped on it. Significantly louder than test pipes. I'm ok with loud, but you need good tone to go with it, and this wasn't it. I suspect the issue may be resonator length, which looks longer on the ESS x pipe. It may have also been a leak due to the unevenness of the resonator flanges. Combined with the smell- I was not happy.

I sent an e-mail to valvetronic, basically asking what the heck happened here, and shortly after received a call from Austin, whom I believe was the owner.

During our conversation, he admitted to lying about using HJS cats, and said he got them from some distributor domestically because he found that HJS was going to take too long to get, and was too expensive. At no point did valvetronic bother to tell me or anybody else this prior to or after receiving the unit. Its disappointing that it took them essentially getting their hand caught in the cookie jar before finally coming clean about the origin of the cats.

At this point I informed him that I wanted to return the exhaust for a refund, as I saw no way to rectify the situation. Nothing valvetronic would be able to do would suddenly make quality HJS cats appear in the secondary position on the x pipe, and I didn't see the sound as a fixable matter here either. Likely we've got some cheap chinese made junk cat that essentially does nothing. I cant specifically confirm that's what it is, but for the price... it would make sense.

Valvetronic fully refunded my money as of today after returning the exhaust to them at my own expense. I commend them for stepping up to do the right thing, but at the end of the day, I feel burned for being lied to. There was time and money lost in this ordeal. I'll give them high marks for customer service and stepping up to the plate to resolve this, but I can't see myself doing buisness with them in the future as I simply cannot trust them going forward.

I hopes this serves as a warning for anybody else considering this x pipe, especially the catted version.

derbo · 09-18-2021, 10:57 AM

Is that picture you attached the Xpipe in question? If it is, I see 0 cats in primary and the secondaries position looks more like a resonator (but peeking through the pipe would show that)

drwankel · 09-18-2021, 02:05 PM

That picture is a stock photo from valvetronic's website. The photo is of the catless version. I used that picture to show the design of the x pipe.

The version I obtained absolutely had cats, in the primary position. Again- was supposed to be in the secondary position.

Beyond_Ill · 09-18-2021, 07:21 PM

I was planning on going with the catted valvetronic xpipe until I read your review. Disappointed to see that the quality isn't to the standard that they claim. Can't go wrong with welding some cats onto the BW pipe

x Spades x · 09-20-2021, 12:37 AM

Ugh, I was going to order Totanium, Forward X, HFCs in primary position, 4 resonators. After reading this, I'm disappointed...

amrazM · 09-20-2021, 05:46 AM

Austin himself is not a bad person I can vouch for that as he does come forward to addressing claims, although I would not do business with him simply due to their sales practices and continued use of vendors out of china to produce their parts. IMO you should be buying parts from reputable vendors, if you are looking for a solution to this exhaust dilema you may way to consider an unresonated bimmerworld X pipe which is $849 and buy your own cats or premufflers(see burns stainless) and get it welded by a shop local to you. Furthermore for the sake of the longevity of the part itself I would much prefer to purchase a part made from high quality aluminum that wont degrade overtime, not chinese metal made from the cheapest materials possible in an effort to cut costs.

E90FOUR · 09-21-2021, 06:42 AM

Why were you advised primary cats needed to go, concerns of a clogged cat and engine damage or to improve efficiency or lower boost?

amrazM · 09-21-2021, 06:45 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by E90FOUR

Why were you advised primary cats needed to go, concerns of a clogged cat and engine damage or to improve efficiency or lower boost?

Cats in the primary location with a boosted application will melt pistons.

E90FOUR · 09-21-2021, 06:50 AM

There many verified cases of this on S65? I know removing them is a stand-by recommendation for many supercharged applications, but I've seen few cars engines sustain catastrophic failure in this case.

omgzirra_exe · 09-27-2021, 03:19 PM

well he has a discount on the xpipe if anyone else wants it lol, posted on facebook.

x Spades x · 09-27-2021, 10:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by omgzirra_exe

well he has a discount on the xpipe if anyone else wants it lol, posted on facebook.

Link?

omgzirra_exe · 09-27-2021, 11:56 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by x Spades x

Link?

https://www.facebook.com/commerce/li...are_attachment

MouseMike · 10-06-2021, 02:35 AM

I wouldn't call that good customer service if he initially lied to you about his product. Honestly, I'm not surprised that this happened. Kudos to you for the thread and for calling him out on it! this stuff needs to be seen.

diego895 · 12-29-2022, 05:56 PM

Old thread I know, but has anyone found a good alternative to the ESS catted X-Pipe? I "bought" a Valvetronic x-pipe with cats from a forum member here and got scammed, but it looks like it wouldn't have given me the sound I was looking for anyway.

I see some people have commented on buying bimmerworld x-pipe and welding on 2 cats in the secondary cat position, however it seems like bimmerworld will not sell you a catless x-pipe unless you can prove your car is a track only car (I get it, EPA and all).

