Magnaflow y-pipe fail - poor quality control
12-26-2012, 12:14 AM
#1
Le Mans Master
Thread Starter
Magnaflow y-pipe fail - poor quality control
I just found the pictures from my engine install regarding the FUBAR y-pipe from Magnaflo so I thought I'd post them for everyone to see. This is the "direct replacement" catted y-pipe and rear cat for CA cars. Sorry, but NO WAY this is "direct replacement". I had to explain to the muffler shop guy how to fix it and still did part of the work with him.
You can see form the pictures that the drivers side inlet pipe was rotated about 15 degrees off resulting in a mis-match of about half the pipe diameter. NO WAY anyone could fix that without cutting and welding. Notice also that the inlets are almost 1" higher than the stock pipe, so the entire assembly sits lower from the front - which means it's sitting at an angle (going upwards as it goes back) compared to the original. Turn out that is a good thing because they apparently never knew that there was an option factory oil cooler which drops the filter down about an inch. The regular Wix filter couldn't fit so I was lucky to find a cheapie half-height oil filter at O-Reilly's that worked and gave about 3/8" of clearance to the pipe. To fix the twist we had to cut the pipe back in the straight section (about where your butt would be) and then rotate the front half into place. The muffler shop guy made a sleeve and then welded it up after we lined it up by eye and then held it in place - all of this off the car mind you.
Moving to the back, the pictures don't show it very well, but the OD of the joint for the two 2.5" pipes actually necks down to just under 2.5" for BOTH pipes, THEN if has a hard bump up to about 2.9" OD. Sorry Magnaflow but that is just ****-poor design. Dual 2.5"'s into a single 2.5" then a hard step up to less than the inlet size of the converter??? That joint is stamped stainless - no reason they couldn't have just done it right the first time.
From there, it continues - there was almost a 3/8" difference between the outlet of the y-pipe to the inlet of the rear cat. No way you could ever clamp that in place.
After that, there is the air tube for the rear cat. Notice it's about 2" short, missing two bends and can't connect to the stock air pipe. We ended up bending it outward, cutting the long stock air pipe, welding it to the rear cat, then having to bend it to get it all to fit. Of course the pipe was now short, so I had to use rubber hose to make the connection and then wrapped it with heat shield.
As I said, if this is "direct replacement" I hate to see what "universal fit" is. I did call Magnaflow and explained all this to one of the tech guys. He claimed they had never had any complaints or comments about these and would look into it then call me back. 3 weeks later and not a peep out of them. And no, they're not going to reimburse me for the $120 it cost to get it all fixed because I didn't call for "prior authorization".
You can see form the pictures that the drivers side inlet pipe was rotated about 15 degrees off resulting in a mis-match of about half the pipe diameter. NO WAY anyone could fix that without cutting and welding. Notice also that the inlets are almost 1" higher than the stock pipe, so the entire assembly sits lower from the front - which means it's sitting at an angle (going upwards as it goes back) compared to the original. Turn out that is a good thing because they apparently never knew that there was an option factory oil cooler which drops the filter down about an inch. The regular Wix filter couldn't fit so I was lucky to find a cheapie half-height oil filter at O-Reilly's that worked and gave about 3/8" of clearance to the pipe. To fix the twist we had to cut the pipe back in the straight section (about where your butt would be) and then rotate the front half into place. The muffler shop guy made a sleeve and then welded it up after we lined it up by eye and then held it in place - all of this off the car mind you.
Moving to the back, the pictures don't show it very well, but the OD of the joint for the two 2.5" pipes actually necks down to just under 2.5" for BOTH pipes, THEN if has a hard bump up to about 2.9" OD. Sorry Magnaflow but that is just ****-poor design. Dual 2.5"'s into a single 2.5" then a hard step up to less than the inlet size of the converter??? That joint is stamped stainless - no reason they couldn't have just done it right the first time.
From there, it continues - there was almost a 3/8" difference between the outlet of the y-pipe to the inlet of the rear cat. No way you could ever clamp that in place.
After that, there is the air tube for the rear cat. Notice it's about 2" short, missing two bends and can't connect to the stock air pipe. We ended up bending it outward, cutting the long stock air pipe, welding it to the rear cat, then having to bend it to get it all to fit. Of course the pipe was now short, so I had to use rubber hose to make the connection and then wrapped it with heat shield.
As I said, if this is "direct replacement" I hate to see what "universal fit" is. I did call Magnaflow and explained all this to one of the tech guys. He claimed they had never had any complaints or comments about these and would look into it then call me back. 3 weeks later and not a peep out of them. And no, they're not going to reimburse me for the $120 it cost to get it all fixed because I didn't call for "prior authorization".
