ANY DIFF BTWEEN TPIS or EXOTIC LONG TUBES?
Le Mans Master
Joined: Jan 2003
Posts: 8,596
Likes: 19
From: Portland Oregon
Re: ANY DIFF BTWEEN TPIS or EXOTIC LONG TUBES?
I think the fit and finish on the EM tubes are a bit better. Just my opinion when from what I remembered when helping a friend to install his TPIS tubes a couple years ago. I have the EMs on my car that I just installed.
Perfect fit and the bolts were easy to get to at all points, flange was perfectly flat so there was no need to worry about potential leaks, no sign of welding splatter from the manfucturing process, and even the tube welds at the flange are ground smooth, it doesn't even look like a weld more so like single peice. The tube entries are a perfect fit for the Fel-Pro 1406 D port header gaskets.
A very high quality header and I highly recommend them not only for that but for their customer support. One call to either Merle or Trevor and your questions are answered, nice guys they know what customer relations are all about.
[Modified by tjwong, 8:05 PM 10/19/2003]
Perfect fit and the bolts were easy to get to at all points, flange was perfectly flat so there was no need to worry about potential leaks, no sign of welding splatter from the manfucturing process, and even the tube welds at the flange are ground smooth, it doesn't even look like a weld more so like single peice. The tube entries are a perfect fit for the Fel-Pro 1406 D port header gaskets.
A very high quality header and I highly recommend them not only for that but for their customer support. One call to either Merle or Trevor and your questions are answered, nice guys they know what customer relations are all about.
[Modified by tjwong, 8:05 PM 10/19/2003]
Racer
Joined: Mar 2002
Posts: 498
Likes: 21
From: Maine
Re: ANY DIFF BTWEEN TPIS or EXOTIC LONG TUBES? (FX GS)
I have EM headers and the fit and finish is top notch. When I was researching long tubes for my car, one thing that really stood out was the location of the o2 sensor bungs. On the TPIS headers, the o2 sensor bungs located on the outboard side of the header. Because of this, you would probably need some sort of o2 extension wires to get the o2 pigtails to reach the factory connectors. TPIS may include the needed extensions with their headers, but I felt that the extensions were a band-aid for a poor o2 sensor location. On the EM headers, the o2 bungs are mounted topside which is near the factory location on the cats. No o2 extension wires are needed with the EM headers. Another major plus for the EM headers is they offer extension kits, available with or without cats. This allows at home connectivity to your existing cat back with no custom fabbing. Great for us guys in remote locations that don't have a good exhaust shops.
Melting Slicks
Joined: May 2002
Posts: 2,670
Likes: 4
From: Severna Park MD
Re: ANY DIFF BTWEEN TPIS or EXOTIC LONG TUBES? (93Blackrose)
I have EM headers and the fit and finish is top notch. When I was researching long tubes for my car, one thing that really stood out was the location of the o2 sensor bungs. On the TPIS headers, the o2 sensor bungs located on the outboard side of the header. Because of this, you would probably need some sort of o2 extension wires to get the o2 pigtails to reach the factory connectors. TPIS may include the needed extensions with their headers, but I felt that the extensions were a band-aid for a poor o2 sensor location. On the EM headers, the o2 bungs are mounted topside which is near the factory location on the cats. No o2 extension wires are needed with the EM headers. Another major plus for the EM headers is they offer extension kits, available with or without cats. This allows at home connectivity to your existing cat back with no custom fabbing. Great for us guys in remote locations that don't have a good exhaust shops.
What was a big deal was trying to fit the headers to my existing cut-up catback exhaust temporarily. I had to get some cone reducers from Summit to make it fit, and still had to go to AZ for some other pieces. This is because the exhaust shop would not touch the header work at all, and the shop is 80 miles from me. So a good set of coupler pieces would have made a difference for EM over the TPIS headers. But I have been through the install pain and have no complaints about the TPIS headers otherwise.
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