MRaaron

iTrader: (1)

Guys, this TP weighs nothing. It was installed on a IX MR.

I was very impressed with the quality. The welds are far better than what I've seen from even HKS. Not saying that HKS makes the best welds in the world, just a comparison. No taper at all, just a full 3" one end to the other. I was at first a little worried about the in-cabin noise due to the fact that the walls of the TP are somewhat thin at what looks like 1/16". I've also come to find titanium exhaust pieces to produce a raspy tone as well. I was pleasantly surprised when I could barely tell a difference at all in the overall sound of the car when I finished. Although, this most definitely due to the fact that the car still retains it's stock cat-back. Cruising is OEM like and in fact, the only way the TP makes itself known is by the added little growl...somewhat akin to adding an open element filter. Oh, and the fact that the car is noticably quicker. Spool is a tad faster, and the car seems to hold boost a little better. I have noticed however, that if you downshift and come into boost suddenly, the boost will spike around 1.5 bar and soon drop to around 1.0 bar. I suspect that the removal of the brick allows the turbo to spool faster than the solenoid can open the wastegate, I'm experiencing some detonation up top and the ECU is being erring on the side of safety. I am currently un-tuned. The only bad thing I can say about this piece is regarding the placement of the O2 bung. You can see in the pictures that I have the sensor pointing down. I am forced to do this because if I try to mount the TP in the same way as the stock cat, the O2 sensor is precariously close to the drive shaft. I drove around all night with the pipe mounted with the O2 pointing up and no problems with it hitting...however, after about 50 miles, the SES (CEL) light came on. I purchased the anti-foulers today and have yet to install them. The anti-foulers will neccessitate the pipe to be flipped over (the way it is pictured) with the sensor pointing towards the road. This concerns me more than it being close to the driveshaft. Anyway, on to the pics!
Excellent quality here. Thanks Francis!

The gaskets supplied are much better than the thin metal OEM ones.

You can see here how close the sensor would be to the DS if flipped over.

I have yet to secure the sensor wire in this pic. I found it unnecessary to use the zip ties that A-Spec suppiles. I just retained the bracket that bolts up to the OEM cat and used the clips on it to hold the wire.


I would reccomend this TP to anyone who...well....anyone who isn't worried about passing smog. The location of the bung could use some work, but overall it really is a great piece. I welcome any questions and will attempt to accomodate any other pic requests as I plan on crawling back under the car to fit the anti-foulers on tomorrow evening.

alloyic_rs

how much was this piece again?

im guessing alot if its titanium, yeah that bung should be a bit higher, it looks like it could catch on something on the road

you could have saved yourself some money and bought a Ultimate RAcing 3 inch stainless steel TP for 80 bux, the bung is in a much better location and it acts as a mechanical CEL fix that really works and keeps the CEL light off

MR 600

iTrader: (5)

weight saving of.. ?

alloyic_rs

is that stock piping i see?

so you put on a 3 inch titanium test pipe up to your 2.5 inch downpipe and catback?

not kool

http://www.z1auto.com/prodmore.asp?m...ust&prodid=481

have a look at those... 2.5 or 3 inch test pipe with mechanical cel fix bung for 85 bux with gaskets, much better deal imo

i still dont know how much you spent on your titanium one, but maybe i dont wonna know

jbrown

iTrader: (17)

Not to burst your bubble, but the gaskets you used are junk and they will fail on you in about 6 months, at which point your car will sound like an '83 Corolla.

Believe it or not, you can take the gaskets out and it won't leak as long as you bolt it all together really tight.

MRaaron

iTrader: (1)

The piece was $195. No, it's not the cheapest pipe I could've gotten (UR) but then again, I didn't want the cheapest piece. I wanted the lightest piece. I'm not sure about weight savings, but A-Spec weighed the piece at 1.2 lbs. The stock cat weighs...a lot.

Yeah, that's a stock downpipe and cat-back mated up to that expensive piece of titanium. Why? Because it sounds good. I haven't heard a cat-back yet that I like and the stocker is doing just fine. Besides, the cat is the most restrictive part of the exhaust system and I consider removing it a step in the right direction even if I decide to keep everything else as it is. No, it's not what everyone else would do, but then again, if I was concerned about what everyone else was doing, I'd have just bought an HKS cat-back instead.

jbrown, what makes you say that the gaskets will fail? Do you have any experience with the gaskets supplied with this pipe? I'm not a gasket engineer, but there is simply no way at all that the OEM gaskets were doing a better job. These are several times thicker with a metal ring in the center. However, even the best gasket, mated up crooked and torqued down improperly, can and will leak.

jbrown

iTrader: (17)

The metal inside is great, but the crappy silver foil paper-like substance around it goes to **** in no time and it leaves a gap where the foil pieces fall out. My first experience with that type of gasket design was between my tubular manifold and turbo.

It failed in 2 months.

So I put a stock gasket in and viola! Been great for a year now.

My 2nd experience with the craptacular gasket was in the same location I noticed yours currently is installed. It lasted 4 months there for me on my Buschur HiFlow Cat, so I called Jarrod at Buschur when I ordered my test pipe and asked for a gasket to go with it and he said "Trust me J, you don't need one". So I trusted him and it has been 2 months now without a gasket and no leaks whatsoever.

At this point you may as well wait for it to fail, but when it does, don't replace it, just remove it.

MRaaron

iTrader: (1)

I've never had any sort of trouble out of these type of gaskets. I'm not very sure that it's accurate to say they're paper. It is some type of foil on the outside, but the inner layers seem like metal as well. Correct me if I'm wrong (I'm almost positive I am), but isn't the Buschur TP the slip-fit design? I could see you getting away without a gasket in that case, but just mating up to flangeswithout ANY sort of gasket...? IF it does start leaking, I'll just put the OEM gaskets back on.

jbrown

iTrader: (17)

Well what it turns into after it fails has a very strong resemblance to paper.

And yes the Buschur is slip-fit, but only on the outlet of the test pipe. The inlet is flanged where it meets my Works 3" DP. So at that spot I have 2 flat flanges with no gasket and no leaks. The same 2 flanges were fine with one of these gaskets until it failed, then there was a leak where pieces of the crusty, brittle gasket fell out.

But you guys can do whatever you want, just trying to help, take it or leave it.

SHIFTT IX MR

great idea-

NOT.

perhaps you should take your head gasket out of your engine and just bolt the head down really really REALLY tight so not to leak.


the gasket in question may be questionable, but no gasket is worse- Believe me. if those tiny peices of foil- about paper thin fall out- either replace it with an OEM peice, or, double up the gaskets. i know i know, many people before have said not to use two gaskets, but, thats most likely a result of what the dearlership might tell them, but when it comes to the exhaust, its doesn't matter really, two won't do anything but double your protection.

john

jbrown

iTrader: (17)

You're an ***. There's no such thing as an OEM Mitsubishi 3" 2-bolt exhaust gasket. And the only thing more likely to leak than one of those foil pieces 'o **** would be two of them together.

Do you have two head gaskets on your car so that just in case one of them leaks the other one won't. LOL ... jackass.

And I only said "really tight" ... not "really, really, REALLY tight"

For the record:

foil gasket = leak
no gasket = no leak

As I said in post #7, it was recommended to me by Buschur Racing, you can call Jarrod for confirmation if you like, but you probably don't need to because you know WAY MORE than they do.

SHIFTT IX MR

i had two gaskets for my 350Z since i had a crawford Plenum, it was recommended, in fact, not to use a single gasket and that the extra gasket provide an extra barrier incase the manifold (plenum) were to warp ( since the crawford plenum is basically a core manifold with an additional top level welded on- CRAWFORDZCAR.com)

as for the mitsu. makes no exhaust gasket 3" well obviously adding any gasket no matter how many wouldn't work and would leak if the gasket is not equal to the size of the piping.

as for no gasket at all, since i DO know more than YOU, it will leak. i dont care what you say, there must be a barrier between two peices of metal that have variations in temps. ( maybe thats why bridges have expansions joints.) another factor too for the reason of a gasket is to help eliminate harmonic frequencies which - in extreme situations- can lead to a failure in the metal, thus causing the metal top crack and brake.

now let me ask, if your not suppose to put any gasket between the exhaust peices, then this should apply to your manifold or headers n other cars correct? also, for the sake of the augument, why in the hell then would manufacturers and companies selling exhaust system even think of including them in their kits? o yeh i know, it because they want to jst throw money down the drain on giving you something that totally useless right? then explain why manufacturers such as MITSUBISHI have them used through -out there exhaust systems.

hell on my 350Z, my NISMO exhaust had gasket, but i assume those were worthless right?

in some way i think you are right, as well as i, but i think in instance having no gasket would work, but now you risk tighening a bolt down too much and stripping it, or, something else. in my having a gasket on could cause an exhaust leak but i think that when the exhaust leaks, that gasket has yet had a chance to expand.

now, in concern with other exhaust that actually overlap one another - not nesscessarily (sp?) being bolted to together but rather held together? you know what i mean- that type of exhaust (they are generally JDM), well i think no gasket in those cases is actually required.

as for the name calling, its sad to see what someone typed on the internet, allowed yourself to become so- below; so bothered. this leads me to believe that the rest of your life is ran similiarly. what a shame, i feel for you.

john

BTW: i wasn;t trying to be a dick, if i was, i'd try to belittle you as you did me, however, im not affended by the lanugage, but others might have been. i come off cocky, but, why do you think thats the reason? ive had extensive work on many modified autos., including my own SC S2000, TT Supra, M3, Z33, and now my evo. it comes from experience my friend, and i apologize for insulting anyone is anyway. my purpose here is to learn, to teach, and to give an opinion on my experiences and other persons' experiences. so again, im sorry to all whom i affended.

mhgsx

iTrader: (6)

Your original example was for a head gasket. You do realize that this example you just gave is NOT a head gasket, right?

V-bands don't use any gasket, even those holding the turbine outlet to the downpipe. They hold the two pieces of metal "really, really tight" together.

trinydex

iTrader: (12)

not using a gasket on a ti o steel junction is bad. tightening them hard so they won't leak will cause your ti flange to warp.

SHIFTT IX MR

no the gasket i used for the Plenum was basically like a gasket for the EVO but would go in between the IM and block itself.

im wondering then whats the general purpose behind the factory gaskets? why are they so readily used if they appear worthless? in otherwords i may be wrong here but im looking for someone to baby, and, explain this to me. if im wrong, im wrong, i want to be able to admit that rather than seem like a dick.

john