Well this is my personal review of the ARK GRiP True Dual Exhaust System after having it for 2 years.

First received the box was in rough shape. The bolts and gaskets were missing, partially shipping fault yes but also was poor packaging on ARK. Box was thin cardboard and the bolts should have been secured to one of the pipes in the box. So they sent me the bolts and gaskets I needed. I got them a few days later. Everything else looked absolutely beautiful welds were nice, nicely polished, burnt tips looked great.



INSTAL
Being in Wisconsin all the bolts were rusted up and a pain to get off or I just had to cut them off but anyway that has nothing to do with the new system.

I go all the pieces fitted in loosely bolted up I had to make some spacers to put under the middle hanger on the car to lower the exhaust a bit otherwise the exhaust was hitting the bottom of the car. then it was a pain to get all the pipes positioned right so it wouldn't bang against the brace it goes over in the middle of the car.
and then the second lower hanger on the passenger side muffler was to short on the exhaust system so I had to go buy a longer bolt and spacers so I would be able to use the rubber hanger.(1)
I noticed that the muffler flange was directly under the axle and was a tight fit but I would take it for a test drive to see if anything hit.(2)
1
2

Test Drive
All seemed well ohhh crap ( tick tick tick) yep its hitting the axle. few re installs and some grinding ok now it fits well.

The sound
oh man it sounds great I love it! no rasp nice low tone just beautiful. but civilized at cursing speeds as quiet as stock. but when you tromp on it nice smooth deep tone roars out.

1.5 years later
I hear a rattle coming from the back oh nice the exhaust tip is breaking off the muffler
Contacted ARK oh its outside of the one year warranty sorry. finally talked them into reimbursing me part of cost to get it re-welded.




2 years later
I hear a rattle from the back again oh nice now its breaking off at the end towards the tip
Contacted ARK again.
Me "yeah I know its outside of warranty are you at least able to give me a deal on a replacement muffler?"
ARK "oh no we cant sorry have it welded again."



PROS
-cost is not bad $1000
-X pipe design
-nice welds
-fully polished
-laser etched tip and embossed mufflers with ARK logo
-Great deep tone
-comfortable at cursing speeds

CONS
-Poor fitment (need to spend a great deal of time fiddling with pipes and grinding for proper fitment)
-Drivers side exhaust tip wants to break off several times after the warranty is up
-ARK stands behind their product but only for one year after you purchase it then your SOL
-Can't buy replacement parts if needed

(all pics except for the first two were taken at 1.5 years and present day 2 year mark)

 

Posted this early in the morning so I though I would give it a bump to make sure people see it

 

Thanks for this review!

 

Thanks for the review, I'm about to pull the trigger on a half price hks replica exhaust and weld in the magnaflow x pipes. Build quality looks decent for this but the tips are far superior to those of the hks knock off...but I heard that with the x-pipe mod it sounds nearly identical to this exhaust, just much cheaper. Hopefully it all goes to plan

 

Nope, it doesn't really sound close... Speaking from hearing both in person. You're going to have problems with the gaskets, alignment, and x-pipe(which you're already aware of) on the HKS. By the time all was said and done, my friend spent $800 total on the HKS knock-off after having to get the fitment/gaskets fixed so many times. He sold it and got a Motordyne instead.

 

no problem I hope this info helps people trying to figure out what exhaust to get

I love the sound of it! but the quality fit and finish just leaves something to be desired.

I would recommend Motordyne if I could do it again I would spend the 500 bucks more and get Motordyne

 

Were you bolted up to stock cats? If so, did it throw a check engine light?

I'm close to ARKs HQ located in California so I wouldn't mind rolling up myself and have them install it themselves so at least they know the poor fitment they designed is a bxtch. Lol, but nice review man. I like the quietness upon cruising and loudness over WOT. But I hope it won't throw a check engine light once installed. Thnx for your time?!

 

Good things are not cheap, cheap things are not good.
Someone grilled me for saying I'd rather spend money on the authentic parts to have full support/parts instead of buying replicas and having to deal with the issues. Sorry you were facing with the issues.

 

Exhaust won't through a check engine light. If you replace the cats, then you MIGHT have an issue depending on what product you go with.

 

^ agreed

yep stock cats. no problem thanks for reading it!

 

here is a little vid I made

 

wow, that sucks

 

My oem fits nicely.. haha That sucks to hear, could u coat the pipes with some high temp corrosion protection??

 

the metal is cracking, likely because when it was welded the first time the pipe got too hot. I'm sure by the time I'm done that pipe will be all one weld. sucky