Just wondering if anyone has APS test pipes, and what you think of them. I recently had kinetix HF cats, and both cracked at the welds. Are APS better than helix?

Thanks,
Tommy

 

I had the same concern with test pipes so I just bought a cheap set on ebay and had them ceramic coated for $60. This minimizes the possibility of the welds cracking plus it helps exhaust gas scavenging. The APS look great but I just could not justify the price.

 

I love my Stillen TP's... looks and quality are superb, and the exhaust scavenging design is supposed to help maintain the torque down low which people often say they lose with test pipes. No dynos or track runs on them yet, but I would say throttle response is definitely better. Power up high seems better too, like when I go up a hill at 100MPH it just seems easier. There is a little "rasp" I guess you could say between 3500 and 4000 RPM's, but it sounds very race-car 'ish and nothing like a civic with a coffee can exhaust. I think once I get the HKS HP TD exhaust it will scream. Even now with stock exhaust and manifolds... it screams (bit of a rumble even) WOT above 4k RPM's. Pretty intimidating really.

 

The APS pipes are worth every penny. I will tell you why. They are designed to work with the copper horseshoe looking bracket that mounts under your transmission. This takes the load off of the rest of the exhaust. That is why the cheap ones are all cracking welds, because there is no place for that load to go. I have been having problems for years and only figured it out by looking at a picture on APS website of the underside of the car where it showed the bracket. They are fantastic.

 

The reason the OEM cats used the cross brace was because of the weight. With test pipes, the cross brace is dead weight. I've had test pipes for over 20K miles - 15% of those miles were spent on track, and the exhaust has experienced a lot of stress with off track excursions and scraping the bottom on track curbing. While I don't plan on buying any other Kinetix products, their test pipes have performed flawlessly... test pipes are a simple design, I see no reason to waste a lot of cash on them.

 

That is your opinion, but I have over 40K in mods on my car and have gone through three sets of test pipes and four Y pipes. I have had no problems since the install of the APS pipes. I also track the car.

 

how much APS test pipe cost?

 

looks like everywhere I have looked they have been $195.

 

I have Power Enterprise test pipes w/resonator and they have awesome welds, but they don't use the U bracket. But I highly doubt they'll crack.
Like Pe, Aps makes good stuff.