Honest Cheap eBay Exhaust Review
 

I come from the world of Corvettes. This Nissan is a new thing for me because a coworker was upgrading from his 2009 to a 2013. His original was a base car with the sport package. That's it. He wanted all the fancy upgrades...

The dealer would only give him 10K on a trade in. Wow. what a ripoff. I offered 12 and settled at 13.

I think I did well for a 2009 which desperately needs tires, has curb rash on 3/4 of the rims and a quarter sized snafu on the paint with a buffer. (and 70,500 miles)

Tires are on president's day. (sale) So - I bought an exhaust.

I read on here that the puritans all hate anything that isn't stock or isn't $1000 - $1500. There's a similar group on the corvette forums. Undoubtedly - they'll post below on how horrible this is and how it precedes the Apocalypse.

I had a Corsa Pace Car with the Tigershark tips on my vette. They were great - but expensive.

I'm not into this Z for much and I'd like to keep it that way. So eBay we go.

It was cheap. Like $270 - because I had to pay the CA sales tax. For that price even I was wondering what would show up.

This is what did...

Big box:
http://i125.photobucket.com/albums/p...ps8nfo7ng5.jpg

Poor packaging:
http://i125.photobucket.com/albums/p...psuu8dlvcj.jpg

Beautiful (if it fits)
http://i125.photobucket.com/albums/p...psibjhkqpp.jpg

X Pipe:
http://i125.photobucket.com/albums/p...psgwtmbsla.jpg

Mid Pipe:
http://i125.photobucket.com/albums/p...ps34ynmjrq.jpg

Mufflers:
http://i125.photobucket.com/albums/p...pswilry0cg.jpg

Video:
https://youtu.be/9IVa8cCaw7E
https://youtu.be/9IVa8cCaw7E

Looks good. Don't know about how it performs or build quality.

Looks good, please post a sound clip once installed.

Is that the topspeed? Link to auction page please....

link to auction: 4 5" Dual Rolled Tip Performance x Pipe Catback Exhaust for 370Z Z34 Fairlady VQ | eBay

Both the resonators on the x pipe and the mufflers themselves are perforated pipe with some sort of packing on the backside. Essentially a glasspack or magnaflow. I don't know what the fiber packing is actually made from.

This is obviously a low restriction design since it's a straight tube. The question is whether or not it sounds like a straight pipe or not.

The tig welds are good, but not "artistically beautiful." It's tough to make an ugly tig weld anyway - but if you've done any welding, working the pool with skill makes very even swirls. These are good - not great. Not done by a 50 year old craftsman.

4 5" Dual Rolled Tip Performance x Pipe Catback Exhaust for 370Z Z34 Fairlady VQ | eBay
4 5" Dual Rolled Tip Performance x Pipe Catback Exhaust for 370Z Z34 Fairlady VQ | eBay

I can't seem to post a link to the auction. I get the "Thank you for posting! Your post will not be visible until a moderator has approved it for posting."

So simply search for this: 171925412463

Please follow up on this.... The exhaust looks very nice and the design of it should take care of drone and not be too loud. I have done some looking into DPT Motorsports (aka.. DNA Motoring and Speed Daddy, among others I think) and they have a terrible history of not getting the right item to the buyer, poor customer service, damaged shipments, etc.. so it looks like you are one of the lucky ones!!! Congrats! I really hope it sounds as good as it looks and doesn't rust out in a week. I really like it and would be interested in getting one myself for this cost... thank you for sharing all of this with us.

When are you installing it? Take videos inside and outside the car if you can.

It actually doesn't look bad for >$300. Interested to see how it sounds.

Installed!
 

The install went well. I went slowly and spent probably 30 minutes trying to figure out how to get the car off the ground.

Notes: All the stock nuts are 14mm.

They exhaust nuts are ON THERE. Soaked them in penetrating oil to get them off. 1/2 ratchet to get them off. Last thing I wanted to do was bust a stud off the cat.

The removal was ok. Lube on the rubber mounts helps alot. The best tool was a set of channel locks to pop the rods out of the rubber mounts. It was easier to unbolt the exhaust hanger bracket from the frame for the rear muffler mount on the passenger side. Just as well because the heat shield has to come out for these to fit (standard ARK design)

Install was really easy. Reuse the nuts to the cats for the x pipe.
Hang the mid pipes from the hangers.

Then start bolting it together with the hardware. There were 4 smaller and 4 larger pieces of hardware (and no instructions of course.) You could use either one - but the center section to the Y pipe required the smaller bolts because the bolt hole to the tig weld was too close.
http://i125.photobucket.com/albums/p...pssdhytisg.jpg

Then simply install the mufflers. Slide the rod into the hanger and line up the flanges.

http://i125.photobucket.com/albums/p...pset5rrxft.jpg

The tips are not quite perfectly straight....

http://i125.photobucket.com/albums/p...psihnla8su.jpg

I tried to bring the left (driver) side up - but wasn't successful.

This is how it sits now:

http://i125.photobucket.com/albums/p...psirnhj59k.jpg

install video from manufacturer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F2DIctoPOrc

Sound video from me using a phone inside the car: https://youtu.be/MyT9L-d3bVs

Install Impression: In comparison to my C5 Corsa system - this was far easier to install. There are no rattles or contact between the car and the exhaust.

The tip alignment has room for improvement. I think that the right side is too high. There is some wiggle room with the flanged connections - but I haven't messed with it after the install.

This system fits the classic 2 out of three scenario.
1. Great idle
2. Great WOT
3. No Drone

Pick any two.

Reminds me of the mellow tone of the borla. Deeper than stock by a far cry and louder on top. Idle is nice and WOT sounds nice. Not terribly agressive - but I'm coming from a built LS1 with long tubes and a pace car exhaust. that thing sounds like a race car.

