I received My Kinetic exhaust system Saturday morning via FedEX. I spent the day installing it (11 hours...). It is a very nice piece, well made, nice finish, with good hardware. I used some hints that have been posted here, to install it by myself, without removing the clamshell. I was also given a tip by Kinetic, and those of you who aren't happy with your tip alignment can benefit from this - loosen the two bolts on each side at the exhaust donut gasket. While these are loose the cats have lots of play, so adjust the tips, then tighten all the nuts at the rear of the exhaust system to lock in that alignment, THEN tighten the donut gasket bolts (donut gaskets are designed to have a large range of alignment).
When I was putting the car back together, I decided to open up the air box, just to check out the filters, and I found a huge mouse nest with some dead baby mice completely covering one of the two air filters!!!! Recall that I only recently bought this GT, used, and my guess is that the prior owner had it in a location where a mouse found access (although how it got into the air box I do not know - the clamshell would have had to be open I suppose). The nest looked almost like a "quilt", and was about 2" thick. I cleaned everything up (hope I don't get Hanta virus), and eventually I took the car for a drive. It did not drive very well, and it got hotter than it usually does (recall that these exhaust systems if anything are supposed to possibly help reduce underhood temps), and the exhaust kind of droned, as if the engine was struggling a bit. I drove home kind of disappointed, and went to bed after a very long day.
During the night I theorized that because I cleaned the air filter which had been completely blocked, the engine was now getting twice as much air, and with the new exhaust, possibly the computer had some learning to do. Maybe during my test drive the mixture was lean, which would make it run hot.
So the next morning I disconnected the battery and after a half hour I hooked it back, to download the base engine parameters. I fired it up and took it for a drive and let the computer learn, and it was like a different car – it ran cool, the engine did not struggle, and the exhaust did not drone. It seemed to run pretty well, and I suppose the computer may still be learning. I am happy now with the exhaust, and still need to spend some more time with it to gain some familiarity, but I have not noticed any drone, and on the test drive the operating temp stayed nice and (relatively) cool.
New air filters are on the way (the mice chewed on it a bit....).
When I was putting the car back together, I decided to open up the air box, just to check out the filters, and I found a huge mouse nest with some dead baby mice completely covering one of the two air filters!!!! Recall that I only recently bought this GT, used, and my guess is that the prior owner had it in a location where a mouse found access (although how it got into the air box I do not know - the clamshell would have had to be open I suppose). The nest looked almost like a "quilt", and was about 2" thick. I cleaned everything up (hope I don't get Hanta virus), and eventually I took the car for a drive. It did not drive very well, and it got hotter than it usually does (recall that these exhaust systems if anything are supposed to possibly help reduce underhood temps), and the exhaust kind of droned, as if the engine was struggling a bit. I drove home kind of disappointed, and went to bed after a very long day.
During the night I theorized that because I cleaned the air filter which had been completely blocked, the engine was now getting twice as much air, and with the new exhaust, possibly the computer had some learning to do. Maybe during my test drive the mixture was lean, which would make it run hot.
So the next morning I disconnected the battery and after a half hour I hooked it back, to download the base engine parameters. I fired it up and took it for a drive and let the computer learn, and it was like a different car – it ran cool, the engine did not struggle, and the exhaust did not drone. It seemed to run pretty well, and I suppose the computer may still be learning. I am happy now with the exhaust, and still need to spend some more time with it to gain some familiarity, but I have not noticed any drone, and on the test drive the operating temp stayed nice and (relatively) cool.
New air filters are on the way (the mice chewed on it a bit....).
