This is topic That was really expensive in forum Tech Talk at Northern California Ford Owners  .


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Posted by ballisticxlr (Member # 14804) on :
 
Found and bought a Magnaflow CARB legal mid-pipe and a Magnaflow street catback. 3500 bucks, a few tears, a few beers and 3 days later and it's here. Popping it onto an 01 cobra.

On that topic, I found an almost completely unmolested 01 snake. The only mod it had was an aftermarket clutch cable/quadrant/FWA which seems to come out of adjustment at the drop of a hat... any hat. That adjuster eventually caused it to burn up at least the TOB and possibly the pilot bearing so I get to have a new clutch installed. I figure they're going to have to take the exhaust off anyway so installing the new one is essentially free labor.

Next up will be a FTBR IRS kit and MM CO's and control arms and such all around.

Other than that I'm replacing the factory seats. Sad to see them go with the whole snake logo on them and all but the driver side was physically broken and they looked a bit worn and dingy and weren't really very supportive. Slapped a pair of all black racing buckets from Summit in it. They sit taller than the old seats but that just means I get to have an excuse for the lean.
 
Posted by sic70stang (Member # 4347) on :
 
Man exhaust is pricy now
 
Posted by ballisticxlr (Member # 14804) on :
 
Booked in for May 6th at TPS Motorsports. I've known the owner for 20 years and was just glad that the place is still around. While in the shop it's getting the clutch & flywheel done with the relevant bearings. Since the exhaust is off they'll install the new one and I only eat 1 labor charge. While it's in it's getting a complete Full Tilt Boogie Racing IRS kit and Maximum Motorsports k-member, A-arms, CC plates and bilstein coil over set installed.

I've already replaced the shifter with a Tri-Ax and since the driver seat was broken on one side I replaced both front seats with nice racing seats from Summit.

If they can get the clutch cable/adjuster/quadrant that's in it set up properly then that'll be fixed. If not I've asked them to put in a factory cable/quadrant since I always kind of liked that system as it self-adjusts and was easy drive.

Maybe it'll be ready before I go overseas in June. Not counting on it. Supply chain issues are likely to bite really hard.
 
Posted by SVTGhoust (Member # 20) on :
 
Wow. what a crazy world we live in for an exhaust to be this much money.
 
Posted by 98 ROUSH (Member # 10309) on :
 
Sheeeeesh $3500 for exhaust is crazy
 
Posted by ballisticxlr (Member # 14804) on :
 
It sure is. Appointment got pushed until today. Hopefully I can still get it back before I go overseas. Would be really nice to drive the thing again.
 
Posted by ballisticxlr (Member # 14804) on :
 
Well, it's finally done and road trip tested. It was not done by TPS Motorsports. Instead of getting my car in when promised Mike Mak continually pushed the date out until November 4 at which point I went and got my keys from them and had it towed to another shop in Campbell which did all the work for me in 2 days. The bad throwout bearing ended up being not the end of things, it was so bad that it wrecked the clutch fork which also wrecked the pivot ball and scored the input shaft. Because it sat so long waiting for TPS to unscrew themselves there ended up being a number of other things that needed changed because they don't like sitting unused for too long on an already 21 year old car including a weeping water pump, a rear main seal and the battery. We were able to get a factory clutch disk and pressure plate set along with a new clutch fork, pivot ball, pilot bearing & TOB. The stock flywheel was in salvageable condition so we surfaced it and reused it. We also put in a new clutch cable as the prior one had stretched. While it was in the air the new Magnaflow CARB legal catted mid-pipe and street cat-back were installed. It runs really great now and sounds really good. Just loud enough to not get a ticket.

Let me say one thing about the whole experience: F*ck TPS motorsports! I know one of their mechanics, Ed, who's a really solid guy whom I've known for almost 25 years. He's a great tech and a good person but Mike, on the other hand,is a serious piece of work. I pre-paid for all the work I wanted them to do back in February and now Mike's holding back refunding my money because he says he bought parts and wants to sell them first. First off, not my damned problem. Second, I'm not having it and since he's had a month now to do the refund I'm going to do a charge back on him today. If you value your time, money, sanity, etc... avoid TPS Motorsports.

In lighter news, I took the car on a 800 mile round trip road trip to go see some family and it went totally smoothly. I got 26mpg highway running 80-90mph and about 10mpg in town because I'm a lead foot.
 
Posted by throttlepositionsensor (Member # 14838) on :
 
quote:
Originally posted by ballisticxlr:
Well, it's finally done and road trip tested. It was not done by TPS Motorsports. Instead of getting my car in when promised Mike Mak continually pushed the date out until November 4 at which point I went and got my keys from them and had it towed to another shop in Campbell which did all the work for me in 2 days. The bad throwout bearing ended up being not the end of things, it was so bad that it wrecked the clutch fork which also wrecked the pivot ball and scored the input shaft. Because it sat so long waiting for TPS to unscrew themselves there ended up being a number of other things that needed changed because they don't like sitting unused for too long on an already 21 year old car including a weeping water pump, a rear main seal and the battery. We were able to get a factory clutch disk and pressure plate set along with a new clutch fork, pivot ball, pilot bearing & TOB. The stock flywheel was in salvageable condition so we surfaced it and reused it. We also put in a new clutch cable as the prior one had stretched. While it was in the air the new Magnaflow CARB legal catted mid-pipe and street cat-back were installed. It runs really great now and sounds really good. Just loud enough to not get a ticket.

Let me say one thing about the whole experience: F*ck TPS motorsports! I know one of their mechanics, Ed, who's a really solid guy whom I've known for almost 25 years. He's a great tech and a good person but Mike, on the other hand,is a serious piece of work. I pre-paid for all the work I wanted them to do back in February and now Mike's holding back refunding my money because he says he bought parts and wants to sell them first. First off, not my damned problem. Second, I'm not having it and since he's had a month now to do the refund I'm going to do a charge back on him today. If you value your time, money, sanity, etc... avoid TPS Motorsports.


Mike Mak tried to take legal action against customers that shared stories like yours. He subsequently changed the name from Apex to TPS after many customers shared stories like yours.

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Posted by *BlownMach1*- TRMYN8R (Member # 5400) on :
 
My favorite part of this post is the start it is praising TPS and at the end it is bashing them 😂 never pay for labor upfront on any deal. If u bought the parts then they are yours. You own them. However if not opened or used then they should stand by their business and return with a restocking fee. 🤷🏼‍♂️
 




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