Hey all, so I have been lurking the forum for quite awhile, trying to look for some nice and easy mods. So I finally decided to make an account to ask some questions of my own.

First a little about me... I am from Canada and I used to own a 2012 XF....until it got totalled and then bought a is350 fsport rwd, fun little car, very nimble and pretty fast. But it did not have that V8 power or the music of that beautiful engine. So, recently I just traded it in for a 2012 xfr 😍😍. Picking it up sometime this week.

Now for my questions, so from the lurking I guess I was pretty interested the eurocharge tune and pulley mod. But, right now I am stuck on the intake and exhaust. For the intake, I see the TCP intake is very popular amongst this forum and I seem to like the results and reviews but I cant find it anywhere; I cant even find the TCP website. So some redirection there would be nice. And, as for the exhaust I have no clue, preferably i want something from the catback and dont really want just a simple straight pipe as I had that on my XF, but it was only from the axle back. Also, had a straight pipe from catback on the IS, wayy too much droning it was annoying at times of course that was a v6 and wont sound as nice as a v8. But I want to try to replicate the v8 F-type without getting super annoyed with the droning.

Finally can I get some more reviews about the eurocharge and pulley mod, as most of the other ones are all older reviews from 2012-2015, more specifically about reliability and all. Thanks in advance and hope I'm welcomed here.

.
.
.
.
TLDR: Looking for a good exhaust and intake, with some new reviews on the eurocharged tune and pulley mod.

 

 

I noticed in your thread you also had the spire exhaust, as far as I checked we dont have that here in Canada, where are you from if you dont mind me asking?

 

 

yeah I just started looking for the spires stg 2, I seen some videos and they sound sweet, just with the stg 2, and I plan to straight pipe it with an H center, and then eventually headers as well. But, the problem right now is finding the spires, because to get it shipped from UK, it will cost me roughly 2k plus prob about another 500 for the piping behind it. So if I can find a used one or something similar available to us would be great.

 

i think TCP is out. i remember researching them long time back and parts / contact was scarce. i went with a mina gallery. i think it was $225. that's the most common one i believe. not gonna notice the maybe 5hp change and it doesn't make the s/c any louder. realism, not pessimism.. if you like the shiny look and want the black plastic intake gone then go for it.
if i had to do my exhaust decision again, i think i'd still go with the electric cutouts. louder than all the aftermarket muffler options with the push of a button and quiet as stock when you want. the dual pipes are each 2.5'' so i went with a 2.5'' dual kit from ebay for $160 and another $120 to the muffler shop to weld up what I'd "prefabbed" for them. i put the cutouts at rear just past diff and they mount on the right angle "heel" of the factory exhaust bend. the exhaust fires straight back to the rear center when they are open.
went with velocity for the tune. plan on approaching them again to push them for more fine tuning. they said via email that the denso cars are on their radar for a bit more tuning attention as well as maybe a transmission tune in the future.
any of the pulley companies are likely the same and that's a 7% faster spin via upper pulley. Velocity does do a lower pulley instead of the upper or in addition to if you want to go nuts.

 

Where in Canada do you live? I live in Vancouver BC, i have an xfrs with a spires stage 3 exhaust, i love the sound but there is drone because of the "straight" xpipe (no resonators). If your close by then you can pm me to see how it sounds in person. I also have my stock xfrs exhaust (xpipe and mufflers) if your looking for a louder exhaust during acceleration and somewhat quiet when cruising.

 

Hmm interesting I was planning to do the same thing you did, but with my previous lexus, I had a customed straight
x-pipe with a system but....man did the droning bother me af, on the highway. Unfortunately, I live in ON, Toronto. And, the xfrs exhaust is still too quiet. I like the way the spires stg 2 sounds. But, it's not easy to find here...

 

I will do some more research on the velocity vs eurocharged tune. But the cutouts, I dont really want the simple straight. I really like the way the spires 2 sounds like.

 

Yeah there is a lot of drone in the 1500-2000 range, im currently looking into getting some branch rasonators or helmholtz resonators to get rid of most of the drone but still keep the performance and sound. I also agree, the stock exhaust for these cars are way too quiet, i feel it should sound as fast as it looks/actually is.

You could also try quicksilver or mina gallery, i know mcl motors in vancouver sell the quicksilver mufflers but they're crooks on the price. Mina probably has the best bang for your buck mufflers and are in the states so shipping and tax wont be to bad.

 

I feel you man for a car that has 510 hp and 550 hp... it should fking sound like a jaguar not a little cub. They gave it the high end speed and sporty look, but kept the exhaust humble and luxurious, I guess. And, yeah that was alright at first but...once you drive around and get used to it; that droning gets hella annoying. Especially, when you cant drown it in music.

I heard quicksilver they're not bad either but that's another UK brand and it's not worth the money here...with that kind of price I can get something high end. I stumbled on this ad in kijiji and theres a local muffler shop and I seen their ig videos with a xfr on a "vibrant performance axle back" it sounds pretty nice. Kind of like a mixture of quicksilver and spires and I believe they charge around 800-1k which ain't so bad.

As for the intake, I heard a lot of good reviews about the discontinued TCP, but the mina, there is a lot of mixed reviews and I dont know any other intakes as of right now. And I am looking for the engine to get louder and actually hear the spool on the SC.



btw do you have any videos of your exhaust and engine bay??

 

Yeah like I said in the previous comment, I dont know how I feel about the mina, lots of mixed reviews. But, mostly I am looking for the supercharger whine and just hear more of that v8.
As for the exhaust cut outs, idk I feel like that's just too much, those sound nicer when you have headers and bigger cams done up. On a stock engine, it just makes it hella loud and knowing me, I probably wouldnt keep them off lol.

