Why No Tailpipe Sold Seperately Pypes?
 

Does anyone know why our sponsor Pypes does not offer their tailpipes seperately? I need a set for my 70 LeMans with the cut out valance but don't need the whole darn kit.

CCass, what the heck?

Probably a part of the market they need to look into. I always went to Torque Tech when I needed just tail pipes for something, but they are now out of business. We need more options.

I sent Ccass an email, I'll post the response.

But you can buy front pipes separately go figure!I've mix and matched so many exhausts,when I needed 2.5 inch tailpipes I bought a complete exhaust and used the tailpipes on my car and my son used the 2.5 x pipe and mufflers with factory tailpipes.

Chris emailed me back and the rational is understandable yet frustrating. Too many people have not figured out that any of these manufacturers systems are going to have to be tweaked to fit. I have yet to install one that hasn't needed a cut or slight bend to make it work. So the whiners of the world win and the rest of us who have some mechanical knowledge go without, such is life in the new world... lol

Here's Chris' responses when asked why they were not available separately:

"We stopped selling them separately years ago. Tailpipes are not going
to fit any existing system properly. Even ours! Because the chances of
the preinstalled mufflers being in the exact location that they need to
be are slim. Customers would buy them, try to install them on existing
systems and they wouldn't fit. Then those same customers would bad mouth
us all over the internet. It was unfairly giving our product a bad
reputation."

Regards,

Chris

My Response:

Chris,

Thanks for the reply.

Although I understand the rational, custom exhaust shops do this everyday. You would just need to put a disclaimer on the site or with your supply base that they are "universal tailpipes" and will require additional installation work much luck any complete system. There are no systems out there today that don't require massaging to get them to fit, Pypes, Magnaflow, Dynomax...etc.

Would you mind if I post this conversation in the thread I started in the exhaust section or would you care to reply there? There are a couple of others that have replied.

Again thanks for the reply as I know you are busy working on parts to keep our hobby going!

Sincerely
Joe

Chris' response:

"We actually do have a disclaimer and we have made several exceptions when customers have purchased our X-pipe, downpipes and mufflers and have NOT installed the system yet."

When I asked if I could post this his response of course was positive:

"not at all, there's been several tailpipes topics over the years. The topics help educate the industry, the more knowledge the better"

Yep, won't fit my 70 valance though

Well I guess that was to be expected Ponchjoe. I agree, too many complainers that are less then capable making it bad for the rest of us. People have to realize these are aftermarket parts. That's what we are stuck with. It's the same deal with anything you buy for these cars. Interior, chrome trim, etc....None of it fits like OEM, you have to work with it. Some are better than others, but you still have to work with it.

Exhaust is no different. But I'm willing to bet 9 times out of 10 those that complain probably have something on the car that isn't correct or has been changed after 50 years causing other issues, probably not even aware of it. So I don't believe it's always the exhaust systems fault.

I occasionally still see this exact scenario with BBC Nova's and Camaro's, trying to install headers and complaining they don't fit. I take one look at the car and tell them they have small block chevy frame mounts so there is no way the headers will fit, they are designed with the car having the correct factory parts in place....duh... It's the typical sbc car that someone stuffed a big block in and trying to pass it off as the real deal.

Just things like that, that give the parts supplier a bad rap sometimes.

I always go o a local exhaust shop. I prefer to give my business to local people and if there is a problem I don't leave until its fixed.

I need an x pipe for my 1966 GTO. If the kit they sell for your 1970 uses the same x for my car, I'll take the x pipe. The kit I'm looking at from pypes are basically just x-pipe and tails.

Yep, on my 1978 Trans Am, I already had a 3" R.A.R.E X-Pipe system, and mufflers, and I always ran it with the mufflers dumped right before the rearend. Well... after hearing Steve Combs 70 Trans Am at the track with Ulta Flows and tailpipes, I decided I wanted a set of the Dynomax Ultra Flow welded mufflers and tailpipes. I found out the same thing when I went to buy tailpipes, they were not available, so I ended up buying the whole Pypes systems WITHOUT mufflers from Summit Racing, I got the tailpipes I wanted, and I sold the rest of the X-Pipe system to my brother for his car, since he prefers no tailpipes..... so it worked out ok for me.... We need someone who will come to market with just the tailpipes, just as Torque Tech did.... ☺

I ran into a mildly similar situation 3-4 years ago when I was wanting to buy a Pypes system...I wanted a 3" header back system with X pipe and Racepro mufflers, but I wanted it packaged with 2.5" tailpipes for the 70 GTO to fit the valance. I was planning to install 3" to 2.5" reducers after the mufflers to make this work the way I wanted.

When I called Pypes to order this, they said it could not be done. I escalated to the Pypes manager but still no luck. I either had to order a complete 3" system but the tailpipes would not fit with the valance cutouts, or I could buy the 2.5" system with the correct tailpipes for valance cutouts. Neither was what I wanted. :confused:

Since they would not sell the tailpipes separately, ordering what I wanted piece by piece would not work either.

