Had a set of test pipes on my car for about 3 months, and they cracked at the welds between the headers and the resonators. Anyone else experience this?

 

What brand test popes?

 

They weren't a "name brand," they were a set I bought from a buddy of mine that owns an exhaust shop. Not sure where he got them from. He's got a Z as well, and this was sort of an "experiment" for him. I don't want to smear his name either, just want to know if anyone else has experienced this. My mechanic said he's seen this happen with a few resonated pipes before, even well-known brands, because of the stress on the welds.

 

I just put my test pipes on but mine are non-resonated. I haven't had any problems so far but it's only been about 2 weeks.

 

You should be ok, because you don't have any welds in the non-resonated pipes. If the pipe itself cracks, I'd be surprised.

 

By the way, how is the sound with your non-res, and what brand did you get? I'm having my friend re-weld mine (he's going to try and add some flex connectors to avoid them cracking again) and see what happens. If these crack again, I'm not sure what type I'll go for. People say the non-res are SO loud bordering on obnoxious, and my resonated ones were already pretty damn loud...

 

ya, non-res pipes are very loud and raspy, but some like it that way.
re: cracking, when you remove that crossbar that attaches to the stock cats, it puts added stress on whatever is in that area. i guess that's an area of high shearing forces on our exhaust system. my kinetix hf cats cracked at the welds. they replaced them for free, but after awhile, i put the stockers back on.