So, I took a chance and bought the HKS Silent Hi Power from Kamispeed.com and after a three month wait it finally came in and I've been sorely disappointed.

One of the nuts that holds the muffler had a weld sticking out too far. This ended up tearing up one of the bolts that holds it on. I didn't realize what had happened at first, I thought, "that's weird" when it kept failing to catch on the bad nut side.

I switched the bolt to the other side, noticed it was hard going in, pulled it back out and noticed it was galled to hell. I'm not a mechanic, but I worked on my tools for a living for 5 years so I know what I'm doing when it comes to this stuff.

I tried the other bolt on the bad side (the side I originally tried) and that's when I noticed the weld was in the way and tore up the threads before it had a chance to catch the threads on the nut (lucky I noticed this before the threads on the other bolt got too torn up and was able to chase them back out on my stock exhaust and use it to bolt the stock exhaust back up).

I did a quick scan for leaks and all seems ok, even with only one bolt.

Long story short. DO NOT BUY.

Edit: Kamispeed refuses to refund since it was "installed". I'm going through hksusa.com to see what they can do (I'm not expecting much and have pretty much written this one off). The fortunate thing is that I actually make decent money so 350 bucks isn't as a big of hit to me as it for say, some college kid who likes tinkering with cars. Just be warned about this product, this is the link to exactly what I ordered

Edit 2: For what it's worth, it fit perfectly. I know there were questions about whether this would fit on a CVT based on the HKS website.

http://www.kamispeed.com/HKS-Silent-...2016-ah031.htm

Here are pics:

 

sorry to hear. that sounds like a QC issue you will have to take up with HKS directly using your warranty

 

Unfortunately, I dropped an email to HKS, who said the vendor should take care of it. Great. Looks like this might turn into a run around. Really, I think I could fix it by running a tap through it, and I may be able to fix the bolt by running it through a die, but those 8 bucks to buy anyway (I checked). But my faith in the product has been shaken enough that I wanted a refund. Oh well. Like I said, I knew I was taking a chance when I was ordering it, it being a brand new product and all, so I was half expecting something to go wrong.

 

Did you run the car with it installed yet? Curious if you did what it sounded like at idle and at highway speeds (55-70).

es

 

You don't need to only reuse the OEM bolts, just use a smaller bolt with a nut and it will still seal on the remaining bolt

I would not deal with trying to get a refund for your issue (even though it's annoying but not a safety issue)

 

I bought a HKS Hi-Power Silent from Kamispeed as well, just got it yesterday and won't have time till Saturday to install it. But I checked the welds on mines after reading this post and it seems fine but I guess I won't know till Saturday.

 

I'm going to run a tap down the threads on both sides and file down the weld. I can get this to work.

Now that I've calmed down a bit, I'm still not happy at being completely blown off by Kamispeed and HKSUSA, but it's here and it's obviously not going to be worth fighting for a refund, so I'll deal with it.

I was literally on the cusp of finishing when I realized the bolt wasn't going in right (and had been ruined). I was giddy with excitement, thinking I was literally a few turns of the ratchet away from firing it up. Then that collapsed to disappointment, then anger.

I'll try to fix it and finish it up this weekend, and I actually have a nice video camera with a high end external microphone so I'll try to get some video / audio also.

 

I was able to re-tap the threads and die the bolt and reuse it. Then my ratchet fucking broke (it was a cheapie, my good tools are in storage), I have it one bolted right now and took it for a test drive... It sounded pretty damn good I thought, you can definitely tell it's there when accelerating and climbing hills (well bridges, not many hills in SE Texas), but it's not over the top. When cruising 65-70 you almost don't notice it, the sound is very subtle. You only really notice it under load.

It reminds me of a lot of Flowmaster Force II I had on my old Mustang. You know it's there, but it's not annoying. My buddy put a Magnaflow glasspack on a 6 cyl Chevy 1500 and you couldn't even hold a conversation in his truck, I wanted to punch him.

 

Thanks for the datapoint on the sound!

es

 

I'm glad you were able to figure it out

Sometimes it's best just to take a step back and not try to force something to fit the OEM mounting parts

 

I actually was able to use OEM parts, it fit up perfectly. It was a bad weld that caused my problems and ruined a bolt (although I fixed).

 

Just ordered mine for $304 shipped.

 

Came in today and installed in less than 20 minutes. I think 304 is a steal...

 

So did you have to reuse the gasket and bolts, or did it come with a new gasket? How many ft/lb did the bolts need to be tightened to?

I'm seriously thinking of getting this. Kind of like the quiet stock exhaust, but sort of miss the exhaust from my 4Runner too. A little growl under load, but then quiets down while cruising.

Any chance you can get a audio clip in the cabin while driving around? All the clips I've seen is outside of the car.

 

You reuse the gasket and bolts. I don't have a torque wrench so, until tight. I don't have any clips, but it is fairly quiet until you hit 2750 or so. 55 mph has a bit of a drone to it, but nothing terrible. Still get quite a bit of engine noise in the cabin. Sweet spot for it is between 2750 and 4k. It's definitely not what I would describe as aggressive sounding, but is a nice improvement over stock.

 

Thanks for the quick response.

 

weight of this exhaust compared to the stock one?

 

In the excitement to install, I didn't bother to weigh it but i do remember it being lighter than stock. You can see in these threads the difference in size:

https://www.fitfreak.net/forums/3rd-generation-2015/90631-hks-silent-hi-power-exhaust-installed.html

https://www.fitfreak.net/forums/3rd-generation-2015/82755-what-mods-accessories-your-new-gk-56.html

 

Yeah, it's like half? It's pretty light. Love every minute of this muff.

 

It doesn't sound loud at all. i would like more sound!