A little bit about me: I have been an avid reader of Corvette Forum for 5 years covering the time that I have owned two different C5Z06s. I have posted some, but not a lot. I have been far more active on the HPTuners forum as I learned to calibrate for my first Z06. Prior to owning the Corvettes, I had a couple of 4th gen Camaros and I spent a lot of time on ls1tech and mofbody.

A little bit about my car: My current car is a 2003 Torch Red Z06. I bought it with a 2.6L Kenne Bell supercharger, Kenne Bell boost-a-pump, Centerforce clutch, Wolfe 6 point weld-in roll bar with removable door bars, and that is about it. I have added Pfadt motor mounts and a Pfadt transmission mount...oh and a new set of Michelin Pilot Sport PS2 tires (damn those were expensive but so worth it). I am in the process of installing Pfadt headers, calibrating using HPTuners (pro), installing an NGK AFX wideband kit, Injector Dynamics ID1000 fuel injectors, and a ported LS2 throttle body. More fuel system upgrades (assuming the pressure drops as I near redline), suspension, transmission, differential, forged motor, etc. all to follow over the next few years as time and money allow, of course.

I was very excited to follow the forum and read about Pfadt's new Tri-Y C5 header system. I liked the idea and theory behind the product. I respect the Pfadt brand and have confidence in their engineering. They are fairly active in the forum community and I had heard good things about their customer service. I read a lot of good things for their C6 headers. I would like to think of myself as an educated consumer and I felt like I had done my homework well enough to have a high degree of comfort with the purchase so I pulled the trigger and ordered a catted 1 7/8" C5 set soon after they became available. I placed my order on October 28, 2013. They shipped out on November 20th and arrived on the 23rd.

In parallel with the headers purchase, I bought a HP Tuners MPVI Pro interface. I will be using my old NGK AFX wideband kit from my last C5Z. Tuning the car is one of the major reasons why I wanted to get a set of headers. I want to be able to leave the wideband connected at all times, log data, etc. I know that I could have a bung welded into the stock exhaust rather than buying headers, which is what I did with my old 2004, but I wanted to "do it right" for this car. While the existing tune from a "professional" works, it is pretty terrible. To that end, I bought a lot of training and educational material (both of Greg Banish's DVDs (I already had both of his books), both of the study at home courses from The Tuning School that are relevant, etc.) to brush my skills up on in conjunction with diving back into the HPTuners forum, of which I used to be a pretty active member. (It's amazing how much you forget when you don't stay actively engaged in a topic for a few years!)

Anyway, through all of those purchases and wanting to find a "winter beater" (2006 Saab 9-2x Aero) before tearing into the car, I waited to start the install until around Christmas. I worked on tear down off and on for a few days, cleaned up a few things, installed Pfadt motor and trans mounts, etc.

My first support-related contact with Pfadt was on December 31st. Initially my biggest issue was that the headers shipped with C6 installation instructions. They had not finalized/published C5 directions at that time. The C6 install instructions are much simpler than the C5. Specifically, the C6 set slips in for the most part whereas you have to disconnect the upper a-arms, front shocks, motor mounts, steering shaft, engine cradle mounting bolts, then drop the cradle/support and raise the engine in order to get enough clearance to get the C5 headers into place. This was more than I expected to need to do based on the ease of installation and fit/finish comments in forum posts prior to release, but I am on board since I bought them for the design and it wasn't that much more work. I did use my wheel stand blocks, up to 6 jack stands, and a floor jack through the install process...which may have been a bit of overkill but I didn't want to drop the car on my head.

When I first called and spoke with Rob (tech/install support), he quickly put me in contact with Zack, Pfadt's mechanical engineer. That was a very positive experience. Rob and Zack are very nice guys. I bounced my questions and challenges against Zack over email for quite a while and got early access to the C5 install instructions. I reviewed them and provided some feedback for gaps, things that could be removed, some additional torque specs that were needed, etc. I did this, of course, because I am very excited about their system and I want to make the install process as easy as possible for new customers.

