Stillen CBE owners regret?
 

Hey everyone,

I'm curious if any owners of the stillen cbe would chime in honestly and say whether or not they regret purchasing their exhaust before FI, berk and other companies came into the market with their exhausts.

If you were in the market now for an exhaust, having all the choices that are available, would you still choose the stillen? If not what would you purchase?

Not an owner, but, FWIW, when I got my Z I was very close to ordering the Stillen CBE but forced myself to wait to see what else came along. I literally had the exhaust in my shopping cart on a number of occasions and almost pulled the trigger.

Gotta give it to Stillen for being first to the market, though I'm extremely happy I waited.

I was also very close to ordering the Stillen CBE but I knew that more options were coming shortly so I waited and F.I popped up just in time. I probably would of pulled the trigger on the Stillen CBE if it wasn't for leaking problems and fitment issues. I still like the way it sounds.

That being said tho, there shouldn't be regret for buying the Stillen CBE. It's a good exhaust at a reasonable price. Granted, there are "better" choices now but maybe it was worth it to have the Stillen exhaust while we were all on Tony's waiting list.

Thats a pretty subjective statement dont you think? what makes the other options better? power? no. looks? personal preference. Sound? I dont think any sound better.

I had mine for awhile now and I love it. I love the sound, looks, and I got it on sale so the price was just right. There shouldnt be any leaks if its installed properly, and there have been ZERO fitment issues at all for me. Stillen was great to work with and their customer service, any time i've dealt with them, has been top notch.

I'm not knocking the other systems out there because they all add their own touch, the FI looks very aftermarket, drones at highway speeds and comes with a long waiting list, the Berk isnt aggressive sounding enough for me and comes with a waiting list, the Invidia only showed gains of 8-10whp, which is on the lower end, and the rest are just overpriced for the same or less gains IMHO.

Dont let someone who hasnt owned the exhaust give you a review of it because its not going to be entirely accurate. I own one, have for many thousands of miles and wouldnt trade it for a single other CBE.

I just bought my car back in march and I knew I wanted an exhaust, intakes, etc before I even bought the car. Spent a lot of time on here reading reviews, listening to video clips and looking at gains people had gotten with different setups.

In the end I liked the sound of the Stillen CBE the best and that combined with impressive HP gains and an almost factory look was perfect for me. My second choice was FI but the waiting list was a definate no-go, it's driving season NOW lol. (Save for the freak snow storm here today :shakes head:)

I had the Stillen stuff installed just over a week ago (CBE, Gen 3's, Sways) along with the Berk HFC's and I could not be happier with the sound! Some people say they don't like the hiss on decel but I really like it, I think it adds to everything. Was a LITTLE bit of drone at first but I've put just over 500km on it since the install, and there is no drone at all anymore. Zero fitment/leaking issues so far, other than on of the tips is slightly off center in the cutout, not even enough for me to really care to adjust it though.

Definately no regrets here, and all the options were available to me when I purchased. However, like others have said, sound and looks are both personal preference so no review will be able to make your decision for you. That being said, IMHO you will not be dissapointed if you do choose to go the Stillen route! :driving:

I like the Stillen, would buy it again even with all the options available now. Again though, a lot of the reason for that is subjective. I just like the sound the most and made great gains so.

If only the Stillen CBE fit well with F.I.'s LTH's I would have jumped in

It does, Semtex has F.I. LTH and Stillen CBE.

Really? I thought the consensus was that the Berk was supposed to be somewhat louder than the Stillen. Can you expand on this a little bit?

I know that, but Semtex also lost some top end HP and both Tony and him feel it is because with the increase in flow from the LTH's the Stillen CBE is now to restrictive. Personally if you are going to pay for a CBE 2 things matter.

1. Sound
2. Performance

Granted if you aren't going to really get into modding then Stillen is more than enough but if you are like the few here completely redoing the exhaust and getting every bolt on you're probably going to want the least restrictive exhaust.

We are not 100% sure about the top end lose, mainly because we are not able to tune the engine 100% yet with Uprev or Cobb so that may be why we lost top end power.

^ That makes me wonder if my stillen cbe is going to choke my supercharger a little.. I guess we'll see.

Is the Stillen CBE a Y-pipe or X-pipe setup?

Great to hear you guys are so happy with the exhaust still! I think when I eventually put an exhaust on my car I'll lean towards stillen. Now I just need to decide if I want to spend the money on the Berk HFC's or get the ERZ HFC"s people have been talking about.



When I looked at the Dyno's from Semtex it seemed he lost alittle peak hp above 7300, but he gained hp along the powerband that seems would be much more usable.

I think there is a post on here somewhere (but I can't find it :icon14:) where a couple of guys do some passes with Stillen and Berk together. My understanding was that the Stillen and Berk were very similar in sound. Beware of a ton of BS on the subject though :tup: