JohnnyBgood

Got the Berk cats and Stillen exhaust installed yesterday. Had a few fitment issues: the x-pipe wasn't matching up to the muffler inlets. Called Stillen, and they gave excellent advice as to how to correct the situation. Turns out my mechanic didn't see the line in the instructions (printed in bold) about using a jack stand to hold up the exhaust while you tighten it up. Hey, he gets paid for his wrench skills, not his reading skills. I should also mention the shop doing the install doesn't normally do this type of job. (But it's right next door to work..couldn't beat the convenience factor.) Also, the cats came off with no problems--I warned the guy about the trouble people are having.

I think I'm going to take it to a muffler shop and have them weld a few of the seams and take out the U-brackets to make sure they don't leak. There's just barely enough metal to close some of the gaps, and I'm afraid of developing a leak as everything settles. This is probably overkill, but it will make me feel better in the long run.

I'm very happy with the quality of construction on both pieces, as well as the support I got from Stillen. The sound is unbelievable. Really comes on after 3K rpm. The video clips don't do it justice--you have to hear it in person.

I'm planning on changing the oil this weekend since my break-in period is over, and I'll really see what it can do next week. So I can't really comment on the power gains since I haven't thrashed it yet.

Overall, I highly recommend this combo, and many thanks to Semtex for the extensive coverage he provided. That was definitely a factor in my buying decision.