jvencius
Full Access Member
Well, I gave myself an early Christmas present (making Mr. VISA quite happy) and bought a Tymar intake + 4" MBRP exhaust kit for the PSD ('02, ZF6, CC, SWB, yadda, yadda, yadda). Overall, I'm tickled to death with both of those mods and I drove home from the shop yesterday in below-zero weather with the windows open just so I could appreciate the sound. 
Tymar impressions:
1) Nicely constructed--the bracket is STOUT so it should hold up well in the underhood environment.
2) I thought that the kit replaced the whole pipe from the filter to the turbo inlet, but that's apparently not true--it only replaces the pipe from the filter to the piece of tubing where the CCV dumps (on stockers, my CCV is relocated).
3) The noise of the turbo sucking air under load (hauling arse uphill, doing 80 mph on the interstate, etc...) gives me a chubby. I thought my old AFE Stage 1 was noisy but the Tymar steps that up a notch and I dig it.
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4) The Tymar will make servicing a lot easier since it (a) removes the stock battery box and intake so there's a lot more room under the hood, (b) clears access to the back of the driver's side headlight so that anyone with hands bigger than a small child's can change the bulb, and (c) takes away that stupid lid over the battery.
5) The useless filter-minder gauge and OAT sensor fit very nicely when zip-tied to a wiring harness up by the firewall. There is a hole in the Tymar-supplied intake tube for the filter minder but since I never paid any attention to that gauge at all, I covered it with a piece of duct tape and went on my merry way.
6) The instructions don't say it, but getting the Tymar elbow pipe (while connected to the filter) and the rubber intake hose to meet up is a little tricky, but not all that hard. Making that connection involved a bit of cussing and a lot of jiggling things around until the hose slipped over the pipe.
7) The filter is HUUUUUUUUUUGE. Getting air into the engine won't be a problem.
8) The written directions were spot-on and I couldn't improve them, other than to give fastener sizes, i.e. "To remove the battery box bolts, use a 1/2" socket on a long extension" and "both the bolt head and the nut for the battery tray-to-bracket connection are 9/16". B/c of the good instructions, installation only took ~ 2 hours, since while the battery and battery box were out, I cleaned up the engine compartment (it was a terrible mess from an old, misguided, leaky CCV relocation project). If I didn't have to do so much cleaning, I could have probably done the whole install in under an hour.
MBRP impressions:
1) I've seen caskets smaller than the box this system came in. The UPS guy is probably pissed since the carton is not only large, but heavy.
2) Installation went right according to the instructions. Since I had no plans to keep any part of the old exhaust, I burned up three Sawzall blades hacking it up into little tiny pieces to make removal easier.
3) One of the pipes (not the downpipe, thankfully) had a rusty spot on it. For brand-new 304 stainless, I'm not terribly pleased with that so I'll have to contact MBRP to see what they will do.
4) One of the hanger clamps had the hanger part welded on so that it partially covered the hole for the U-bolt to go through. To make it fit, I had to file the hanger part for a couple of minutes to give enough clearance for the U-bolt to fit.
5) It would be nice if there was a pre-scribed mark/piece of tape/sharpie squiggle on the extension pipe saying "cut here for short wheelbase trucks" and maybe a second set of marks for regular/ext. cab trucks so that I didn't have to fiddlefart around with the pipe while laying on a creeper trying to figure out how long the extension pipe had to be and where I needed to cut it. It wasn't that big of a deal, but on a system this pricey, it's the small details that count.
6) It sounds NICE. From the front two quarters of the truck and in the cab (with the windows up), there is no difference in sound. From the driver's side rear quarter, the exhaust is slightly deeper, but otherwise no different. From the passenger's side rear quarter, it sounds a lot deeper, somewhat more rumbley than the stock exhaust. Whilst (I like using that word) driving next to a hard object (road divider, building, etc...), the turbo whine/flutter sounds quite lovely.
