A little disappointed in the Kooks Y pipe
Thread Starter
Joined: Aug 2005
Posts: 2,810
Likes: 3
From: Rock Hill, SC
A little disappointed in the Kooks Y pipe I got some 1 3/4 headers, and let me say, they are bad *** quality headers. Awesome. I have always had ceramic coated or plain painted mild steel headers on my past vehicles. The Y pipe on the other hand, is a piece of 3" pipe with an S bend, with a hole cut in it, and another pipe ran into that hole. WTF?! For $350 this is what you get? This is no better than a $100 Pacesetter Y pipe aside from being stainless.
The merge is horrible, and makes a horrendous sounding rasp. I can't stand that sound. I thought it was just my SLP Loudmouth, so I swapped it out for a Borla I had. It was still there, but the Borla did quiet the rasp down some. I then took the Borla off and took it for a ride open Y pipe, just to see if it was the Y pipe. Sure enough.
I am just very disappointed in the quality and sound of that Y pipe for the money it costs. It should have a nice merge collector on it for that kind of money, rather than being a half *** S pipe with a hole cut in it to run another pipe into it. It wouldn't be that big of a deal if it wasn't so raspy
/end rant
The merge is horrible, and makes a horrendous sounding rasp. I can't stand that sound. I thought it was just my SLP Loudmouth, so I swapped it out for a Borla I had. It was still there, but the Borla did quiet the rasp down some. I then took the Borla off and took it for a ride open Y pipe, just to see if it was the Y pipe. Sure enough.
I am just very disappointed in the quality and sound of that Y pipe for the money it costs. It should have a nice merge collector on it for that kind of money, rather than being a half *** S pipe with a hole cut in it to run another pipe into it. It wouldn't be that big of a deal if it wasn't so raspy
/end rant
From what I have gathered its best to just get the LT's from almost any company & make your own merge/y-pipe to fit properly. I have never understood why they dont make them the best they can for the money charged or just even to produce a quialty piece.
I'm gonna use a aftermarket merge & have the exhaust shop make me a y-pipe next time.
I'm gonna use a aftermarket merge & have the exhaust shop make me a y-pipe next time.
Kooks Ypipe leaves a LOT to be desired for a $1000 header system. Even TSP's elcheapo $130 Ypipe includes a high flow merge. Kooks merge looks exactly like the Pacesetter merge, 2 pieces of pipe welded together.
Thread Starter
Joined: Aug 2005
Posts: 2,810
Likes: 3
From: Rock Hill, SC
This car is just a stockish driver that I got to have fun with anyhow, so I'm not looking for every last ounce of HP. It has bolt ons and a cam and that's as far as I am going with it since I have a race car now. If it wasn't for the rasp, I wouldn't have really cared, but that rasp got me going enough to rant about the quality vs price 
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Thread Starter
Joined: Aug 2005
Posts: 2,810
Likes: 3
From: Rock Hill, SC
The Borla did quiet it down a lot, but it is definitely the Y pipe that is causing it. It does not have cats. I'm not going to put any on it because of the expense. I will just live it with it
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Kooks should be embarassed by the Y-pipe they sell. $350 for two pieces of stainless pipe with a half-assed merge is unacceptable. I can't believe they haven't corrected this issue yet... I guess they don't care they're losing customers to ARH since they understand what a merge is supposed to look like.
SLP merge looks a lot like the ARH merge, but no one buys SLP Y pipes anyway since they don't fit anything..... But anyway..
Maybe Kooks just doesn't sell a ton of their Y's and it may not be worth redesigning it. But then again, they could prolly gain a bunch of business if they had a badass Y setup. -Not to mention the people bitching about the price... -Heh
I've seen their Y, but most of the time it's in a build thread here and there, or someone just bought their LT's/Y so I'm not gonna hate on their new purchase, and it's a sponsor and all.
Maybe Kooks just doesn't sell a ton of their Y's and it may not be worth redesigning it. But then again, they could prolly gain a bunch of business if they had a badass Y setup. -Not to mention the people bitching about the price... -Heh
I've seen their Y, but most of the time it's in a build thread here and there, or someone just bought their LT's/Y so I'm not gonna hate on their new purchase, and it's a sponsor and all.
fergymoto: Phone Kooks, and demand that they manufacture you a higher-quality y-pipe, else demand a refund. You have to phone and write letters to these companies so they know customers are not happy. When they get a lot of returns, someone will say that perhaps they should re-engineer to prevent profit-loss!
Even w/out cats, Kooks quality of the Y should be MUCH better matched to their Headers!!
Even w/out cats, Kooks quality of the Y should be MUCH better matched to their Headers!!
Wow. I got the Kooks catted Y and it's the best I've ever seen. Fit and finish is flawless. In fact, the 1 7/8 tubes and Y were the best fitting system I have ever installed of any brand on any car at any time. Period. Nothing close.
Fit and finish is one thing, flow is a totally different thing. Their merge looks like ****, flow wise.
Isn't going to work. I tried this and without serious modification and additional piping, the pipes just don't line up.