Review of Chinese tuned pipe

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BrawnFG

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I got a cheap, £45, pipe from Nimph modlels, and from a bit of digging it looks like it's a spare part from a Chinese Marder copy. This is a quick review of it (I'll add images tomorrow, and try and get a vid up next week)


The pipe is alu, and chrome plated (mmm shhiny). The supplied gasket is lead, so moulds well once you torque the header bolts down (do them 1/8 turn at a time and alternately to get a good seat). A tiny smear of automotive gasket goo helps too. I had to dress the header face on the pipe first to get it perfectly flat, but this only needed a needle file and 10 mins effort.

On it's maiden tune and run the new pipe definately seemed to have much more power than the standard can. Louder yes, but not stupidly loud. Unfortunately I don't have any other tuned piped to compate it to.

I have not added any support to the back of the pipe yet (bit of coat hanger), but it seems prety sturdy on its own. I rolled it a few times and it has picked up a few minor dents, but no bends are apparent.

I'd say it feels like a mid range pipe. It definately spins the wheels more through the low to mid rev range, but due to poor traction i couldn't get wheelies on command, but with the aid of a bump or stone to lift the front end and shift the weight backwards it will wheel-stand.

Being a bit of a geek I have used my GPS to get some hard data on performance wit hteh stock can and with this new pipe.

Top Speed: Stock = 40.0mph Tuned pipe = 39.1mph
I call that a dead heat, and it is probably as I need to tune the engine properly to get max RPM from the new pipe.

Acceleration: Stock 3.5m/s/s max, Tuned 6.0m/s/s max
It's pretty clear that the Tuned pipe has it, almost double the peak acceleration. From looking at the data, the peak hits in between 20mph and 30mph, to this is definitely a mid range pipe.
To avoid spurious results I've filtered the data for any silly high accelerations, and only considered runs that lasted longer than 20s.

Next week I'm going to trim the Baja shell and will post pics and a vid of it running (got to remove the engine and grass proof it first, being spring and all).
 
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I'll add a video in about a weak when I have rebuilt the car and trimmed the body. But for now:

Proof of the max speed

DSCF3646.webp

Images of the general fit and appearence
DSCF3647.JPG


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to fit the shell, i think i'm going to have to trim horizontaly to the rear from the position of the stock exhaust. I'll post more pics when I ave done this, but for now this is the car side view with the stock can.

DSCF3573.webp
 
Body now trimmed

New pipe all installed
Copy%20of%20DSCF3669.webp


rear showing shell trimming eeded

Copy%20of%20DSCF3678.webp


Side showing shell trimming
Copy%20of%20DSCF3670.webp

I'm just waiting for the weather to improve so I can go and tune the engine properly, then i'll get a vid of it up on youtube.
 
i've just been flicking around a few sites, and I think that this is a copy of the standard FG tuned pipe, so i'd expect the performance to be about the same (i.e. not killer, but much better than the stock can)
 
I thought about that pipe for awhile last summer, but I was worried about the stinger (outlet) being off to the side. There is little to no protection if the buggy were crashed. I would think a crash would kink the stinger off.

I thought about buying one and cutting the expansion chamber off, rotate it 90* and tig welding it back together. that way it would be more like an FG pipe.

Does the rear wing cover the stinger?

I would love to see a vid of the pipe in action!
 
Trip, i'm with you about it being quite exposed. Don't think that a wing would protect it much though. My plan is to get around to fabricating a steel roll cage, but until then I'm just going to be driving a bit careful.

I think that if you were to go to the trouble of cutting the chamber off, and re-welding it then you may as well go for a more expensive pipe which is better protected, like the JetPro (or if money no object, Victory pro). I'm in no doubt that i'll kill the pipe eventualy, but at £45 a pop that doesn't bother me.
 
I'm supposed to be doing DIY on the house all weekend, but will see if I can get out on Sat morning. It'll be monday evening before I can get owt up though.
 
[YOUTUBE]hpl5RmOE9A0&hl[/YOUTUBE]

oops, forgot to measure it for you. I think the OD is about 35mm

http://www.youtube.com/v/hpl5RmOE9A0&hl



In the vid, the car needs a tune as the top end is a bit lacking, I'm also struggling with traction, because I get wheelspin instead of wheelies. I think that a set of monster spikes are needed on the rear to sort it out.

All of the sideways action is because of the rear anti-roll bar and wheel spin combined. The bar is going to get taken off next week.

If you listen carefully you can hear that the gear mesh got messed up about half way through the video. Luckily I heard it go and sorted it out before it could do any damage. You can also just about make out the rattle from the shell against the pipe (still need to trim a little more off).
 
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Oops, did a bit of a highspeed cartwheel yesterday, and this happened....

DSCF3742.webp

DSCF3730.webp

DSCF3741.webp

Trip, I reckon you were right, the pipe is a bit exposed!

Because I didn't have a wing on at the time it cartwheeled off the exhaust, so made quite a mess. Thanks to the kill switch I stopped the engine moments after the impact so no muck should have been sucked in. As far as I can tll everythig else escaped unfurt.

I'm in the market for another pipe now, has anyone got any suggestions????
 
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