I gotta check into that, because I got a local eurocharged garage and if you say the velocity tune is much better. I gotta see what I can dig up. As for the pulleys I only want to do either the upper or lower, probably just the upper. I dont want to go all out on it and put too much pressure on it as these engines and SC aren't the greatest in reliability. But a transmission tune does sound tempting down the line.

Mind if I ask what were your numbers stock>euro>velocity and the diff mods in each stage; If you have them dyno'd.

 

I have a video of the exhaust on my Instagram, you can search up my name, as for the engine bay, i don't have a video on that sorry. There is another on the forum who used cone filters instead of boxes for the intake and the supercharger whine is a lot more noticeable.

There's a few guys on youtube who went muffler delete and/or full straight pipe with muffler delete. Sounds good but im not sure about the drone. Paramount performance carries a muffler delet axle back exhaust, they have an xfr video for the sound, although it is UK and probably about 1500.

 

i don't have dyno numbers and i didn't use any tune other than VAP
the good thing is you can hear a sample of both the intake and exhaust sounds without spending much money, just need a little wrenching.
for intake noise, remove the panel filter and air box lower and take a drive without your filters. it's much louder as far as s/c whine
do the cone filter mod if you want s/c whine. pre 2013 needs to cut up factory air box cover to retain factory MAFs. 2013 and later have ability to direct mount conical filters. in my opinion is the pleated panel air filter that does most of the sound muting.. the intake tube is problem #2 and the factory compressor lobe grind profile spec as ordered from eaton is much quieter than other manufacturer specs so it's never going to sounds like a mustang cobra or gt 500 or a hellcat.

to hear your exhaust uncorked, take 15 minutes (or less) and pull the rear "backbox" muffler sections. it's one clamp and 2 hangers per side. easier with 2 people as probably 40 or 50 lbs and awkward. when you start it up, you'll hear something louder than what the auto community raves about in the f type r reviews. it will snap and pop and crackle and make you giggle uncontrollably! It took me less than 10 minutes to get pulled over when i test drove it like this. I decided on electric cutouts so i could have a wilder wild side and a mild side to boot. i haven't done the x pipe, but want to. i measured some of the pipes between cats and resonators and there are some factory restrictions there - it's a 2.5'' dual exhaust, but there are 2.25'', 2.375'' and even as small as 2'' diameter short sections / bends in the middle area.

to each their own..

 

I just put a quicksilver exhaust on my 2015 XF 5.0 supercharged - same unit would go on the XFR.

1. Sound is savage - immense amount of low end rumble a la a muscle car, rumble gets more raspy as revs rise above 2500 rpm and note gets much more refined as the engine winds above the mid range. Cold starts are not dissimilar from an F-Type R in volume but are much deeper in tone

2. Was a little disappointed in the build quality. The exhaust shop couldn’t just bolt it in - left side was sagging below the right and some minor modifications had to be made to make it all work - including rewelding a screw housing that puts the tips on

3. One area of downside... it doesn’t drone per se - it’s generally subdued at highway speed but every time you get on the gas on the highway there is a real low end grunt - it’s what I signed up for but it’s definitely a bit more rumble than I’d like for the highway.

4. In general - it really woke the whole experience of car up. It makes the car much more exciting and when you accelerate on an on-ramp you can finally feel the speed. Before, thI ha were so quiet that I felt removed from the sensation of speed.

I also looked closely at spires and Arden - seems like you can’t go wrong. Quicksilver is definitely the deepest in tone, spires is a bit more mid toned and Arden is sort of full range but a little louder than stock.

 

yeah I liked the sound of the quicksilver...but all the brands you mentioned we dont have here in canada and not worth the shipping and possible tariff fees, I ended up going with a flowmaster super10 mufflers and cats and resonator delete with an x pipe. It sounds pretty sweet, drone is there at 2kish but it isnt an annoying drone. It's pretty loud, pops and burbles, especially on downshifts...first gear is crazy. But it isnt obnoxiously loud either, like you wont yest it from a block away, but you will hear the car, prob like half a block away. I'm happy with it tbh.

 

I reckon whatever exhaust system and muffler mods you do can depend on how often you have passenger(s) in the rear seat.
On my old XFR I fitted an H-pipe in place of the central muffler and a pair of after-market hi-flow "straight through" rear mufflers, at the same time.
The car sounded bloody brilliant under WOT and the pops and bangs on lift off were epic, but with a fair bit of drone at around 1/3 throttle going up a hill.
Not too bad a compromise and something I could live with I thought.
Then one day I let SWMBO drive while I parked myself in the back seat, and it was 'orrible!
Nothing but a constant grating massively annoying drone even when gently cruising (which is all SWMBO ever drives like anyway!), I couldn't imagine how other back seat passengers would have felt about it other than to think this was the worst car they had ever sat in.
The very next day I whipped those mufflers off and reinstalled the stockers, muuuuuch better!
The moral of the story is before you swap out the stock rear mufflers think about those poor suffering rear seat passengers (if you ever have any) as the sound quality, tone and sheer volume is hugely different between the front seats and the rear seats.

 

yeah I dont have that problem, thankfully. I have sat in the back, quite a couple times and the drone is there but it's not the annoying drone, it's more of a rumble type of drone and quite pleasing to the ear. The again what pleases me, might not please you... on the other hand, you're riding in my car...so deal with it because it pleases me and I did it for me not you or him.🤷*♂️🤷*♂️