Quote:
Originally Posted by Mr_Draco
SW and ARH both uses superior 304 steel and will last longer then any other part on your car will. The cheap chinese 304 steel OBX uses, most people in the steel industry won't even touch. If you are one of these people who want keep the car till your death and pass it on to your kids or grandkids, then go ARH or SW. If you like to trade or sell your cars after a few years then you'll never tell the difference.
You may be thinking how can the two be different if they are both the same grade, 304. American steel manufacturers have more strict and higher quality standards then chinese manufacturers do. The steel chinese uses would not be able to pass the strenuous tests american made steel has to pass in order to be qualified as 304. And thus the quality and durability between the two are different.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by papawattz
Chinese stainless may be 304 grade stainless but it's not the same as American grade 304. I read in one of these posts where somebody measured the thickness of the tubing used on the OBX headers and it was #14 gauge? Now the kooks measures #18 gauge? Now you may be thinking well hell, oBX's are better because they are using thicker wall tubing! I have a sneaking suspicion that they are using thicker tubing because they are splitting their version of #18 gauge tubing when they start bending it? I am an Electrician and have many years bending conduit(thin wall-EMT, Rigid, Aluminium,etc...) I can remember working on a job bending EMT and every bend I made split and /or kinked the conduit....2 pieces later I was like WTF..Then I happened to look where it was made, China... I was like, "when did this happen"? Up until then all our conduit came from American factories,shit we even had some American made conduit still left on the pipe rack! So I called the supply house and asked them what was up, all the guy said was that they just switched to this new manufacturer to save money! When I explained what was happening he said they had been having complaints from other customers and were in the process of investigating these issues? I later found out that the grade of steel that the Chinese manufacturer said it was using, was in fact, not being used! Long story short, we ended up using another supplier for the rest of the job and to this day I do still see this Chinese made conduit here and there and I swear the conduit's wall thickness is greater now......WTF  |
Just thought I'd bring these points up once again. It's good for folks to read this stuff.
My point? Buy what you want to buy. If you want to support the chinese to save a few bucks and send your money overseas, then go for it. If you don't care about what is going to happen down the road with the knock off's, neither do I. I'm glad you got your instant gratification of saving a few bucks here and now. It doesn't effect me and my Camaro.
But...
I bought a FULL Stainless Works system for my Camaro... LT's with 2" primaries, high flow cats, all the way out the back. Couldn't be happier. Glad I don't have to think about them falling apart down the road...or my money going overseas to some .... factory.