A little drone around 2000-2400 rpm. Need to drive it more to narrow that in.

Seems like a nice system for someone looking for a bit more deeper sounds to let you know you're not driving a civic. I'd do it again.

HP increase: not discernible from the seat of the pants. It's not worse than stock.

Price independent: it's a good system - Could use instructions, better shipping packaging, and better tip alignment.
Price dependent: It's a steal.

Thank you... sounds great! I look forward to a few more videos (both in and out) and how you feel about it in a week or two...

+++1 thanks!!!

Other than the left side tip, looks and sounds great!
Awesome job!
Can't beat the price , really.
Looking forward to see more videos at full throttle and at idle (cold start and warm)

U need to drop that passenger tip, happend with my FI also.. i ended up supergluing 3 washers together for each of three holes and then gluing them to bottom of floor pan and then attaching bracket, kind of hokey but it worked :icon14:

Sounds redneck - but I bet that is the perfect solution! I'll give that a try!

Thanks for the tip!

there is very LITTLE room with fuel cannister right there in the way

So after driving it for a week, the drone is noticeable between 1800 -2300 rpm. It's not horribly loud - but a noticeable volume difference in that zone.

Overall the aggressiveness of the system is medium. Not raspy or racey - more of a deep gurgling tone with medium volume.

I'd do it again.:tup:

If anything - i'd like it to be louder. HFCs would do it. But the install looks like a pain and I hate smelly exhaust...had enough of that with the vette.

During the install, I turned on the car with only the Xpipe installed. I was shocked how quite it was. Those cats tame the tone remarkably. Not quite like the open headers of an LS6...

I have Z1 HFC and there is no rasp, no smell, no CEL..... very happy with them!!!

Nice review

I just bought a used on off craigslist yesterday. Had it installed and did a video on it. Here it is https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=azVfM262GPE

Hey for either of you that installed this exhaust, how is it holding up? have you had any fitment issues/long term problems with the exhaust ? Im thinking about going with something like this mostly because money is tight right now but it seems to be a pretty good exhaust for the price so far id like to see how its holding up long term

It looks good but as we all know, looks can be deceiving. I hope you made a wise choice? A quality product tends to be more expensive and perform well and wear better over time. Only time will tell if this was a truly good purchase.

Five months and no response from either, both with low post counts. I'm willing to bet neither ended up being happy with those systems. And I'm sorry, but for $300, I highly doubt those systems are truly stainless steel. And if they are, cheap, thin wall stainless that will probably still rust anyway.

Nice system, pis and review. Would be hard to beat at that fantastic price. Thanks for taking the time to make this post.

I'm in for reasonably priced exhausts. The Turbo xs cbe was reviewed a June 2013 on this forum. I contacted the reviewer last month and he was completely satisfied with the Turbo xs (Garageline) after 3 years. No problems. So I bought one and was impressed with the build quality. All bolted together accurately. It weighs about the same as stock cbe system.

I did need to shorten the left muffler exit 3/4" with a hacksaw. At first the left tailpipe hung higher than the right, but after a bit of driving over some rough roads it settled out even with the right.

Sound is low pitched with some drone about the same volume as road noise inside the cabin 1800-2300 rpm. External sound volume is about the same as stock but lower pitched. It will probably be a little louder when my FI RHFC's are installed.

For $619 shipped I am completely satisfied.

Original poster back! I obviously don't get on this forum often.

It's been 9 months and the system is just as good as the day it went on. The volume hasn't changed, and there's no corrosion or degradation that I can see.

Haters gonna hate.

This is a California car - so no real environmental extremes.

I bought this kit from Amazon and got free shipping, totaled about $360. For being an Ark Grip Replica kit, the manufacturing is pretty f**king solid!
Package was a bit mangled but overall no dents or scratches (I was surprised!). Install went quickly and very little fitment issues like I was expecting. My right side tip is a bit high like yours but not as exaggerated. I now have Test Pipes in the mail from Manzo USA off of Amazon as well. I'll post some before/after video clips for everyone here and my own record.

On a side note, I chose the Burnt tips and the Blue finish is starting to fade/chip off after a few months. I'll probably try and find some actual Titanium Blue tips. Maybe the Ark tips will fit on this? (How exact of a replica would that be?!)

It's more of a HKS replica than the ARK...

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G891A using Tapatalk

I dunno... It borrows more from ARK with the parallel resonators and X-Pipe system instead of an H-Pipe or True Dual from HKS.

Its come parallel from the cats ,no X or H before the resonators. Just saying, cuz HKS tips are removable too, not the ARK.
I used to have one before switching to ARK.

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The kit in this post is from DNA Motoring. It has an X-Pipe right before the dual parallel resonators, and removable tips on the "Burnt" styling. If you choose regular stainless tips, they are welded on and rolled like OP's. The only section it borrows from HKS is removable tips on the Burnt version, otherwise it is almost entirely ARK's design.

HKS's Design:
https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/s...gytTA&usqp=CAE

Ok...https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...3c70419071.jpg

I'm referring specifically to the Burnt tips version of the DNA Motoring kit.
https://conceptzperformance.com/item...l/61_image.jpg
THAT is the only relation to HKS. Otherwise the Stainless Rolled tips and everything else is like ARK.
I mean, it's pretty evident right?

Sorry man if I bother you...

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Not trying to hurt your feelers. Just proving a point :eekdance:

Im clear about the difference on both systems. Thats why I switched to ARK...

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Gotcha! I've heard both in person and ARK has a far superior exhaust note IMO.

Sent from my SM-N910V using Tapatalk

Any dyno tunes of these?