Summit H-pipe: awsome sound, horrible fit

Zero Signal

Active Member
Feb 24, 2003
2,633
2
46
Tucson, AZ
My brother and I just pulled the stock H-pipe and installed that cheap two piece summit one. It took about 10 minutes to pull the stock one. It took 4 hours to get the summit one in! :notnice: Here is a list of problems it had:

[A] - The flanges at the header collector had the bolt holes spaced about a whole inch too close. Solution: completely hack out the outside edge of the flanges. That took awhile with a dremel and a worn out hack saw.

- Both side of the H were too short. Solution: I had to tighten the header collector flange bolts then just barely get the rear of the pipes threaded on to the cat-back and use the bolts to wrench the catback about an inch toward the front of the car. Now the fit is incredibly tight. Feels like I could jack the car up by the exhuast almost. At least it doesn't sag anymore.

[C] - The smog pump tube didn't even come close to lining up with the stock tube. Solution: Run to Checker 5 minutes before they close to pickup some heater hose, use a pipe cutter to cut the stock one off and just clamp the hose on. I really hope it doesn't melt. The guy at Checker owns a Fox body and said he had to run his stock stuff for emissions with the heater hose for a week and had no problems. We shall see.

I have a feeling these things are hand made and suffer from serious variability or something. With the hassle it was to get it on, I'm going to buy a good one come next May when I have to pull it off. I wouldn't recommend buying that thing to anyone. Spend the extra dough for something most people already use.


Other than that, I'm so happy with the way it sounds with the 3-chamber Flowmasters. Luckily there are no exhaust leaks. The O/R H completely eliminates the drone. In fact, it's almost silent unless I get on it. But when I do, it screams! I love it! :banana: I had my brother take it for a spin. I could hear him hauling down a road that's about a 1/4 mile from my neighborhood. The sound is to die for.

Anyway, thought I would share and rant alittle. My first sort of real mod I guess :rolleyes:
 
John, thanks for sharing that. Mental note made. :)

To make you feel better, I got bounced for smog today. Passed everything great, except for the aftermarket catted H-pipe (reason: only has two cats). :rolleyes:

I have to go to the local EPA office tomorrow and beg for a waiver thingie (on the treadmill it was pretty clean - cleaner than I imagine it would be with a 12 year old stock H-pipe). Otherwise, I need to hit the J/Y for a stock H-pipe. :(
 
Zero Signal said:
Man that sucks! All that exra money for the aftermarket cats down the tube. Where are you located?
Tucson.

It is about like your situation - good money spent for something which does not work (or work out) quite like it should. Bad week for exhausts in Tucson I guess. :D
 
yours are probably rusted solid. Mine were so I ended up using my 18" breaker bar and a lot of force to break the studs, then i cuut them off with a dremel and drilled them out to use bolts... since it was fudged to work I jsut installed some Mac headers last weekend...

It wasn't worth he 2 weeks drilling out the headers and the aggravation of bolts. I should ahve jsut swapped the headers when I broke the studs.
 
That is one area where John, Scott and I can have some of you beat. Here things turn to dust, but they dont often rust. :D
 
yea man it took me more time to get the stock h out than it did to put in teh summit one....i did have a small problem with the smog tube but all i had to do was cut about 1/2" off of teh tube on teh o/r h, and it popped right in (with a lil finnesing of course).......nothing is EVER "easy bolt-on installation" :nonono:
 
not with exhaust anyways, when i put my JEGS h-pipe on it was 2 inches too short on the right side and my tailpipes were incredibly misaligned. also i broke 1 stud on the header and had to drive it for a couple months with a terrible exhaust leak, it stalled at everystoplight untill i got headers
 
That is so strange....I figured those summit pipes were cheap for a reason....That sucks.

My bassani didn't need anything modified....Worked great!!!

Glad to see that you figured it out. Does it leak anywhere????
Scott
 
My summit h-pipe wasnt that bad, I had the same probs you had, for the header flange, I just started a nut on the stud and knocked each on in a little, and I used the bolts to pull the 2 chamber flows up to it with the air wrench, it sounds good and the extra 30 mins it took me to put it on is well worth the money i saved, sorry to hear you had such problems with it, Im glad you like it now, oh and the i blocked the air inlet because i took and plugged it with a bolt thats welded in there. Since theres no cats theres no need for a air pump,
Russell