09-17-2021, 04:55 PM	#1
drwankel Major 1035 Rep 1,044 Posts Drives: 2012 E92 M3 ZCP, 2021 M340i Join Date: Feb 2016 Location: Bothell, WA iTrader: (0)	Valvetronic X pipe review Hey Everyone. I've been waiting a bit to post this review, but was waiting for this situation to be resolved before sharing my experience. As some of you know, I have a harrop supercharger kit on the car. I previously just had a MPE catback, and that was it as far as exhaust went, and I really never intended modifying the exhaust beyond adding the MPE. Fast forward to ordering the harrop, once I ordered it, I was strongly advised that the main cats need to go when running this supercharger. Not what I intended to do, but my desire to get a harrop supercharger greatly outweighed my wish to keep the main cats on the car. I went ahead and ordered test pipes to install with the supercharger. Once the install was all done, I was thrilled with the supercharger, but the test pipes absolutely ruined the sound of the MPE, adding tons of rasp everywhere. It became apparent that I was going to have to completely re-think my exhaust setup. I started watching every exhaust setup video I could find, and found the one I believed to be the unicorn. The ESS x pipe plus Corsa rear. Was the best sounding setup for the S65 I've ever heard by a longshot. This video in particular sold me on it: Now this was in 2020 that I installed the supercharger, and there was a big problem with trying to replicate this setup- the ESS x pipe was no longer in production. The bit that supposedly made this combo work, was moving the X farther forward. I went ahead an ordered a Corsa rear, and installed in on my factory x pipe that was modded with test pipes. Sounded great. The secondaries still kept the smell under control, and the sound was pretty good. I now started to pursue getting the second piece of the puzzle to reproduce this exhaust setup, the x pipe. The requirements were pretty straightforward. I wanted something with the X moved forward, and something that used HJS 200 cell high flow cats in the secondary position. Shortly after I saw some facebook posts from valvetronic about their x pipe that was relatively new to the market. The x was moved forward, and they claimed they were using HJS 200 cell high flow cats. The design looked good, and seemed like it would flow well. The picture below is the catless version, but should illustrate the point well. Before ordering the exhaust, I was a bit skeptical- namely at the price. The Catless version was $899, and the catted version was $1299. It seemed odd to me that they could get HJS cats for that price, so I wanted to be extra sure before i ordered, so I sent them a mail asking them to confirm the location and manufactuer of the cats: Valvetronic isn't exactly a no name company, so I figured maybe they just got lucky and had a few pallets of these cats sitting around they got for cheap or something. Fast forward to finally receiving the exhaust after a few months. I get the box, open it, and immediately notice an issue. The cats are in the primary position, not the secondary position. Not ideal placement- but other people have run them and been fine so I figured I'd give them a shot. I finally got around to installing the x pipe. First impression was not good. This was a catted x pipe? It smelled completely catless. I've run catless cars before, so I know what I should be smelling, and these cats seemed like they were doing nothing. In addition, the drivers side resonator flange was a few mm shorter than the passenger side, which made fitting the catback a bit interesting. So it smells, but how does it sound? Well.... not good. It unfortunately didn't sound anything like the ESS x pipe plus corsa rear combo in the video. The tone didn't match at all- and it was VERY loud once you stepped on it. Significantly louder than test pipes. I'm ok with loud, but you need good tone to go with it, and this wasn't it. I suspect the issue may be resonator length, which looks longer on the ESS x pipe. It may have also been a leak due to the unevenness of the resonator flanges. Combined with the smell- I was not happy. I sent an e-mail to valvetronic, basically asking what the heck happened here, and shortly after received a call from Austin, whom I believe was the owner. During our conversation, he admitted to lying about using HJS cats, and said he got them from some distributor domestically because he found that HJS was going to take too long to get, and was too expensive. At no point did valvetronic bother to tell me or anybody else this prior to or after receiving the unit. Its disappointing that it took them essentially getting their hand caught in the cookie jar before finally coming clean about the origin of the cats. At this point I informed him that I wanted to return the exhaust for a refund, as I saw no way to rectify the situation. Nothing valvetronic would be able to do would suddenly make quality HJS cats appear in the secondary position on the x pipe, and I didn't see the sound as a fixable matter here either. Likely we've got some cheap chinese made junk cat that essentially does nothing. I cant specifically confirm that's what it is, but for the price... it would make sense. Valvetronic fully refunded my money as of today after returning the exhaust to them at my own expense. I commend them for stepping up to do the right thing, but at the end of the day, I feel burned for being lied to. There was time and money lost in this ordeal. I'll give them high marks for customer service and stepping up to the plate to resolve this, but I can't see myself doing buisness with them in the future as I simply cannot trust them going forward. I hopes this serves as a warning for anybody else considering this x pipe, especially the catted version. Attached Images Last edited by drwankel; 09-17-2021 at 05:47 PM..
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09-18-2021, 10:57 AM	#2
derbo Derbo Tuning 3607 Rep 3,022 Posts Drives: BMW M3 Join Date: Aug 2017 Location: Bay Area, CA iTrader: (2)	Is that picture you attached the Xpipe in question? If it is, I see 0 cats in primary and the secondaries position looks more like a resonator (but peeking through the pipe would show that) __________________ IG:ruhrohz_m3 Journal: Link E9x ZCP Suspension Info: Link Track Chat Discord: https://discord.gg/VsKbTyqBVj SF Bay Area: DM For coding services
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09-18-2021, 02:05 PM	#3
drwankel Major 1035 Rep 1,044 Posts Drives: 2012 E92 M3 ZCP, 2021 M340i Join Date: Feb 2016 Location: Bothell, WA iTrader: (0)	That picture is a stock photo from valvetronic's website. The photo is of the catless version. I used that picture to show the design of the x pipe. The version I obtained absolutely had cats, in the primary position. Again- was supposed to be in the secondary position.
	Appreciate 0 Quote

