I just purchased a mrev2 from another member on the forums. I decided to show Tony, and Tony said it's a fake. How do you tell if it's fake or real?

 

well if Tony is MREV and Tony says its a fake....

 

I'm also curious on this matter. In fact, I'm the one who sold him the "fake" MREV2.
I bought it from another member years ago. I put it on and felt gains and had no doubts till now.
Another reason that I believed that it was real was because it looked just like a "real" mrev2.

A friend of mine ordered a brand new mrev2 + 5/16 spacer for his G35 through a local shop, who's also a sponsor/vendor on this forum (I won't say who for now). I can't be 100% sure, but I'd like to believe that they order through Tony, because that's what an employee of the shop said (also a G35 owner & a long time member on G35Driver).
When his parts arrived new in box, I was at his house to help him install it on his G. When compared to my "fake" MREV2, my friend's "real" MREV2 had no differences in physical appearance. Well, besides that mine was dirtier.

We actually had 3 different non rev-up lower manifolds on our hands
1) Stock Non Rev-Up Plenum (I had a few because I gathered em to sell to Tony)
2) My "fake" MREV2 that I bought from another member
3) The "real" MREV2 that was ordered from a shop/sponsor (MREV2 was ordered with Motordyne 5/16" Iso Thermal Spacer which arrived together in superb packaging, along with official looking instructions, bolts, misc parts, etc. Enough to make anyone believe that it's a legit part)
I also purchased a Motordyne 1/2" Iso Thermal Spacer brand new from Riverside Infiniti parts department in the past so I remember how they come packaged and what came with it.

As I said earlier, "fake" and "real" MREV2 had no noticeable differences. The lettering ML1 and MR1 could have been different but I'm only saying this because I can't say that I remember if they WERE same. I do remember that both had lettering on them. The angle, shape, edges of the ports were same to the naked eyes.
We did not see any big differences from stock plenum to MREV2 besides the 2 ports that were machined. If Tony says there are more to it than the ports, then I guess there are. But we certainly didn't notice any. We even joked around commenting "Damn, Tony must be making bank buying all these stock non rev-ups cheap and shaving 2 ports." That's how subtle the extra work was done, if there were any.. Cuz we didn't notice em. Power-wise? Who knows.

I bought an Inch-Pound torque wrench so my friend and I can install our MREV2s and spacers properly. My G35 was 05 6mt coupe (revup) and my friend's was 06 6mt coupe (revup). We both felt that we gained some power and were absolutely happy with it until now.

I had no doubts that this was a real MREV2 till I saw Tony's reply to OP's PM regarding my "fake" MREV2's authenticity.
Tony simply replied "Completely Fake." after looking at 2 pictures sent to him by the OP.

If my "fake" MREV2 was some complete knockoff, how did it look so identical to my friend's "real" MREV2? If Tony can just glance at 2 pictures and claim "Completely Fake", there must be something that's so obvious. If so, I'd like to know what part of it is, so that I can see if I compared that particular area of the manifold with my friend's "real" one. Maybe I overlooked some of the details?

After trying to look deeper into this, I was reading through older posts on various G35/350Z forums. In one of the posts, Tony mentions that he does not post real MREV2 pictures on his official motordyne website. He fears that it'd make it too easy for people to copy his product. Tony wanted them to at least buy one if they wanted to copy it. Uhm ok... understandable I guess. However, I think this **** just creates more confusion for people. I didn't even know he did this until today. If I knew years back when I first bought mine, I would have been more informed.

All the pictures I've seen of "real" MREV2 showed some kind of ML# MR#. Including the picture on Motordyne's website. Tony posted a picture of a "real" MREV2 on a blue towel on another thread and it looked completely different from my "fake" AND the "real" one my friend ordered through a shop.
This is where I'm lost. Does this mean my friend's is fake as well?
In the picture Tony posted, it does not have any ML1, ML2, MR1, MR2, etc on it at all. Also, I thought Tony only put up fake pictures to protect his work? He thought posting a picture of his REAL MREV2 on the forum was ok and his website unsafe?
Me getting tricked into buying a fake is understandable since I bought mine from another member. However, my friend getting a fake one from a local shop who's a sponsor/vendor on G35driver? Did he get ripped off?

You can see the picture Tony posted in this thread.

If that MREV2 on blue towel is real, then I am 100% convinced that my MREV2 is fake. No questions about it. BUT that also makes my friend's fake. I think he'd be pretty pissed to find out that he got ripped off from a local shop his friend worked at.

Did Tony has older prototype MREV2 that he sold a while back? Maybe ours is just older revisions of the MREV2. Maybe Tony put in more R&D after doing well with the company and made more improvements to the MREV2. Maybe the ML1 MR1 lettering on the manifold restricted the airflow and resulted in 0.01 loss of HP and he shaved em off. Maybe then he thought "What the hell, I'll skin the muh fu...r" and repolished the whole damn thing. Now with this new MREV2 which seems to have a lot more work done to it compared to simply machining the 2 front inlets, maybe Tony feels that the older version was too easy to copy so he denies them of ever existing, calling them all fakes. Maybe I'm making all this **** up. Maybe Tony forgot. Maybe MREV2 doesn't exist. Maybe...

Well, with all that aside, I just want to say I'm not trying to argue that my MREV2 is real or not. I already agreed to the buyer that I'd give his money back tomorrow.

However, I'd like to know what the eff is going on cuz I'm lost. I don't want to make any assumptions. I just wish Tony can be more straight up about his products. I can understand his fear of getting pwned by Made in China or whatever but if Tony can guide us with better information and attitude rather than trying to be overly protective about it, I think he'll even get MORE business because it's already a proven fact that Motordyne products are better than the competitors'..

 

From what I've seen, I would say he would rather have each case verified by him personally. There's another thread stating that he would replace any fake spacers circulating around, too. The integrity is there, but in the interest of business and trade secrets, I wouldn't be surprised if he was secretive with information on authenticity verification. But on the other hand, he would probably be willing to take time out to personally verify...

 

I got my money back from the seller.. Luckily he was a stand up guy or else I would of been out $300

I think from now when I purchase one I from a reputable vendor.. I'd still check with Tony

 

the MR1 MR2 MR3 and MR4 are just "versions" of the non-rev lower plenum. There were different manufacturers and that is the reason - or at least thats what I have been told. From all the lower collectors that would suggest this.

If you compare a side by side of a MREV2 vs a stock non-rev lower plenum you should be able to see all the differences.

 

lol,
I thought the same thing, wow did I really just pay 400 bucks for a manifold with 2 shaved runners, I hope there is more to it than just that, because at that price i think I would have done it my self along with other things.....


and suhochunsah, much respect for giving a refund even though you didn't intentionality sell a fake.