01 Caprice

[WHCapriceHBD]

Oh god.

The sellers are now saying its my fault because to fit any VT-X-Y-Z V8 catback, you're "supposed to remove the exhaust manifolds, as this gives the cat pipes wiggle room to align to the new catback"

They also said "Any V8 catback, either Xforce or Redback will need to be cut and slightly modified to have the flanges true-ed up before fitting, as none of them bolt straight on either."

I said I want a refund. They aren't coming at it. Looks like I'm stuck with this piece of &^*$# catback for now.

Haven't even driven with it on yet, and I already hate it.

 

[uniacidz]

Dont fret man

Exactly as they said, may need adjusting to suit up.

Sometimes just need a exhaust shop to finalize.

Just a flange man, easily sorted.
Isnt like its for a V6 or wrong parts altogether.

 

[Skydrol]

That is a shitty way of doing business. That makes no sense... trade a sale for costumer satisfaction is bad business practice. Happy costumers refferal is important. To me, the bridge is burned beyond repairs.

 

[kangavxss]

That's crap service...id name and shame...even my crappy xforce cat back (that I removed the same day because it droned like hell) bolted straight up at least.. In the end I got mine custom fabricated to suit with no issues..hope you get it sorted m8.

 

[uniacidz]

Thing is, i wouldnt name and shame due to many variables.

EG, what size is the outlet on the extractors and whats the inlet connection size for the exhaust?
Original headers? Aftermarket?

 

[WHCapriceHBD]

Okay, well its mostly worked itself out now... Mostly.

The cat pipe connecting flanges had to be brought together closer and squared up by 20mm in order to line up to the cat flanges on the car. So we put it up on the hoist and sorted that out and got the catback to bolt up to the cat pipes with some work.

Put all the rubber hangers on and it was starting to look good.

Then picked up the tail pipe section and put it onto the car. Another drama. The exhaust pipes don't reach the rear bumper. The exhaust is too short and the rear hangers don't even connect.

I cut the hangers off the pipe and moved them along and re-welded them until they lined up with the hangers on the car. I was tired, it was 6am in the morning and I needed to drive the car home 10km. So I moved the hangers as a very temporary "fix".

And then looking through the bumper cutout, the pipes are shooting off in the wrong direction and are blasting a small section of rear bumper. I couldn't fix this, so I drove it home the 10km like this. The bumper survived ok.

I called the vendors again with this new hurdle and showed them the photos. This time they were a lot more understanding and admitted that they had sent me the wrong rear tail pipe section- this one is too short because it's for a regular length sedan. Not a long wheelbase wagon/Statesman platform. They refunded me and sent the correct length rear tailpipe, express delivery.

I'm happy they came to the party and they are trying to make things right.

I did take the car off the hoist with the wrong length rear tailpipe and drove it home- I am actually impressed with the sound, despite the fitment issues. It doesn't drone, its deep and its reserved at idle. But at higher rpm, it bellows in a good way. The sound is what I wanted. Pity the fitment has been a headache. I'm all exhausted (pun intended) of exhausts this week and once the exhaust is finally fixed with the arrival of the correct rear tailpipe next week, I never want to look at another catback again. I'm done with this part of the car. I'm ready to move onto something more interesting.

I will let you know when the right parts arrive and the exhaust fits the rear bumper though.

 

[uniacidz]

Now thats a different issue.

LOL

Glad it gonna be sorted.

 

[kangavxss]

A lot of rooting around where there needn't have been if they got the order right the first time...at least you got a refund but it still should have just bolted up without mucking around in first place. Glad it sounds good ( might change though when you bolt on the longer tail piece and add the tips)..
Anyway what's next on your list?

 

[WHCapriceHBD]

Next on the list is a better cold air induction setup, as we identified some high intake temps when the car was tuned, so that will be a minor upgrade when I get the next free bit of time... I have some parts here waiting to be installed.

Then the old CD player is coming out. I can't play burnt CDs or USB with the standard system and its really starting to get to me...




UPDATE!
The replacement rear tailpipe section finally arrived on my doorstep today. I'll fit it tonight in the hopes it stops my rear bumper from turning any more $%&^*ing charcoal & burnt than it already is... I've had no choice but to drive the car 5kms to work each day and while that may not sound like much, the heat from the stupidly incorrect exhaust firing at the rear bumper has begun to melt it and burn it. I'm very unhappy and unimpressed about it but I have no choice as I'm doing long hours right now and can't stop to sort anything temporary. So I try to minimize the amount of time the car is running, in order to not melt the rear bumper any harder than it needs to be...

This replacement rear tailpipe had bloody better fit this bloody car. I've had enough of the ongoing problems with this godforsaken catback. Burnt bumpers, ill fitting flanges... Yes the car does go better and sounds better but its the lack of fitment that should never have been an issue in the first place...

 

[WHCapriceHBD]

Began to mock up the cold air intake tonight. Didn't get very far before I had to give in and pack up for the night.

I used two flared aluminium bell-mouth openings from an old circuit racing car we used to run. I'm just roughly dummying it together tonight before I pull the front bumper off tomorrow and continue the work.

The idea is, these two flared intakes sitting behind the lower grille mesh will pick up cold air (especially above the 80-ish kmh sort of speed... remains to be tested...) and ram it up to the engine via 3 inch pipes behind the front bumper.

I'll paint the ducts black to blend them in behind the grille when its all finalized. Just need to take the front bumper off tomorrow and make the piping up to get it to run along the inside of the bumper past the fog lights. The horns will have to be relocated elsewhere under the bumper to make room.

I know there are over-the-radiator intakes available, but I like trying to make my own way with some things.