So I contacted Chris and explained my situation and he said Pypes just could not do it but if I ordered from PY and made this as a special request they could do it. I didn't understand the difference since at the time they were sister companies, but I ordered through PY and got what I wanted.

Regarding the fit, much advice has been written about how these systems need to be built from the back of the car towards the front to get things to fit properly. On my car, I was able to get everything installed so it would line up and fit except that the angle of the tailpipes where they came through the valance cutouts was not quite right and they pointed inwards towards the middle of the car enough that it was fairly noticeable. For me, even though I am not building a concours restoration, I wasn't happy with that part of the installation.

After many hours of playing around with the tailpipes, it became clear that there was no way I could get them pointing straight out the valance cutouts without rotating them so much that I encountered clearance issues near the rear springs or frame. Being in Canada, I wasn't interested in the extreme hassle of shipping the tailpipes back and trying another set. I had read enough posts from others with similar issues that I did not believe there was much to be gained by trying another set, so I put on my big boy pants and cut small sections out in 3-4 spots, and then rotated the small sliced pieces until everything fit well and welded it all back together.

The end result was that after modifying them the system fits great, the splitters are where they should be and they come out straight through the cutouts. The downside is if you look in the wheel wells you can see where I cut and welded the pipes. Oh well....

I realize these are aftermarket parts and I am not "complaining", I am providing my experience based on what I encountered with the system I bought several years ago. I basically begged and pleaded to be sold the pieces that I wanted, and I got what I asked for. But...if the expectation is that these parts are going to fit like 2017 OEM auto parts do I don't think we are quite there yet.

I firmly believe the set of tailpipes I received have an incorrect bend on the last section where it exits the cutouts, and if I had a pipe bending machine in my back pocket I am sure it would have only taken a small bump here and there to fix them right up. Since I don't have one and there was none close by, I did the old school "cut and weld" to make it fit, which aside from the time required to figure it all out, didn't bother me too much since I welded up the rest of the system anyway.

Thanks for the info Michael. I think I've decided to buy a set of Flowmaster 2.5" 68-72 tails and modify them. Pypes loses out on a sale and possibly future kit purchases from me...

Yes, that's the Pypes SGA-12 system for the '70 with cutouts. I had bought a '68 system the year before at the Pypes annual car show and they gave me a good deal far beating Summits price. I went back this year for the SGA-12 and they couldn't come close in price or beat Summits price. They wanted close to $350.00 for the system so I ended up buying it for sale at Summit for $307.00 including shipping. Go figure. I need another system for a '70 so I'll just wait now for Summit.

What I've done on a couple of cars, is to just buy factory production style tail pipes from one of the restoration houses, then adapt it to the aftermarket exhaust system to complete a correct appearing system at the only area you really see it....at the rear of the car.

I just did this on our 69 Z/28. I couldn't use the supplied tail pipes with the SGF70 Pypes kit anyway because they aren't even close to fitting like the factory intended. They come out way too close to the quarter panel and dump there, plus they have the incorrect 70 and up style hanger that doesn't work on 67-69, then you still have to pay extra for a chrome exhaust extension that doesn't exit in the proper location.

Rather than do that, I wanted a correct factory "appearance" so I bought correct 2" polished Z/28 exhaust tips that are bent properly and exit under the tail panel in the correct location (another $260 but that's the restoration business) and they also utilize the factory hangers back there...so it's a win win.

I then grafted them into the Pypes transverse muffler setup. The result, when the car is on the ground it appears to have a stock exhaust system. The smaller tail pipes at the end of the system are of little consequence as far as HP goes. Not to mention they are already past the rearend at that point on a transverse system like this, and are very short with less bends in them than an A-body setup would have. Very happy with the results.

In the past I used to buy the tailpipes from Torque Tech. They used to duplicate the 69 style F-body tailpipe to a "T" with correct bends so they would exit under the tail panel more towards the middle of the car, and did it with 2 1/2" and 3" pipes using mandrel bends. They sure were a nice set of tail pipes. I would have went that route on this car if they were still in business.

I am one of these complainers you speak of regarding these aftermarket system's quality, or lack thereof. I spent almost $900 for a mediocre fitting system, and over 11 hours of my time, which I found very troubling. I have installed several other systems in the past 20 years.

I am not one who will be complacent. My money is hard earned. Therefore, I will not tolerate half-assed parts. They can make this stuff better. They choose not to.

Has anyone tried the Flowmaster 15802s on their 70/71 GTOs? They appear to be straight out, not curved.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/380611719539

I put the 3” version on my 71 .........# Flo-15818

Did they come through the valance in the right place or did they require some additional bends?

Hard to tell from catalog pictures but Pypes tail pipes one piece? If so that may be why it is harder to adjust them for different mufflers. The Torque Tech 3" and Dynomax mandrel 2.5 for second gens I have are both 2 piece and you can add or trim the connection to adjust to the muffler outlet. Also easier to snake in over the axle.