I've done some experimenting looking for the best sound.

Initially I installed catless turboback pipes keeping the stock resonator and mufflers in tact. The sound was awesome with a nice deep growl on throttle but still oem quiet while cruising or on decel.

I was looking for the same sound just a bit louder with more aggressive decel so I removed the resonator and replaced it with straight pipes. The sound was almost open exhaust loud on accel, but now perfectly aggressive on decel and up/down shifts. Acceleration became very American muscle and it lost much of the refined growl I liked with the resonator. Cruising and part throttle was still unobtrusive.

Next came the X pipe. It quieted the sound down to almost completely stock levels during anything except wot. I was shocked how much muffling the X pipe delivered with no actual sound deadening material built in. The sound on wot was good but had a slightly higher pitched growl, a little more European muscle than American muscle now. It's a good sound but the fact that it sounded stock quiet at every other part of driving was disappointing.

The only set up I haven't tried was starlight pipes with an h pipe. If that doesn't deliver what I was looking for I'll probably put the resonator back in and open up the mufflers and consider removing some packing.

I definitely want to retain the oem mufflers because I don't think there's anything better at making sure there's ZERO drone in the cabin. I don't care how good an exhaust sounds, if it drones at certain RPMs it's garbage to me.

For those looking for spool sounds, going catless made the biggest difference. All experimenting after that didn't really change anything.

I know, I know...this thread is worthless without sound clips. Revving the motor while parked IMHO really doesn't do any justice or offer much in the way of real world consideration and even though my gf is a car junkie I hate asking her to follow me around trying to record videos or sound clips. So flame away or ask questions. I'm ready for both...

 

I agree with you... the reason I haven't touched my exhaust yet is because I'm always worried about some regret of noise, drone, etc., and the best way to evaluate the cars sound takes more than just some revs at idle.

I'm guessing the best sound would come from turbo back downpipes with muffler modification. Anything beyond that may become a bit uncharacteristic for this car.

 

I am going to do custom full 3" after my turboback DP's with Varex adjustable mufflers from Xforce. That way I can keep it quiet when cruising, but open up for straight through volume and flow when I want it to be angry, or adjustable anywhere in between. I am going to see if I can wire in a time relay to the "amg" button that will trigger on the momentary push, and go full loud when you hit it. If its too much with the full exhaust, I'll add in some resonators upstream of mufflers.

 

OOops.

 

Not sure where you're located, but we experimented with a few different options here and, IMO, came up with something really good. I'll email one of the local owners of our exhaust and see if he has a good sound clip (none of mine ever come out right).

 

Chiromikey, thanks for sharing your experiences. I have heard from another E63 driver here in town that going without the resonator is a bad idea and he actually put his back in. There's another mistake I won't have to make when I do my DP's this week thanks to the folks on this forum. Keep us apprised of your work on your beast and you may just strike gold with the perfect setup!

 

I would be interested in hearing the exhaust.

Catback or Mufflers?

 

Thx for the feedback mate, just something to consider...our cars sound way different from the outside, since its a merc in cabin sound isolation is a factor. This perfect sound you are searching for might sound great from the inside, but bloody too much from the outside.

Get your gf to do a drive by while u are out of the car...might change your prospective

 

Very valid point Zod!

 

Coming from a ridiculously loud catless C63 with long tube headers I missed having that growl. When I got the E63 it was definitely quiet and it definitely left out an AMG-like sound (except at WOT). After adding a tune with catless downpipes it definitely helped bring that back that AMG sound with a nice turbo spool while getting into boost. I'm afraid to lop off any other parts of the exhaust because the sound is very refined and aggressive when it needs to be. Buuuuuuuut I'm always open to suggestions via sound-clips

 

^ just posted.

 

Well, latest installment.

