Hello, I am thinking about buying some test pipes on ebay today. There are over 10 different kinds to choose from. Anyone know whats the difference between the ones that look like regular pipes and the ones that are bigger/swollen on one end? None of them seem to be resonated unfortunatley. Some look like snakes, and some look like snakes swallowing a large animal (like oem cats) know what I mean? Any advantage to the straight ones over the other ones with the bulge on one side? Thanks....

 

the bulge is just a small resonator

 

oh....so is there any more/less power gains between those with and those without the bulge?

 

nope about the same gains..but if i were you i would spend alittle extra money and buy some from a reliable company..and not cheap ebay crap

 

how much difference could there be between test pipes other than what there made of ??
arnt they all the same size (for 350z) ? its just a hollow pipe..?

 

Just email xerdsales@aol.com and ask for the best price. I got them for $89 shipped and they are great.

 

I wouldn't say Ebay is cheap crap. Reason being I purchased some eyelids for my car on Ebay and one of my friends decided to purchase them from intensepower.com and they were exactly the same, not able to tell any difference in material, painting and so forth! The only real difference was price. IP had it for $70 plus shipping while ebay did it for $30.
Don't get me wrong, I did get hustled bad one time when PS2 was just coming out, but that was my own stupidity.
Buying parts off of ebay are sometimes like buying from the forums. Use your own judgement with Ebay!

 

I have to agree. I bought the Illuminated Sill plates, three piece, brand new in sealed plastic, for < $130. I also got the KurumaZ Stainless Steel Airguide for $38.51 shipped - $99 on thier website, next cheapest is the Greddy Airguide for around $50, and if the other Greddy stuff is an indicator, prob. made out of aluminum foil. So just be careful on ebay and read what other peeps experience is... many have posted the megan test pipes are not the best quality,, so I would think twice before buying those.

 

DONT BUY EBAY PIPES TRUST MEEEE... my welds cracked in 4 different places!!

 

Completely untrue, My test pipes have cracked in half two years later because the cheap ones do not have welded on flanges to help support the weight of the exhaust in front. I have just ordered the APS test pipes and they are substantially thicker and have the flanges, the welds are also substantially better.

 

depending on the material of the bung's, the O2 sensors may seize to the bungs and you will be out $95 parts when you go to switch them etc...

 

Ok, I hate to admit it, but I just ordered a set of resonated test pipes from eBay.

For $93 plus shipping for a resonated pair, it was to hard to resist. Will post first impressions and install details next weekend...

This will be my first non-stereo related mod

 

looking for one too. Can you post the item # or ebay link? thanks

 

I ordered some of those test pipes for $75 (after shipping) on eBay. Hopefully I'll have them by the end of the week; I already have a tracking number but don't think they have actually been shipped.

I bought the cheap ones because I'm not going to have them on for too long but I wanted some test pipes to see how they alter performance and sound. $75 was a fair price for such a thing. Also the pipes actually look pretty nice.

This part had all the right buzz words; SUS T304 stainless steel (we'll see how thick), Mandrel Bent, Robotic TIG-Welded, O2 Sensor Bungs, it's confusing but I THINK the auction says the kit has all the extra pieces like bolts and gaskets. Heck, they are even polished.

All that just sounds like a big operation to me, a purpose built assembly line. If you have that much money invested in making these things, you are going to sell them for a lot more than $75. That got me thinking they might be factory rejects.

Another reason I think they might be a factory reject of a name brand is that the auction says, "GONE OVER EVERY WELD AND RE WELDED IT TO BE SURE IT WILL NEVER, NEVER BREAK" I just assuming this is actually a bad thing made to sound like a good thing to the uninformed such as myself.

I don't know even the first thing about welding, so I don't know if you normally go over a weld twice or if this is something you have to do if you messed up. I also don't know if going over a weld twice makes it weaker or stronger.

It would make sense that a name brand manufacturer outsourcers the production of this test pipe to some plant in Asia. The name brand manufacturer has a quality control measure that does not allow re-welding. It might not even be a reject for the welding, it could be something else like a ding or dent. The plant doesn't want to lose all the production cost money so they sell it out the back door after re-welding it or fixing it or even after doing nothing whatsoever. They could be selling them damaged for scrap and the scrap person is "fixing" them and selling them. This is just speculation on where this part came from, but this kind of thing happens all the time.

<edit>

Oh, I just saw that they say, "Made in the USA" Well that makes no difference. The same thing could just be happening here instead of in Asia.

 

how about this one:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eB...983903961&rd=1

it mention about having: test pipes with built-in resonator

however, it kinda like HF cat.

 

LMAO!

 

Those are almost twice as much ($35 shipping!) but they do look a lot nicer. They look thicker too. I was a little confused on what a resonator did but it seems to lower the sound output so I didn't want that.

Oh, I looked up what a resonator was and remembered them from electronics so have a very basic idea of what a resonator is. This is my guess:

The exhaust sound is lowered simply because sound energy is used up to run the resonator "circuit," it's producing 2 "notes" now instead of one for each original sound and by the laws of thermodynamics the very creation of the second note would result in a loss of energy through the ineffeciency of the circuit. So, the bulge resonator is a very easy thing to make and is probablly really inefficent, which is good for the purpose of turning down the sound. At least that is my totally uninformed guess at what a resonator is doing....

Can anyone that actually knows explain exatly what a resonator does in an auto exhaust system? And why you would or would not want one?

 

also, is resonator have anything to do with rasp?

 

A resonator "should" help cut down on a little of the rasp, as well as have a slightly deeper tone. That said, this is the set I bought:

Ebay Test Pipes

 

If you look closely at the background of that pic, the pipes are made by Megan racing. At least one other member here has had a bad experience with their test pipes...