Review; Pride V2 dual exhaust and adapter for '96 BB

[SarcasticaLy]

So I contacted Mark at Pride and ordered the V2 dual exhaust and added the burnt tip. Not the burnt tips that slip on but the pipe tips themselves were burnt. I love it. With my beginner knowledge of NSXes, I asked him about the effectiveness of the adapters and he recommended them so what the heck. I ordered those too. Added to the package was a Seibon front lip. So I got off work at midnight and got home around 1am.

I was rather impressed (as fellow primers have previously stated) with the welds and the quality of the exhaust. The adapters were also rather beefy. I removed my OEM exhaust with relative ease. Just unbolt at the cats and lube the exhaust hangers and voila, off they come. His FAQ section was pretty spot on, it literally only took 5-10 minutes to get installed. As I bolted on the adapters to the cats, I noticed that not only were they a BITCH to squeeze together to get the "spring bolts" to get through enough so I can get the nut on it, but on the cat thats on the driver's side, the inner bend of the adapter is too small and will not allow the bolt to even get in there.

Here are some pictures to illustrate what Im talking about;

I was doing this at 2-3am so I thought I might have been seeing things or was doing something wrong but logic kicked in and it was just physically impossible.

When I installed it onto the exhaust and lifted it all up to the cats, it appeared that it all lined up.

Then when I went to put in the "spring bolt" on the aforementioned driver's side adapter, it just wasnt gonna happen.

This is how it SHOULD fit (shown with spring bolt on the outside).

THIS is my problem!!!

This is how the bolt works with the OEM adapter. You can see it clears and has barely a millimeter when it seats..


The OEM and the Pride adapter side by side...

Im not a mathemetician, but the OEM looks a bit bigger and allowed the bolt to clear...



SOOOOOOO.....its 3 a.m. and Im EXTREMELY frustrated because I expected it to be a BREEZE. I recall in one of Mark's PM he said contact me ANY TIME. So I texted him and amazingly, he replied!! He said I was the FIRST person to get this new style adapter (sorta felt special) and that the supplier thought it was a good idea to make the flanges thicker (woulda felt special if the thicker flanges woulda worked!!). So as Im sure the intent was to make a solid product even MORE solid, the design was incredibly flawed. The thought that came to me was "if it aint broke, dont fix it." I dont know any other vendor/seller/shop/etc that would be reachable at 3 a.m. so for THAT, I commend Mark. At the point of complete frustration, it was nice to vent a bit and to address the situation. Mark apologized for the inconvenience and ordered me the previous model adapter right away and is being shipped priority to me....hopefully overnight instead since they didnt reply to him today.

Oh, during my frustrated state, I impatiently decided to just take my OEM adapters and try to put them on and just give up on the Pride ones. I hastily tried to remove the nuts off the OEM adapter flanges and broke off one of the studs rendering it useless. So if anyone has OEM adapters lying around, PLEASE PM me!!

Thanks again Mark, UNSURPASSED service! I was dying to hear the exhaust but I guess "good things come to those who wait." Patience is DEFINITELY not my strong suit.

Thanks for reading.

 

[ChrisK]

Why can't you just reverse the direction of the spring loaded bolt? Have the bolt head on the cats side and the nut on the adapter pipe side.

 

[SarcasticaLy]

I tried every which way. It wont work that way. About 80% of the way down the bolt, it has a "step" and on the cat side, the hole is only big enough for the bolt to go through up to that step. So the bolt would only go in about...I dont kno, a 1/4 of an inch?? Bottom line, its not possible.

 

[dawk]

Why can't you just reverse the direction of the spring loaded bolt? Have the bolt head on the cats side and the nut on the adapter pipe side.

+1.... I am not sure how it will NOT work. Or, go by the local automotive store and purchase new set exhaust bolts that will work.

 

[NSX1145]

On my SOS exhaust, the bolt you are having trouble with...I have run a shorter spring bolt so I can fit it in between the piping with just a little effort. No way the factory bolt will do, it's just too long.

 

[SarcasticaLy]

I'll show you guys tonight. I'll take a pic of the bolt.

NSX1145, it has VERY little room so I dont know how small of a spring Id have to get, lol. Its ok though, the replacement is on its way anyway.

 

[ChrisK]

+1.... I am not sure how it will NOT work. Or, go by the local automotive store and purchase new set exhaust bolts that will work.

Actually I understand how it will not work now. I forgot the stock spring loaded bolt had that flange to keep you from completely compressing the spring. The extra flange on the bolt will allow you to tighten down the bolt and compress the spring until it hits the flange on the cat, then that flange now acts as the bolt head and the nut tightens against that instead of the actual bolt head.

Anyway, I'd say just chuck the spring loaded stock bolts and used regular bolts that work. When I had the SOS adapters installed they came with regular nut and bolt with lock washers. I know it wont technically allow the pivot and movement, but nobody has had any problems with it bolted that way before. I know have aftermarket cats and it too just uses regular nuts and bolts.

Either way, good luck getting it installed. Nothing better than getting a new exhaust all installed, all lined up correctly and then firing it up for the first time. LOL

 

[SarcasticaLy]

Exactly! Lol. Interesting, about the bolts suggestion. Idk, I'm pretty anal about little stuff like that so ill see how the previous gen adapters pan out before I go your route. Thanks!

 

[PoKnow]

So.... I got laughed at when I told the locals it took me hours and hours to install my exhaust but it was because of shit like this.

My solution... I used Dali adapters... which had the same problem.

I zip tied the spring (full compression)... that let me wiggle the bolt at an angle into the hole. Tightened. Cut the zip ties... pull the zip tie out with pliers.