New Bursch pipe - mixed feelings
11-02-2001 | 10:28 AM
#1
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Joined: Jul 2001
Posts: 170
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From: New Hampshire
New Bursch pipe - mixed feelings
Well, we put on the new Bursch test pipe on our early '85 NA last nite. My first impression when I took it out of the box was that it was better than I expected. First, it has a built in resonator. I was slightly concerned that the noise level might go up too much, but the resonator should minimize it somewhat. As we installed it, it fit up pretty well in the front and in the back,but holes in the hanger did not line up with the holes in the bracket on the pipe. Nothing major, but still not a perfect "bolt in" part.
We started the engine up, expecting a little smoke from the fresh (what we expected to be high temp) paint. Well, the smoke billowed for about 15 minutes. For some crazy reason, these gomers must have painted it with something other than high temp paint. Now most of the paint on the first foot of the pipe has burned/flaked off after a 1/2 hour of running. We'll need to pull it off an strip off what left of the junk they put on, and redo it with some high temp stuff.
One other fit/finish issue was that the O2 sensor hole was moved forward about 10" (relative to the cat pipe that came off. Luckily, we had changed the sensor recently, and had left enough slack to reach the new hole.
Performance ? It seems like it might have hurt the low end (< 3k rpm) but definately seems to pull better from 3500 on up.
Sound ? Idles only slightly louder. Not bad, but noticeable. As you go up thru the gears at over 3K rpm, the sound is a bit raspy/tinny ... slight shades of an rx-7 . At least that's how it sounds from inside the car. Thankfully it's not as loud as I thought it might be, probably due to the internal resonator.
Overall, I've got mixed feelings. Performance was good. Sound is ok. But fit/finish was not good ... nothing major, but not as good as I expected. Maybe I just expected too much in a $199 pipe.
-Bob P.
We started the engine up, expecting a little smoke from the fresh (what we expected to be high temp) paint. Well, the smoke billowed for about 15 minutes. For some crazy reason, these gomers must have painted it with something other than high temp paint. Now most of the paint on the first foot of the pipe has burned/flaked off after a 1/2 hour of running. We'll need to pull it off an strip off what left of the junk they put on, and redo it with some high temp stuff.
One other fit/finish issue was that the O2 sensor hole was moved forward about 10" (relative to the cat pipe that came off. Luckily, we had changed the sensor recently, and had left enough slack to reach the new hole.
Performance ? It seems like it might have hurt the low end (< 3k rpm) but definately seems to pull better from 3500 on up.
Sound ? Idles only slightly louder. Not bad, but noticeable. As you go up thru the gears at over 3K rpm, the sound is a bit raspy/tinny ... slight shades of an rx-7 . At least that's how it sounds from inside the car. Thankfully it's not as loud as I thought it might be, probably due to the internal resonator.
Overall, I've got mixed feelings. Performance was good. Sound is ok. But fit/finish was not good ... nothing major, but not as good as I expected. Maybe I just expected too much in a $199 pipe.
-Bob P.
11-02-2001 | 10:34 AM
#2
Thread Starter
Instructor
Joined: Jul 2001
Posts: 170
Likes: 0
From: New Hampshire
Oh, one other thing ... the pipe came with two new gaskets for the front, and a fresh "doughnut" for the rear. To my surprise, there was no muffler bearing. Maybe Craig will sell me his 
-Bob P.
-Bob P.
