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Cuppa
31st March 2015, 09:59 AM
You might recall that I purchased a Genie Performance Stainless exhaust for my 4.2 leaf sprung ute & had the flex pipe section ceramic coated prior to fitting because I wanted to ensure as best I could that there was as little heat transfer as possible between the exhaust & an extended coolant hose I have running along the chassis rail & up into the pod to a marine water heater.


When the pipe was fitted by a local exhaust fitting company they found that the flex section of the pipe ran too close to the chassis rail, & needed to cut the pipe & re-weld it to ensure a good fit. With this done the pipe lined up ok with the rear two sections of pipe, which themselves lined up as they should with the car’s standard exhaust mounts.


Folk here who saw the photo of the welded pipe http://www.nissanpatrol.com.au/forums/showthread.php?8424-What-did-you-do-to-your-Patrol-today!/page116 questioned whether the weld would be a weak point, particularly as ceramic coating makes welding more difficult.


The more I thought about it, the more I felt that there had been a problem with the flex pipe, possibly that it had been allowed to slip in the jig when being manufactured, or that the jig had been damaged somehow. I chose to say nothing further about it on the forum (until now).


Instead I contacted Richard Haszard, Genie’s marketing manager who posts here on the forum from time to time to inform him of my disappointment & concerns.


From the outset Richard assured me that Genie would ‘look after me’. He asked me to be patient & wait until they were able to try a test fit of a pipe onto a GU ute to determine if indeed there was a problem with their jig. I had the supplied pipe on my car and was mobile, so waiting was no problem. He told me that they had had one other report of a pipe being too close to the chassis like mine.


Two weeks later Richard contacted me again to tell me that they had conducted a test fit & found that the pipe did indeed sit closer to the chassis rail than they would like. He told me that they would be making a new jig, & once this was done they would make me a new flex pipe, get it ceramic coated at their expense & send it to me, & once I received it would pay my local fitter to swap it over with the welded pipe.


The new pipe duly arrived (together with a few other goodies) & I had it fitted this morning problem (& cost) free. The new ceramic coated pipe looks good, being polished the same as the ceramic coated Genie dump pipe. (The pipe I had had ceramic coated had a matte finish).


Genie Performance make a point of guaranteeing that their pipes will fit. We all know that sometimes ‘sh*t happens’ in this imperfect world, but it’s what a company response is when this occurs which determines their calibre . This is just as important as the product itself.


I would have to say that I consider Genie’s response to a problem to have been very professional & all I hoped of a top notch company & consequently have absolutely no reservation in recommending them to others. Now to get the car on the dyno. :)


Cuppa.

http://www.nissanpatrol.com.au/forums/images/imported/2015/03/85.jpg

threedogs
31st March 2015, 12:15 PM
over and beyond I say,, two thumbs up to Genie
A few could learn from this

PS get a can of black spray Cuppa eh lol
pipe looks out of place now

BigRAWesty
31st March 2015, 12:23 PM
Mate that is a great outcome. I'm glad you did follow it up as the weld was no good, but it should not have needed it.
So well done genie on doing the right thing, it's good to see it happened so easily aswell.

threedogs
31st March 2015, 05:54 PM
Mate that is a great outcome. I'm glad you did follow it up as the weld was no good, but it should not have needed it.
So well done genie on doing the right thing, it's good to see it happened so easily aswell.

I think we both thought the weld was iffy, but good out come
That was the same finish on my Genie Block huggers .

93patrol
31st March 2015, 06:00 PM
Cuppa great outcome mate and I am glad you kept in house and not plastered it all over public forums before talking to the manufacturer. It shows the calibre of person you are.

Again well done mate and well done genie

nissannewby
1st April 2015, 03:05 PM
Sorry to Hijack. What are your thoughts so far with the exhaust cuppa? Have you posted results in a different thread?

Cuppa
1st April 2015, 04:57 PM
Hi Matt,
This is what I posted just after fitting previously:




My first impressions driving it are, unsurprisingly, like TPC’s. No huge ‘kick in the pants’, but noticeably more power & more free revving. It is indeed like having another gear. The most noticeable ‘symptoms’ of improvement to me are the reduction in low rev ‘transmission growl’ when pulling away, simply because the revs build more quickly, and also the ability to hold top gear far more easily. At 100kph it is doing 2300rpm, which I think is about 200rpm or 300rpm less than before. Because of the weight of my Patrol I have generally tended to change down to 4th on many hills. My ‘test hill’ near home I took a few days ago, needing to change down to 4th to keep revs above 2000rpm. Today on the same hill I remained in 5th comfortably, backing off a bit when I found I was doing 110kph & accelerating.


