Upon first glance after removing them from the nice wrapping they looked super nice. However, upon closer look I found a great deal of welding bead in the way of the passages at the header flange. I had to grind out the excess. Then the holes did not line up with the heads. Among other little problems, the bolt holes in the flange were out of alignment with the bolt sleaves. Had to grind out the holes to allow the bolt to align with head. Also, the sleaves were not welded perpendicular which made it necessary to grind out more flange. Drivers side center tubes were canted too much to the rear and made it necessary to dimple even further and I still had to get a bolt that had no shoulder to make clearance. A whole day wasted grinding and fitting. Sorry workmanship. A mighty expensive experience. Thank goodness Exotic Muscle is now in competition. I will live with the TPIS since I started grinding on them but had I known how much I would end up with fitting the pieces, I would have boxed them up and sent them back. Beware.

 

Thanks for the info!

 

Wow! Thanx for the info! I was get'n ready to get a set of TPIS! Think i'll "re-evaluate" my choise! :eek:

 

:eek: That does suck !! Are you still going to phone them and fill their ears :smash:

 

No problems with mine at all. Sorry to hear that you got a bad set. I assume you bought them new directly from tpis. You might let them know.

 

no problems here either

 

Wow , sorry to here that, mine are the best set of headers I've ever had. quality was good, and they fit without any mods at all. install was easy compaired to most.
I wonder if they are getting them some where else now.

 

I had very similar problems...I spent hours grinding the inside of the headers to get rid of the excess welds and smooth them out. Grinding SS sucks. Also, I had to grind the AC/Alternator adapter brackets to fit as well, and I had to bang a couple dimples in the headers to clear the spark plug wires properly so the boots would not bet burned. Also, for some dumb reason, TPIS locates their O2 bungs ont he side of the collectors rather then the top (like stock). This means that you will likely need to get O2 wire extendors because the stock wiring harness will not fit. All these problems should NOT happen on a 800$ set of headers...

 

Had to dimple mine in a couple of places, but I expected that since every set I've installed on my engines in the past needed them too.

I wrapped the #2 pipe with heat wrap because it runs so closely to the fuel lines.

I also wrapped #1 because the header heat was being sucked right into the alternator and caused one to fail.

Collectors didn't align with their "Y" pipe and I had to really work to figure out just how to make it happen. It involved leaving both headers barely bolted to the heads using only the front and rear-most bolt holes.

Then I installed the "Y" pipe, then pulled up the headers to the heads with the header bolts.

This made really nervous! Pulling up the headers to the heads, which were aluminum, with the headers bolts "ain't" the way it should be done.

The header flanges should sit right up tight to the head, not have to be pulled there at all.

I made out okay and haven't had a leak in all the years they've been on, but it was nerve racking while I was doing it.

In contrast, a buddy of mine had a custom set made ($1,100+) for his 434. Not only did I have to dimple some tubes for clearance, but I had to cut the flange on each pipe to allow the fan and temp sensors to screw in. The holes were not only too small, but misaligned from the threaded holes in the heads.

I had to grind out welding flash at each tube entry too.

I then had to send the driver's side header back the company because when installed, the collector was right against the floor pan of the car which wouldn't allow the exhaust system to be mounted and would certainly have given the driver a constant hot foot.

Jake


[Modified by JAKE, 1:22 PM 11/1/2003]

 

Exotic Muscle is going to be having a GP here real quick, so hang on and join in on the savings..... :cheers:

 

May be quality control issues - I have a set with no problems.

 

I'd say so! You ought to see how their ZZ9 check on Cam Pro Plus.

Not only with the intake duration off almost 4 degrees but the LSA was off .6

Jake

 

No problem with mine, and they did come with o2 extentions.

 

These sound just like mine. They will fit, but the angles on the bolt holes and dimples are off. I also hate the smog pipe connector. They could have used the simple, newer 2 bolt style, but instead use the stupid, ring clamp style. Mine do NOT clear the frame support on the right side. I had to grind the the bolt and I still have a big wear spot (almost worn through the header).

 

Well, it appears some maintain they had a good experience while others had a bad experience such as mine. Who else would like to lay down several hundred dollars and wait several weeks with their fingers crossed hoping that the headers will fit and function? yeah.......right........... :rolleyes:

 

Mine went on no problems at all. No wire extensions either.
I wonder, are the LT1's having problems and the L98's fitting just fine?

 

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