Date:         Wed, 11 Oct 2000 18:21:02 EDT
Reply-To:     TSmith5041@AOL.COM
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Tom Smith <TSmith5041@AOL.COM>
Subject:      Re: complaints / Dansk Exhaust / Ford Purchase Recommendation
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII"

<< The VW pipes bolt up; it is that simple.  Do

> you honestly think at VW you would ever hear Fritz yell,"Hey,

> Hans!  Stop the line!  I have to get the torch."


No.  And if you were installing Dansk header pipes on a Vanagon with zero

miles you would not have that experience either.  But after 50, 100, 150k

miles, other parts on the van are out of spec, mounts are slightly twisted,

etc. and no exhaust system will bolt on as cleanly as on a brand new

vehicle.


I see this happen all the time, not just on Vanagons but on Buses, too, some

of which have equally convoluted exhaust systems.  Someone takes a brand new

exhaust part, body part, etc., bolts it onto half a dozen old, worn parts,

and it doesn't quite line up.  Does he consider that all of the old parts

he's bolting it to are perhaps slightly bent or out of spec after 10 or 15

years?  No!  Obviously it must be that all of the old parts on his engine

are perfectly in spec, but the brand new part is out of spec! :-)  Don't you

think that having sold these pipes for nearly a decade, Dansk, who is a

reputable and well-established exhaust company (and, incidentally, an

original-equipment supplier to Volkswagen), would long ago have corrected

them if they didn't fit?  Yes, something is out of spec all right, but it

isn't the brand new pipe - it's your 15 year old vehicle!


> I am satisfied that the VW pieces fit better.

> But, I am not certain that they cost more.  To check on this I managed to

> locate my invoice from a VW dealer for a Syncro rear connection

> pipe (P/N 025 251 172P).  The list was $206.50 and the net was $165.20.

The BD

> listing for this part has it priced at $179.95 plus shipping.  Is this

> cheaper?


No, because the part number you looked up on our website _was_ a genuine VW

pipe.  The Dansk equivalent is a 172R, and it's $104.45 with listmember

discount - half the retail of the VW pipe.  For what you paid for the

non-stainless VW one, we could have provided a stainless steel header pipe.


>  He said that he uses VW pipes which last about 90kmi


Well, they sure didn't last 90k miles on either my '85 or my '89, and this

is in Philadelphia, which is a slightly kinder environment than NH.  In the

end, it wasn't rust that killed my original pipes anyway, it was stress

cracks.  (Got one, welded it, got another an inch away from the first one,

welded it, by the third time I just gave up and replaced the pipe.)  If the

O.E. header pipes really lasted 90k miles in the rust belt (and supposedly

longer in dry climates), I'd rarely get an order for a header pipe; on the

contrary, they are one of my best selling items.


Bottom line, it's your money and your choice.  You can pay about twice as

much for the genuine VW header pipes, but in my experience you have about as

much chance of the fit being difficult as with the Dansk pipes.  Personally

I think it's a waste of money, but it's your money. If nothing else, get the

muffler and tailpipe from me, and you'll at least save on those items (and

in the case of '86-91 get a stainless-bodied muffler to boot).






>>

All this back and forth is stupid, If a man thinks a turd smells like sh*t
then that what it smells like and all this hot air being blown around just
makes it stink more.
Once a job is fouled up, everything done to fix it just makes it worse. Let
it be!

Tom Smith