Since then I’ve fitted the Redarc Pyro & boost gauge. Max boost is 9.3 or 9.4psi. EGT’s are generally acceptable, but it is very easy to get into the mid 500’s up quite moderate hills. Had it up to 600 once but chickened out & backed off. It’s a bit frustrating having the power but being unwilling to use it, just to keep EGT’s down. That’s solo without the Tvan on. Cruising & taking it easy sees the EGT’s between 250 & 400. Car is booked in for a dyno tune next week with instructions to fit a boost controller (I bought a turbo Smart) & to tune for towing & economy. If I can keep the current improved performance & drivability but with lower EGT’s I’ll be happy. If I can get greater performance, but with improved fuel economy when driving in ‘granny mode’ I’ll be very happy.

Cuppa
8th April 2015, 05:15 PM
Some more feedback.

This morning I had the car tuned on the dyno. Having driven the 90 or so kilometres home afterwards all I can say is that if anyone has a 4.2TDi & fits a 3” exhaust without getting a dyno they must have rocks in their head!

Thanks to those here who pointed me in the right direction, in particular Matt (nissannewby) who over time has gently advised me & to Darren (Mudrunner) who recommended Daltons Automotive in Geelong to me. (They clearly know their business, present well, & are professional in their approach ...... & very well priced to boot).

I specified that I wanted the car tuned for towing & economy, so the performance figures will be moderate compared to those some may have achieved with their cars, & whilst experiencing the greater ‘drivability’ on the way home, it struck me that if instead of reducing fuel input a bit they had gone the other way I’m pretty sure I could have been driving a ‘rocket’. However they gave me what I asked for. Basically a car which goes, I believe, as Nissan should have provided in the first place!

There was a noticeable difference with just changing the exhaust from factory to 3”. The dyno has given more of the same ..... a lot more. (A shame I have no dyno figures with the stock factory exhaust fitted). As others predicted it has also dramatically reduced exhaust gas temperatures.

An example. Driving out of Ballarat up the Mt Buninyong hill this morning I backed off at 80kph because the EGT had risen to where I have the alarm set at 525deg.C.
On the return trip, I turned around & drove the hill again - this time I got up to 100kph & the egt only reached a bit over 450 deg.C . At idle the egt now drops to 175 deg.C. This down from 200. Most of the time in ’normal driving’ I was seeing figures of between 250 & 350deg.C ( & more often closer to 250 than 350) & noticed that when the EGT’s go up, they don’t shoot up as fast as they had previously.

On several occasions on the way home on flat or mild uphill sections of road I tried to see how high I could get the egt & even trying as hard as I could, was unable to push it over 400deg.C (& that was with my foot flat to the floor doing 130kph up a mild incline). Before the dyno getting the egt up to 550+ was easy. Now I reckon it would take my foot flat to the floor, up Mt Buninyong hill whilst towing the TVan! As it is, Chris Dalton advised that 550 deg.C is acceptable on these motors & that 600 deg.C is the advisable ‘back off point’. Don’t think I’m going to have an issue with that!

I often found myself cruising in 5th & just planting my foot more rather than changing down to speed up or take a hill, Even accelerating out of 60 & 70kph zones in top without needing to change down - so more torque lower down /greater flexibility. Previously I tended to change down at 2000rpm or a bit higher, now 1800rpm is ok with no change down needed unless wanting to play boy racer. At 1800rpm about 5.5 to 6 psi boost is showing on the gauge. Maximum boost is set to about 13psi & the most I saw (booting it up Mt Buninyong hill was 13.5psi). There is more noise from under the bonnet at those sort of boost figures though. Not sure if it’s air rushing through the intercooler, through the turbo, or just the turbo spinning faster... or? It’s quite loud.

All up cost of the dyno tune, including fitting the manual boost controller I supplied was $203 which seems quite exceptional when compared to figures others have mentioned paying for theirs.

So I’m pretty happy & consider the exhaust, boost controller & tune money well spent. (About $1500 all up including paying to get the exhaust fitted).

If anyone would like to comment on my dyno graph I’d be most interested in your thoughts. My limited understanding of such things basically tells me the tune has achieved just under 18% increase in peak power & an increase in torque which starts a bit earlier earlier & rises more quickly......... which I think equates to better acceleration from around 70kph in 4th & better towing ability. No idea what most of the figures in the small table mean.

http://www.nissanpatrol.com.au/forums/images/imported/2015/04/10.jpg

Winnie
8th April 2015, 05:21 PM
Great result Cuppa, it will be heaps more drivable now

threedogs
8th April 2015, 05:28 PM
Looks like a good gain in power and torque,,, is it normal for them to do it in 4th gear???

Winnie
8th April 2015, 05:37 PM
Looks like a good gain in power and torque,,, is it normal for them to do it in 4th gear???

All dyno runs in patrols are done in 4th because it is 1:1 drive

nissannewby
8th April 2015, 07:03 PM
Finally :p .

The extra noise your experiencing is from what you have described. A lot of it actually will come from the suction side of the turbo running the extra boost. The air required increases exponentially as boost is increased.

You will never look back

GenieLegend
14th April 2015, 12:33 PM
That's a great result Ian. :thumbup:

Cheers
Richard