Trying to figure out which exhaust to go with on my 05 g35 coupe 6MT it's between the Motordyne ( $1600 shipped ) and the Ark ($1200 shipped). Any input would be greatly appreciated thanks.

 

this guy asked a similar question.

https://g35driver.com/forums/g35-cou...g-help-me.html

there are tons of other threads too like these.

 

Ark - make in Korea
MD - made in the USA

Any questions?

 

ark shouldnt be even in the same category as motordyne. countless r&d put into the motordyne exhaust.

ark.....another knock off part of Japan parts

 

To be fair, I own the ARK and I love the sound it makes with the ART pipes. Yes, if I could do it over, I would get the MD exhaust, but I don't think the fact that the Ark is made in Korea is a valid argument over which one is better. The build quality on my Ark is superb. The welds are great, everything is top notch. I've never owned a MD exhaust or seen one in person, but there's nothing wrong with the Arks build quality that I've seen.

Even if Ark is another knock off of Japan parts... who cares? It's a choice for us to have. My Ark sounded awesome with the stock cats, and sounds even better with the ART pipes. Again, I'm sure the MD awesome too, but when I bought my Ark, I got it on sale for 1k brand new, for a top of the line exhaust, I wasn't going to turn that down. The dyno numbers of these two exhausts are pretty similar too if I recall correctly, I don't think you'd notice much of a performance gain out of either, but again, i could be wrong. Most of exhaust stuff is for looks and noise. I'm sure tons of R&D went into Ark also.

I'm not a Ark fanboy, and like I said, if I had to do it all over, I'd go with MD from the get go, but I'm really pleased with my Ark setup.

With that being said, there are some cons to the Ark that I've noticed.

I came from a Invidia Gemini exhaust, it lined up perfectly first try, and I had no fitment issues. The Ark took about 3 tries of loosening everything, and taking things off to get the fitment perfect.

I had issues with those stupid freaking extensions. Since this is a 350z exhaust also, you get the silly 6" extensions, which I HATE. That was my biggest turn off from the Ark exhaust. If I'm paying top dollar for my exhaust, I want it to be made for MY car, and to not need silly extensions, and I realize the reasoning behind Ark doing this.. but it's still freaking stupid. Ark recommends you put the extensions BEFORE the Y pipe, so right after the cats. Forget it. You'll have issues with the X pipe hitting the V brace that goes across the middle of the car. We flattened the **** out of mine, and bent it to try to make clearance. No dice. So we just moved the extensions AFTER the Y pipe. Bingo, perfect, no issues. I called Ark about 4 times to make sure that I was hearing right and that they wanted me to put the extensions before the Y pipe, and they did. So again, that's wrong.

Also, I have MD sway bars, On my passenger side muffler where it connects to the straight pipe that goes over the sway bar, I had issues of it touching that. If i moved it, I had issues with it touching some gasket on the pumpkin (see picture)

Before:


After:


It actually took us a while to figure out WHY it was doing this. And it took adjusting the exhaust just right to get it to clear both the pumpkin and the sway bar just right.

I'm not sure if that's an issue with other exhausts, but it wasn't with my Invidia.

Besides those two issues, the only other issue I have with it is the rasp. With stock cats, there's no rasp. With Berk HFC. There's rasp out the *** (this is known to happen with berks though). and with Art pipes, there's verrrrryyyy minimal rasp. But I've heard with the MD that there's absolutely no rasp with the ART pipes since they were designed to go with each other.

That's my opinion, take it or leave it, and to repeat.. I really don't think the above two comments are fair judgements of the Ark..

*lets out breath*

 

yeah, the ARK is a better design then the HKS

 

Are you being serious? If so, please explain why.

I've owned the ARK exhaust on my 2nd gen sedan. I got rid of it due to its excessive droning and the poor fitment. IMO Ark's overall quality is subpar when compared to other manufacturers like Fast Intention, HKS, Invidia, Tanabe, etc.

I'd go MD all the way!

 

products vary, but my invidia gemini true dual on my coupe droned WAY more than my ark does. The ark is louder when i want it, and quieter when i want it, compared to the invidia.

 

Ark vs MD? Are you serious they aren't even in the same category. Ark exhaust is just a knock off HKS exhaust and MD did major rearch and development to get there exhaust finely tuned. If I were you I would get a MD exhaust and the MD ART pipes to go along with them.

 

I had the same problem here. But my exhaust was stuck right on there... so ZERO clearance at all.

After hours of F-ing around trying stuff ended up doing this:








Finally got it to clear a bit






ARK i hope your reading this.

 

Well the flange still hits on that drive shaft as im driving. fukkkkkk.

Going to have to take it to a shop



EDIT: Gave ARK a call and they are working to remedy the problem, good on them. I will keep this updated on what their solution is.

EDIT 2: still no reply from ARK, and I honestly dont expect one back - lol
Took my car to a shop. Took them over an hour of bolting and unbolting trying to align it perfectly. They did it! It clears now, but only slightly.I havent had any problems so far. Cost me about $120 to get it aligned. So my total cost is about $1620 for this ARK. $400 more I couda got the Motordyne

My thoughts.... Not sure if the Motordyne has any fitment problems, but i haven't heard of any. If I could do it over, wouda went for motordyne.

 

Hmm, based on the evidence, seems Motordyne would be the better choice right now.

 

Wishing I had got the motordyne for sure

WTF was ARK thinking to put that flange RIGHT under the pumpkin which is where you need the clearance.... Obviously, this exhaust was designed on a 350z, for a 350z. Then they threw on the 6" extensions and sold it for a g35.


As you can see in this pic. The ARK GRIP on a 350z the flanges are before the Drive axle pumpkins, so it clears no problem.

 

And that's a fact....^....I'm so damn tired of all these company's claiming they have a new terrific exhaust and all you see is another knockoff of the HKS!! And then they copied my idea of putting a Magnflow x-pipe where HKS had there restrictive crossover. Motordyne's exhaust is far superior anyway, at least we haven't seen a knockoff....yet!
Gary

 

Question : does motordyne make one for 2nd generation 2007+ G35 sedan ?
cuz the listed shockwave exhaust on their website seems to be for 1st generation models ( -2006 ).
plz correct me if i'm wrong.