After speaking with Zack, dropping the cradle, etc., I was able to slide the headers into place. I did, however, find a few issues. I'll start with the issues that we have resolved.

I had great communication with Zack, their mechanical engineer, for quite a while. I provided feedback for the installation manual that hadn't been released at the time. My feedback on O2 sensor bung placement on the passenger header sounded like it drove some change for future units. Zack did send me a pair of O2 bung plugs to resolve a problem that I had with the rear O2 sensor bodies hitting the tunnel plate (using pfadt motor and trans mount). I am going to code out the rear sensors in the tune since I don't have to pass an ODBII emissions test in my state.

That is where the awesome service ground to a halt for me. Unfortunately, the last response that I got from the company was on 2/5. I understand being busy, but I've been bending over backwards to be flexible, provide a lot of supporting information and pictures and reach out through various means to move the ball forward.

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I want to take a moment to illustrate what I have been doing to work with Pfadt to drive change and address the challenges since I know that I can't be the first or last that will run into this.

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I hate being in this position. I don't like to be "that guy" that has to bitch on a forum to get attention from a forum vendor with a good reputation, but I feel like I am out of options.

I am doing everything that I can to be helpful and work with Pfadt to resolve the issues and make this right. I truly believed that we were on the right path up until communication ceased. I know that Zack is very busy. There may be something going on at the company that is causing significant additional work or delay. I don't know. What I do know is that I have not heard a peep from anyone since February 5th despite repeated communication attempts through both phone and email. Even if they can't resolve an issue immediately, I expect the common courtesy of at least a 30 second call to discuss status and set expectations for next steps. I want to explicitly point out that the only reason that I am here is because there has been a COMPLETE lack of communication for 18 days and counting. That is customer service 101, and I expect at least that level of respect from Pfadt or any vendor that I work with.

I want to share this information so that others don't struggle with the things that I have been able to find a way around. I would like to give the other owners a place to log their issues as well that are (I assume) very similar to what I experienced so that Pfadt can see a significant trend rather than one guy trying to get their attention. Additionally if someone has a clever way of addressing some of those issues, I am all ears so long as that activity is not destructive. I am not interested in removing the driver's side heat shield and cutting the mounting point off in order to clear the header, for example.

In that vein I want to be able to educate prospective buyers about the challenges so that they can make a more informed buying decision.

What I most want out of this is for Pfadt to get back in contact and work with me to resolve the problems. My assumption is that it will take a new set of headers with slightly different dimensions to do that. I think that is unfortunate since they will be out some time and money and I will be out hours of garage labor to drop the cradle again to swap them, but the simple fact of the matter is that I cannot use their headers as-is. A "v2" design based on community feedback would be very good for Pfadt moving forward as well as providing a resolution path for existing customers, like myself.

While I am not in a huge hurry to have everything buttoned back up, my car has been in the air for almost 2 months for a "1 day" install and I would like to be able to start tuning as the temperatures begin to warm up over the next few weeks. Having said that, I knew that there was a significant risk of needing to work with Pfadt since I got very early release product, but based on everything that I had the opportunity to read, I was confident that this would not be a problem. Unfortunately I'm spending my Sunday afternoon writing a post to prove myself wrong.

If Pfadt cannot or will not fix the problem, then I would like an apology and a refund so I can go to American Racing Headers and buy a set of headers that fits. Barring that, I'll need to discuss options with my credit card company, the Utah Better Business Bureau, and whatever city resources are available in Salt Lake City.

Whoever from Pfadt that is responsible for the forum account, please call or email me to discuss. Rob, Zack, Blair, orders, and info all have copies of my email thread which contains both my email address and cell phone number. Help me turn this thread around and turn it into a great customer service success story!

Barring a fuel delivery problem when I get through tuning, my next purchase will be a JOC stage 2 suspension kit. That shouldn't change the support engagement model, but I am happy to dangle that carrot if it makes a difference.

If anybody has taken the time to read through all of this, thank you for your time.