KOOK's cats? (good or bad?)

[IXLR8]

I am looking to install some headers on my car, and I am stuck trying to decide between the ARH, and Kook's. A very reliable friend told me that the Mercury Marauder owners invested heavily in Kook's headers only to find out that the supplied cats only lasted 6 to 12 months. Personally, I would expect much better results.

Any comments either way? Does anyone want to pitch in their two cents worth?

[MANOFSTEEL69]

Andy @ Livernois would probably be one of the ones to answer that for you as far as the Kooks/Marauder issues go. I personally don't remember any of the issues with the Marauders (My wife designed the stock exhaust for it). As far as the ARH's go I love them, they just don't come with a muffler option, but sound good through the stock mufflers. If we had Kooks as a vendor you could ask George R, yourself, but there is another forum that has Kooks as a vendor, (G8Board), so you could just PM him and ask. He's a pretty helpful guy, and I think he'll answer you honestly.

[GRRRR8]

As discussed many times, KOOKS was invited here in the very begining and had no interest. Now ARH is not only a sponsor on my car they are a sponsor on this site. I think Livernois and Maryland Speed represent KOOKS very well. Just think on the "other" site you couldnt even talk about a non-paying vendor.

[Andy@Livernois]

I am looking to install some headers on my car, and I am stuck trying to decide between the ARH, and Kook's. A very reliable friend told me that the Mercury Marauder owners invested heavily in Kook's headers only to find out that the supplied cats only lasted 6 to 12 months. Personally, I would expect much better results.

Any comments either way? Does anyone want to pitch in their two cents worth?

We have done A LOT of marauders here, and never once had a failure on the converters that kooks has supplied us with. I think a lot of it would be tune related, We even have a Marauder in the shop right now that we built in 2003 that makes 600 rwhp, it still has the same exhaust on it as the day we built it and they guy has put over 40k more miles on it since...

I think I posted in another thread but the White ZO6 clone we built only gained 3rwhp when removing the Kooks cats. They are very good pieces, but I do know the number one thing that kills a converter is the tune... So it's very possible that the converters were fine, but the tune killed it, especially since alot of marauder guys don't take their cars in for a tune, they usually mail order tune (and then we have to fix it), or dont tune it at all :puke:

I hope this helps, Kooks is great stuff, and we use them almost every day for car's in the shop...

[IXLR8]

Thanks, I am just trying to find what is true, and what is speculation. Sorry Charlie, I did not mean to violate sponsor rules...

I try not to rely on the views of just one individual, but he has a pretty good track record with me. I know there is a LOT of experience on here, and I am trying to leverage it for the benefit of all.

I respect sponsorship, and it should have its privileges...

[GRRRR8]

You didnt violate anything Tobin. I just needed to clear up an on going matter is all.

[confused2much]

Just think on the "other" site you couldnt even talk about a non-paying vendor.

And that freedom is what keeps me at this forum -- and this forum alone!!!
I love this site :flag:

[Tom@ARH]

IXLR8 if you have any questions regarding our products shoot me a PM and I'll help you out the best I can

[A.R. Headers]

With regards to ARH cats, let me sum it up this way, you need a sledgehammer to break them. We've had approximately 12 cats go bad in 3-1/2 years. All the defects were on high boost Ford applications and ironically the damage always happened during the tuning process where the cats were practically set on fire. The balance of the system is 100% U.S. made so the quality is built in.

Nick

[Blackdevil77]

With regards to ARH cats, let me sum it up this way, you need a sledgehammer to break them. We've had approximately 12 cats go bad in 3-1/2 years. All the defects were on high boost Ford applications and ironically the damage always happened during the tuning process where the cats were practically set on fire. The balance of the system is 100% U.S. made so the quality is built in.

Nick

I can attest to that. Yesterday I bottomed out doing a 3 point turn in some retarded driveway were the cat's and X-pipe scrapped along the ground, all the weight of the car on them. Just came back from ARH to make sure everything was ok. Nick checked it out and its fine. There's a little scrap and the a tiny dent/wrinkle on the pipe. Nick gave it a test run and everything was fine. Knowing how hard I hit (pretty damn hard) I now know these things can take a hell of a beating. Definitely rugged stuff. Thanks again Nick!!