Installed a Mina Gallery exhaust on my wife's 2012 XF Portfolio 5.0L NA this week.

Emailed Mina Gallery to inquire about a forum discount. Was quoted $850 with shipping included. SOLD! Arrived in 2 days!!

The pipes were packed amazingly. Molded thick foam protected each pipe all around. They could have fallen from a plane and not dented.

I opened the entire box flat, laid it down on the driveway behind the car to make a nice work surface. The size of the box was perfect for this! My 14 year-old son helped. I did the passenger side while he watched and let him do most of the drivers side. We had both sides installed in about an hour. Didn't have to jack the car up at all. There's only 2 nuts to loosen; the exhaust pipe clamp nuts, 1 per side. 15mm socket on a 1/2" drive ratchet was more than enough. Could have used a 3/8" drive easily. A little jiggle or two and the muffler pipe slid right off of the mid pipe. There's 2 rubber exhaust hangers per side. Sprayed a little WD-40 to assist in sliding the brackets out of the hangars, detached the one closest to the rear first (black hangar) and then the front one (red hangar). Dropped the unit to the ground and slid it out from under the car.

Slid the new clamp over the muffler pipe and towards the muffler as far as it would go to keep it out of the way. Slid the new unit under the car and lifted it into place. Attached the back bracket into the black hangar first. This helped in holding up the back of the unit and also gave me front to back motion enough to get the muffler pipe in place to slide it over the mid pipe. Pushed it in as far as it would go. The Mina pipe has a few slots milled in the end so you can see how far the mid pipe is into the muffler pipe. Both sides went in fully with no problems. Hung the front bracket into the red hangar and gave everything a nice shake to settle it into place. Slid out from the car and looked at the tips. They were positioned just fine. I've read some comments here about brackets having to be bent, even cut and re-welded, because of bad tip positioning but both sides of mine turned out just fine. Got back under, slid the clamps into place and tightened them fully.

Mina includes new clamps with their kit. I used them, but if I were doing this again, I may have reused the stock clamps. The stock clamps were a bit wider than the clamps Mina supplies and the Mina clamps seemed just a size too large. They worked, but the clamp sides touched and compressed well before the nut was at its tightest. There was a lot of stud protruding. I installed them the same way as the stock - bolt pointing straight down at the ground. Standing behind the car, you could visibly see the studs and it was the lowest point of the car, hanging lower than anything else. I think they would have actually scraped the ground over a speed bump or the driveway. I loosened them and rotated the clamps so they were parallel to the ground. Problem solved, but a smaller clamp I think would have done the trick.

First time starting it up was WOW! Sounds great. Just like everyone here has said, nice low rumble on idle. It is deeper than stock, but not over bearing. We took a family test drive and everyone was more than happy with the sound, especially the wife. She was looking for something that wasn't too obnoxious and this exhaust kit from Mina fits the bill perfectly.

On the test drive, heard a thumping sound from the drivers side on acceleration and bumps. Not too bad, but noticeable. Got home, grabbed the tips and gave them a good shaking. There's a metal bracket, just behind the end of tip that is part of the body of the car. This was hitting the pipe when it flexed. I've read about this on here so I was sure before I looked that this was what it was going to be. Shook the passenger side good and no problems there, everything is clear. A simple punch and hammer to bend the bracket back gave enough clearance, but was a pain with the pipe and tips there. Would have been much easier to bend this (or grind the corner off completely) during the install when everything was out.

Even with this minor issue, the Mina kit is well worth it.

 

Thanks for the write up! The exhaust looks great!

I am getting exhaust work done as well, now that i know about the metal bracket, I'll fix that before I get the exhaust up. Post some videos when you get a chance!

 

I think you are the first person who has the mina exhaust on the 5.0 NA. How has the acoustics been under high revs? I have done a resonator and mid muffler delete. I went with straight pipes, but this week I have an appointment with the exhaust pro to fabricate a X-pipe. But, the stock boxes in the rear are very restrictive during idle. The car sounds like it is sputtering. Under load, it sounds like a beast, which i like. I am not trying to impress clients with my car or anything like that. I wanted the deep rumble and crackle, but with the stock mufflers, I get the rumble under load, and once in a while i get a pop and crackle. Have you got any of these sounds from the Mina exhaust?
Your Jag looks awesome with those new mufflers. Great write up.

 

No pop or crackle at all. Just a much lower rumble all throughout the rpm range - idle to FOT. I had read enough reviews about all the available XF exhausts and all of them, except Mina, seem to exhibit a pop or crackle. This is exactly what my wife didn't want and that's a big reason why we settled on the Mina kit.

I'm not sure what the sound of these would be like with your resonator delete and X-pipe, but I think that you would get the pop and crackle you desire. Again, basing that on posts and reviews I've read but those were a lot of S/C's and R's. Like you said, not a lot of 5.0 NA posts.

I do have before and after videos to gauge the sound but they are too big to post so I'll need to edit them down.

 

Thanks for your write up..very helpful and comprehensive.

 

Here's the before and after video:

 

Any Drone at all? I installed an exhaust in my old Lincoln LS that sounded amazing, but had a terrible drone i couldn't get past. I'd love to get an exhaust on the jag, but i'm terrified of drone.

 

No drone experienced at all, thus far. Have run the entire RPM range and it's been non-existent.

 

I had Mina on my 2010 XF 5.0 NA.
Loved it for the same reason. Real growl without raspiness or pops.
Being a bonehead, I traded mine in with the Mina still on it. Should have taken it off and put on cheap mufflers as I traded for XFR and could have used same setup.
Well anyway, I am now going to get Mina for XFR. Best sounding and Best looking.
However, I also wanted to put on X pipe. Can anyone tell me who makes an X pipe for XFR. I don't want to have shop make one if I can get it cheaper.

 

I don't think anyone makes a bolt on X pipe. Even with the aftermarket ones, the shop will still have to fit it and bend or expand the pipe. Beter off letting them custom fabricate to fit your exhaust. Otherwise, you pay for the service, and pay for the x- pipe. I am paying $150 for a custom x pipe that the custom exhaust shop is fitting. I actually should have done this instead of having straight pipes put in...lesson learned i guess

 

This thread might help.

https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/x...dified-108504/

 

I try to tell people the x-pipe is awesome. And custom is the way to go if they can mandrel bend them. I've seen some that are a bunch of smaller stock pieces that I'm sure are restricting flow with all the interior welds.

 

You can buy an off the shelf X-pipe that will do the trick, for possibly a bit less than a custom made one, see here for example: MagnaFlow Tru-X Stainless Steel Crossover Pipes 10791 - Free Shipping on Orders Over $99 at Summit Racing
Of course you will still need to "cut and shut" it in, it's not bolt on.
That said I have an Australian made H-pipe on my XFR and I'm very happy with it - it enabled my XFR-S tune to stick, the low and mid-range is now fantastic, and it has reduced the drone from after-market free-flow mufflers quite a lot.

 

I have the same car you do and just ordered mine today as well! Should be delivered on Wednesday and I will be installing it first thing Saturday morning.

I'm stoked.