I went back to try the straight pipe with an H crossover in place of the X pipe this morning. The guys at the shop didn't want me to waste my time or money testing that since I felt the straight pipes with no crossover were already too loud. They almost talked me out of it but I figured if I'm going to test, I'm going to test all options. To everyone's disbelief, the H pipe quieted down the straight pipes considerably. It gave back that refined sound, it's now a bit louder than with the resonator, has a nice sharp bark upon start up, a good mellow rumble at idle, sharp nasty revs, and a nice bit of raspiness on up/down shifts. I expected a slight sound difference over straight pipes but I didn't expect this level of muffling by just adding the H...and neither did the guys at the shop with decades of exhaust experience.

Anyways, this is the best set up so far, followed by resonator in place. I think my experimenting is done and I'll try to get some sound clips up.

 

You definitely win the award for most AMG biturbo exhaust tuning pioneer! Great info and sure all that testing and switching was not without a cost to get the exact desired sound.

 

I've never tried to upload a video before but here's my proverbial attempt at a poor quality cell phone recording from behind the car...

http://smg.photobucket.com/user/chir...uxyng.mp4.html

 

Wow, that sounds really good! So to sum it all up: catless turbo-back downpipes, H pipe, stock resonator and stock mufflers left untouched?

 

Right now the set-up is catless turboback pipes, resonator replaced with 3" straight pipes with a 2" H pipe, into stock mufflers.

I bet I could fine tune sound a bit more playing with H pipe diameter. If I wanted a bit more sound and rawness I could use a 1 or 1.5" H.

 

I've heard the stock resonator has what is effectively a small h pipe inside, at least on the bi M157 CLS63. I would think the E63 is the same. Any idea what size the connecting pipe is? If you still have the resonator, any chance you could check?

Thanks for all your research! I will be putting it to good use very soon.

 

There is an H pipe on the inlet side and it measures 1 5/8". If I wanted a little more aggressiveness I'd bet that diameter would do the trick.

 

Thanks so much! I can't tell you how helpful your posts have been.

I'm looking to make the exhaust a little louder. I love the BRAAAAP on down shifts in S+ and want to keep that for sure. A little more if possible. Don't think I'm going to do the downpipes yet as cats are required in IL and frankly I'd like to avoid the expense, but I plan to replace the resonator with an H pipe. What do you think? Am I'm on the right track?

 

The braaapp on shifts were absolutely nasty (and I mean that in a good totally aggressive way) with straight pipes. The first time I heard a downshift I actually giggled out loud because it was so cool! I actually miss those downshifts! If you're leaving the cats in place they're going to tone things down a bit so I'd start with straight pipes in place of the resonator. That should give you what you're looking for when it comes to shifts. If it also gives you too much sound elsewhere it will take your shop less than an hour to add the H pipe later. I'd probably start with a 1.5" crossover since you have cats.

 

Good idea starting with straight and adding H later. Can't wait to hear how it turns out. Thanks again.

 

Sounds great, coming from a LTH M156 E63 the sound was insane. I think this setup is what I'll go with, didn't know the M157 could sound like that, they always sound so muffled. Though i've never heard one other than stock in person.

 

I agree, the M156 sounded insanely good with a few exhaust modifications. After the 55k I never thought I'd get a sound I really liked from a boosted MB motor but this now sounds pretty damned good! Way better than either of my E55s.

 

Chiromikey that exhaust sound absolutely perfect. We just bought the 2014 e63 s that was at Schumacher in Scottsdale over this past weekend. We live up in prescott az and I would love to hear that exhaust in person. We come down on occasion and I would over to hear it. We are actually coming down to the pavilions car show this weekend. My buddy owns BMR (Black Market Racing). He will be tuning the car and doing my exhaust work. Anyway if you don't mind sending me a PM I would love to get an idea who did your exhaust and what you paid to get that exact setup. Us AZ AMG owners need to stick together

 

I'd love to meet up with you. I have family in town until Monday so I'm stuck being tour guide and event coordinator until they leave.

BMR did my downpipes install. I was introduced to them through a good friend Brett at Full Race. Good guys over there at BMR! However, they're not familiar with running MBs on the dyno. Just make sure you show them how to put the car into dyno mode if they do any runs.

I'll PM you my number...