2012fgtm

I have a 2012 5.0 6 speed and I purchased Pypes long tube headers and shorty catted x pipe a few weeks ago. I had my shop FSR motorsports creations install them which they did in 7.5 hours. After the install, the headers rubbed on the steering shaft and impaired my steering, and gave the car a very embarrassing rattle even at idle. My self, and my shop emailed pypes to solve this problem, providing pictures and telling them exactly where the problem was. I left two voicemails with Dave their major account manager which were never returned. When i finally did get a hold of him, he informed me that they had just installed the headers on a similar mustang and ran into the same problem. He told me they solved this problem by putting a shimmy under the motor mount to lift the engine to provide clearance. He also said that i could hammer in the mandrel bent tubing to provide clearance. I then asked him if his company could provide help and pay for the installation of this shimmy to correctly install the header. He said absolutely not, and that this was common practice. When i told him i didnt agree, he said "how long have you been in the business, because we've been doing this for 50 years. Im severely disappointed in the rude customer service, and low quality product. If this was "common practice" it would be in the install manual and a shimmy would be in the parts list and part of the install. I believe if you pay for a high quality product, it should at least fit right. I hope everyone goes for different long tube headers other than pypes so they dont have to go through what im going through.

This is what my shop FSR Motorsport creations had to say about the install and parts.

Erik brought us his beautiful Mustang which we've been routinely doing some upgrades on over the last year. Everything so far, including the catless Pypes x-pipe we previously got fit really well. The car came to us 100% stock and has never been abused or even to the road course (yet!). The header install went fairly smoothly; you're typical lift the motor a bit to get a set of long tubes in which was pretty simple to do compared to other domestic jobs like the F-body's. When we dropped the motor down we noticed immediately that the steering shaft was very close to the #2 primary. It didn't make contact, but it was too close for comfort. Since Erik opted to not dyno the car this time around, the car didn't get any miles on it before heading out. Unfortunately, as the motor settled, it developed a rattle which got progressively worse where the primary contacted the steering shaft. We emailed Pypes several pictures and even circled the problem area for them on the picture. They cited a similar issue on their own in house install which confirmed the problem with the headers. We operate our business based on quality installs and tuning and denting a nice mandrel bend isn't our idea of an upgrade, nor should it be necessary! Shimming the motor will work but also shouldn't be necessary; and who knows what that could do to the rest of the driveline. I can assure you it wasn't an install issue; the headers were installed by our employee Jeff Blosdale, the crew chief of the 6 second Garrett TT Mustang.

http://www.dragracingonline.com/pmac.../Lummus_BO.jpg

Here are some pictures of the install.

SpartaPerformance

This is why you don't by mass produced Chiinese crap for the sake of saving some $$ and you buy real hand made in the USA headers like ARH, KOOKS or Stainless Works. Give it a year when those Pypes start to rot too

agarr19

i ran into the same exact problem with my 01 GT ill never buy a pypes product again

808muscle

There is no excuse for that kind of treatment by customer service.

2012fgtm

Recent update, my shop FSR took another 7 hours lifting the motor up with risers and shifting the motor towards the passenger side. Its done very nicely and professionally, but this should not be necessary for installing headers, absolutely not common practice!! I contacted american muscle who i purchased the headers through and they were shocked to hear my story since pypes has always told them they will go out of their way to fix a problem for a customer. They have been in contact with pypes and were shocked again to have pypes confirm that they had to put "five or six" washers under the engine mount or just hammer in the header. F*%k pypes!!!

Ditty

Yup....Not EVER purchasing from Pypes. True Story. Thanks for the heads up!

Derf00

My personal experience with Pypes is similar, dual exhaust system for my old 00 V6 mustang. System was a close fit but not perfect. By not perfect I mean I had to take a cutoff wheel and literally chop 3 inches off the X-pipe or the system was too long to sit under the car without hanging down all ghetto style.

You get what you pay for.

Jeffk

I received similar customer service from Pypes. Crappy products and worse customer service.

2012fgtm

So after posting my story on their fb page and had a huge amount of negative feedback, they contacted me. Pypes told me they would send me a driver side header. I informed them that my shop had already fixed the problem and i didnt need a new header, but that i was looking for a little help in for the additional cost of fixing their faulty product. They told me absolutely not, they would not reimburse for labor charges. So i asked them if they could send me a full set of headers with the problem fixed, so that maybe i could sell them on my own to get reimbursed. My thinking was it would cost them pretty much nothing, i could regain some lost cash, the header problem would be fixed, and everyone happy. Nope...they said absolutely not. Pypes was extremely rude, and told me i should shut up and deal with it, and they would send me ONE header when the problem was already fixed, or they couldnt send me a header. Id prefer to tell my story and let everyone know my bad experience rather then get a useless header. Also, they informed me that they still had not fixed the problem of the header rubbing on the steering shaft.

Entaille

bummer. typical case of 'you get what you pay for', which is unfortunate. after all of the additional efforts you likely spent more than what a good quality header like Kooks, ARH etc would have ran you.

I wish AM didn't carry their products