7) It was rather suprising how much the stock system was squashed, flattened, and otherwise screwed-up from the factory. With 4" mandrel-bent pipe coming straight off the turbo, my EGT's should drop considerably and MPG go up a little bit. I've got to go to Denver tomorrow so that'll be a good test.
Tymar impressions:
1) Nicely constructed--the bracket is STOUT so it should hold up well in the underhood environment.
2) I thought that the kit replaced the whole pipe from the filter to the turbo inlet, but that's apparently not true--it only replaces the pipe from the filter to the piece of tubing where the CCV dumps (on stockers, my CCV is relocated).
3) The noise of the turbo sucking air under load (hauling arse uphill, doing 80 mph on the interstate, etc...) gives me a chubby. I thought my old AFE Stage 1 was noisy but the Tymar steps that up a notch and I dig it.
:4) The Tymar will make servicing a lot easier since it (a) removes the stock battery box and intake so there's a lot more room under the hood, (b) clears access to the back of the driver's side headlight so that anyone with hands bigger than a small child's can change the bulb, and (c) takes away that stupid lid over the battery.
5) The useless filter-minder gauge and OAT sensor fit very nicely when zip-tied to a wiring harness up by the firewall. There is a hole in the Tymar-supplied intake tube for the filter minder but since I never paid any attention to that gauge at all, I covered it with a piece of duct tape and went on my merry way.
6) The instructions don't say it, but getting the Tymar elbow pipe (while connected to the filter) and the rubber intake hose to meet up is a little tricky, but not all that hard. Making that connection involved a bit of cussing and a lot of jiggling things around until the hose slipped over the pipe.
7) The filter is HUUUUUUUUUUGE. Getting air into the engine won't be a problem.
8) The written directions were spot-on and I couldn't improve them, other than to give fastener sizes, i.e. "To remove the battery box bolts, use a 1/2" socket on a long extension" and "both the bolt head and the nut for the battery tray-to-bracket connection are 9/16". B/c of the good instructions, installation only took ~ 2 hours, since while the battery and battery box were out, I cleaned up the engine compartment (it was a terrible mess from an old, misguided, leaky CCV relocation project). If I didn't have to do so much cleaning, I could have probably done the whole install in under an hour.
MBRP impressions:
1) I've seen caskets smaller than the box this system came in. The UPS guy is probably pissed since the carton is not only large, but heavy.
2) Installation went right according to the instructions. Since I had no plans to keep any part of the old exhaust, I burned up three Sawzall blades hacking it up into little tiny pieces to make removal easier.
3) One of the pipes (not the downpipe, thankfully) had a rusty spot on it. For brand-new 304 stainless, I'm not terribly pleased with that so I'll have to contact MBRP to see what they will do.
4) One of the hanger clamps had the hanger part welded on so that it partially covered the hole for the U-bolt to go through. To make it fit, I had to file the hanger part for a couple of minutes to give enough clearance for the U-bolt to fit.
5) It would be nice if there was a pre-scribed mark/piece of tape/sharpie squiggle on the extension pipe saying "cut here for short wheelbase trucks" and maybe a second set of marks for regular/ext. cab trucks so that I didn't have to fiddlefart around with the pipe while laying on a creeper trying to figure out how long the extension pipe had to be and where I needed to cut it. It wasn't that big of a deal, but on a system this pricey, it's the small details that count.
6) It sounds NICE. From the front two quarters of the truck and in the cab (with the windows up), there is no difference in sound. From the driver's side rear quarter, the exhaust is slightly deeper, but otherwise no different. From the passenger's side rear quarter, it sounds a lot deeper, somewhat more rumbley than the stock exhaust. Whilst (I like using that word) driving next to a hard object (road divider, building, etc...), the turbo whine/flutter sounds quite lovely.
7) It was rather suprising how much the stock system was squashed, flattened, and otherwise screwed-up from the factory. With 4" mandrel-bent pipe coming straight off the turbo, my EGT's should drop considerably and MPG go up a little bit. I've got to go to Denver tomorrow so that'll be a good test.
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