grandmacpubah
05-27-2009, 04:56 PM
Well as some of you know (lol) I got 1 3/4" ARH headers.
Again my hope in posting is that others who do the same route I have can gain additional knowledge into the process.
I ordered my headers from Nick at ARH and had a good talk with him about the heavily restricted exhaust in the G8. Couple of points worth noting, even though they have been discussed in a few other places.
In Nick's opinion the G8 has the most heavily restricted exhaust he's seen (close second is the new CTS-V)
The G8 was dyno'd (I'm assuming by ARH) after their header install with stock mufflers then mufflers removed completely and there was a 2hp gain.
This was great news to me as I wanted to keep the car docile, as I have entertaining of clients to do and didn't want an obnoxious exhaust.
It took about 2 1/2 to 3 weeks from order to reciept of the headers...but I'm on the west coast and shipping was a good 5 days.
PROS
The parts were really well put together...great welds very very nice quality.
As most of you know the ARH are the most expensive header/exhaust system, but I can tell you there is a reason. I'm not bashing in any way other's systems, but you get what you pay for. Call Nick up and he can explain just the difference in CAT quality alone from one system to another that justifies the price difference.
The staff at ARH was really nice to deal with and seem like genuine car enthusiasts which I appreciated.
The ARH exhaust system goes together and on the car like it was factory OEM stuff. It just fits together and goes on very nicely. I can see why Charlie charges less to install them...top notch quality.
CONS
Although there was nothing wrong with the system per say, there were a couple gotchas that I point out for anyone else that comes across it and scratches their head.
There is a spacer for your oil dipstick to move it off of the headers. The spacer is about an inch long and requires a longer bolt than the factory one.
I was given the wrong bolt. Apparently there is something similar for a CTS and that is the bolt I got. So I just zip tied my oil dipstick to something and went to Lowes the next day and got the bolt.
FWIW the bolt is M10X40X1.5 (the thing is a pain in the butt to get on with the spacer too lol)
ARH includes 4 spacers for the floor brace that goes under the exhaust. This is to keep the new pipes from vibrating/banging up against the brace.
Two of my spacers did not have the holes large enough to fit the OEM bolts that hold the brace in place. At first I thought maybe I wasn't supposed to reuse the OEM bolts, but having two spacers with holes that fit them didn't makes sense. So at the end of the day I called ARH just to make sure, and according to them the supplier messed a batch of them up and punched wrong holes. Again, not a huge deal, but I put it here fwiw.
Lastly, I was overcharged on my CC statement for the headers. Nick cut me a deal for free shipping, but apparently whoever processes the paperwork didn't catch that. So if you cut a similar deal make sure to check your CC statement to make sure you got the deal.
SOUND
The headers sound really cool and although the mufflers aren't much louder I can definitely tell a difference. Low grumbly noise but not obnoxious at all.
I did think the in cabin noise was a little weird sound...but it turns out I have exhaust leaks at the collectors (not ARH's fault)
No drone whatsoever at all. 0 nada...
All in all I really like the product and am very glad I made the decision to go with ARH. The system just seems like it was meant to go there. The cons I wrote about above may seem like nit picking, but I'm just posting them for others who may run into similar things and remember reading about it here. :)
~ Jesse
Again my hope in posting is that others who do the same route I have can gain additional knowledge into the process.
I ordered my headers from Nick at ARH and had a good talk with him about the heavily restricted exhaust in the G8. Couple of points worth noting, even though they have been discussed in a few other places.
In Nick's opinion the G8 has the most heavily restricted exhaust he's seen (close second is the new CTS-V)
The G8 was dyno'd (I'm assuming by ARH) after their header install with stock mufflers then mufflers removed completely and there was a 2hp gain.
This was great news to me as I wanted to keep the car docile, as I have entertaining of clients to do and didn't want an obnoxious exhaust.
It took about 2 1/2 to 3 weeks from order to reciept of the headers...but I'm on the west coast and shipping was a good 5 days.
PROS
The parts were really well put together...great welds very very nice quality.
As most of you know the ARH are the most expensive header/exhaust system, but I can tell you there is a reason. I'm not bashing in any way other's systems, but you get what you pay for. Call Nick up and he can explain just the difference in CAT quality alone from one system to another that justifies the price difference.
The staff at ARH was really nice to deal with and seem like genuine car enthusiasts which I appreciated.
The ARH exhaust system goes together and on the car like it was factory OEM stuff. It just fits together and goes on very nicely. I can see why Charlie charges less to install them...top notch quality.
CONS
Although there was nothing wrong with the system per say, there were a couple gotchas that I point out for anyone else that comes across it and scratches their head.
There is a spacer for your oil dipstick to move it off of the headers. The spacer is about an inch long and requires a longer bolt than the factory one.
I was given the wrong bolt. Apparently there is something similar for a CTS and that is the bolt I got. So I just zip tied my oil dipstick to something and went to Lowes the next day and got the bolt.
FWIW the bolt is M10X40X1.5 (the thing is a pain in the butt to get on with the spacer too lol)
ARH includes 4 spacers for the floor brace that goes under the exhaust. This is to keep the new pipes from vibrating/banging up against the brace.
Two of my spacers did not have the holes large enough to fit the OEM bolts that hold the brace in place. At first I thought maybe I wasn't supposed to reuse the OEM bolts, but having two spacers with holes that fit them didn't makes sense. So at the end of the day I called ARH just to make sure, and according to them the supplier messed a batch of them up and punched wrong holes. Again, not a huge deal, but I put it here fwiw.
Lastly, I was overcharged on my CC statement for the headers. Nick cut me a deal for free shipping, but apparently whoever processes the paperwork didn't catch that. So if you cut a similar deal make sure to check your CC statement to make sure you got the deal.
SOUND
The headers sound really cool and although the mufflers aren't much louder I can definitely tell a difference. Low grumbly noise but not obnoxious at all.
I did think the in cabin noise was a little weird sound...but it turns out I have exhaust leaks at the collectors (not ARH's fault)
No drone whatsoever at all. 0 nada...
All in all I really like the product and am very glad I made the decision to go with ARH. The system just seems like it was meant to go there. The cons I wrote about above may seem like nit picking, but I'm just posting them for others who may run into similar things and remember reading about it here. :)
~ Jesse