Motordyne ART pipes and factory cat brace...
 

So a few weeks back, I finally installed my ART pipes that I've had sitting for months.

Anyway, when remounting the stock cross brace for the cats/test pipes, we had to force the mounting holes on the brace to line up properly with the mounting tabs on the ART pipes. The right pipe was pretty close, but the left one was off by about a half inch. We got it to fit though.

Ever since, when I take off in 1st gear pretty aggressively, I get a rather loud creaking sound coming from the bottom of the car, heard through the floor. I'm guessing it has to do with that cross brace, being a bit "torqued" so to speak and the movement of the engine on launch.

Anybody else experience this with their ART pipes or any other test pipes that use mounting tabs and that cross brace? If so, did you do anything to stop it?

It's really quite annoying.

http://charlest.zenfolio.com/img/s9/...96364368-5.jpg

http://charlest.zenfolio.com/img/s12...96364372-5.jpg

Remove the brace, it's not necessary with test pipes since they are quite a bit lighter than the OEM cats. I've had two pairs of test pipes and neither had tabs for the brace.

Seems every ART pipe has those flanges in a slightly different location, or missing them altogether. Did you buy them new from Motordyne? Give them a car they will give you a shipping label to send them back to fix it. Sucks, but beyond paying someone local to do it that's about the only option other than just leaving that cross brace off.

I just left the brace off too.

If it's safe to run without the brace, then I'll do that. The only reason I reinstalled it is because of older threads that I read where the test pipes were failing due to the weight of the exhaust hanging on it... Which I thought was kind of odd honestly.

Thanks guys for the quick response and advise!

Can only speak for my own experience but I ran that setup all last summer with no trouble whatsoever.

That's good enough for me! Next time I get it up on a lift, I'll yank that sucker out of there. Less weight = race car LOL

Lol that bracket proabaly weighs as much as one art pipe!

Between it and the cats there is some pretty respectable weight savings to be had.

Not even as much as an ART pipe. It's all aluminum, and freakin' razor sharp edges!

Those cats were ridiculous. :gtfo2:

Thread revival:

Chops, what shop are you using for installs? I need my exhaust realigned and could use the expertise of a shop with a lift.

Thanks fellow CFZ member! :tup:

I heard about this minor fitment issue before with the Motordyne ART test pipes. I would remove the brace you really don’t need it with test pipes no big deal.

I also had issues lining up the right ART pipe when i did my install. I managed to torque it in place but if i could do it again i would leave the bracket off. iv noticed that when in certain RPM ranges when engine breaking a vibration occurs and i believe its caused by the ART pipe with the bracket.