Welp, no thanks to the design of the y-pipe, it's on. If it weren't for the greatest, nicest, most cooperative exhaust worker/mechanic in the entire KC area, it wouldn't have been possible. In the end, he had to cut off about 6 inches of the y-pipe on the long side, to be able to weld another pipe in there so that it'd all connect. He had the right tools, he had the skill, I couldn't have asked for a better man to do the job. I thank him very much for that, and after it all, he charged me a measily $50. For the work he did, the tools he used, the parts he gave me, it was easily a $100 job. Perhaps he saw the anger, despair, and frustration on my face when he lined up the pipe and showed me the 2 inch gap. After a little customization, the pipe was aligned and had about 3-4 inches of new piping connecting the y-pipe to the pre-cat. At least the other part lined up. One of them had to I suppose. From there, it wasn't too bad. The cat was rubbing up against the bottom of the car a bit, so he put a little rubber stopper inbetween it and the car, then went on to weld the end of the cat (couldn't use the flange because I already have the SVT cat-back on there) to where the resonator would be (don't have one, soon to be a glasspack). In the end, I had no leaks, everything was sealed up tight, and I tell ye what. If anyone is ever in the KC area and needs exhaust work done. I won't hesitate one split second to go to this guy. He's amazing. But that's a little off subject. Basically, the y-pipe was way off, like I said, about 2 inches on one of the flanges. I was quite frustrated when he initally put it up to my car and showed me the #%&^ up. To the un-trained eye, there was no way in hell that was gonna fit. He made it fit. Thank god. As far as the actual pipe and cat, I noticed what I think is a bit of a power gain. I can't be sure because I'm really bad at the whole butt dyno thing. The best I can describe it, is the car feels a bit more free. Doesn't feel like it lags as much at higher rpms and all. As far as the sound, it has a nice growl, from what I can hear. I still haven't heard it from the outside. Keep in mind, the y-pipe and cat is coupled with no resonator, which I will soon fix, as I said, with putting a glasspack in there. Because of having no resonator, there's a lot of rasp at high rpms when the engine is cold, and a little normally. I'm rather positive that's not because of the y-pipe and cat though. Add a glasspack to that and I imagine I'll have one scary sounding Contour.
Needless to say, but I'll say it anyway, I won't be doing business with Brullen for a while unless they can somehow convince me otherwise and regain my trust. It's ridiculous how far off the pipe was to fitting. Luckily, I had the right man to do the job.
P.S. Thanks for your hard work on this GB Cuervo. I don't think you should worry about contacting Brullen concering these design flaws, let the people who have them contact them. That way, they can better express their anger towards them about this. I know I will.
Last edited by 97CS; 09/16/03 09:18 PM.