09-18-2021, 07:21 PM	#4
Beyond_Ill New Member 21 Rep 22 Posts Drives: 2014 BMW 328i Join Date: Jun 2021 Location: Houston, TX iTrader: (0)	I was planning on going with the catted valvetronic xpipe until I read your review. Disappointed to see that the quality isn't to the standard that they claim. Can't go wrong with welding some cats onto the BW pipe
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09-20-2021, 12:37 AM	#5
x Spades x Lieutenant 210 Rep 571 Posts Drives: BMW E46 M3 Join Date: Feb 2020 Location: CT iTrader: (1)	Ugh, I was going to order Totanium, Forward X, HFCs in primary position, 4 resonators. After reading this, I'm disappointed...
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09-20-2021, 05:46 AM	#6
amrazM mTekMods 2138 Rep 2,898 Posts Drives: like a granny. Join Date: Jan 2010 Location: Manhatan iTrader: (1)	Austin himself is not a bad person I can vouch for that as he does come forward to addressing claims, although I would not do business with him simply due to their sales practices and continued use of vendors out of china to produce their parts. IMO you should be buying parts from reputable vendors, if you are looking for a solution to this exhaust dilema you may way to consider an unresonated bimmerworld X pipe which is $849 and buy your own cats or premufflers(see burns stainless) and get it welded by a shop local to you. Furthermore for the sake of the longevity of the part itself I would much prefer to purchase a part made from high quality aluminum that wont degrade overtime, not chinese metal made from the cheapest materials possible in an effort to cut costs. __________________ 2011 Frozen Black/Fox Red E90 M3 650+WHP G-Power Supercharged First DCT to Manual Conversion Worldwide KW CS, BBS RI-A, BW Headers, Snow 2.5
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09-21-2021, 06:42 AM	#7
E90FOUR New Member 17 Rep 21 Posts Drives: BMW M Join Date: Sep 2021 Location: NJ iTrader: (0)	Why were you advised primary cats needed to go, concerns of a clogged cat and engine damage or to improve efficiency or lower boost?
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09-21-2021, 06:50 AM	#9
E90FOUR New Member 17 Rep 21 Posts Drives: BMW M Join Date: Sep 2021 Location: NJ iTrader: (0)	There many verified cases of this on S65? I know removing them is a stand-by recommendation for many supercharged applications, but I've seen few cars engines sustain catastrophic failure in this case.
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09-27-2021, 03:19 PM	#10
omgzirra_exe Lieutenant Colonel 1477 Rep 1,688 Posts Drives: 4.4L M3, IS300 Join Date: Jun 2019 Location: Long Beach, CA iTrader: (0)	well he has a discount on the xpipe if anyone else wants it lol, posted on facebook. __________________ Build: ZillaSpec M3 N1 Build M3Post Track General Discussion: Discord #fakeGTS Last edited by omgzirra_exe; 09-27-2021 at 03:24 PM..
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10-06-2021, 02:35 AM	#13
MouseMike Private First Class 41 Rep 118 Posts Drives: me crazy Join Date: Apr 2020 Location: Sacramento iTrader: (2)	I wouldn't call that good customer service if he initially lied to you about his product. Honestly, I'm not surprised that this happened. Kudos to you for the thread and for calling him out on it! this stuff needs to be seen.
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12-29-2022, 05:56 PM	#14
diego895 New Member 11 Rep 23 Posts Drives: 2011 E92 BMW M3 ZCP Join Date: Mar 2021 Location: Orlando, FL iTrader: (0)	Old thread I know, but has anyone found a good alternative to the ESS catted X-Pipe? I "bought" a Valvetronic x-pipe with cats from a forum member here and got scammed, but it looks like it wouldn't have given me the sound I was looking for anyway. I see some people have commented on buying bimmerworld x-pipe and welding on 2 cats in the secondary cat position, however it seems like bimmerworld will not sell you a catless x-pipe unless you can prove your car is a track only car (I get it, EPA and all).
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