I might as well update too....

I have had the RHFC and Cat-Back on since (edit: October). I have had no vibration or issues of any sort. If it didn't have such a nice, rich burble, I would've forgotten it was on the car.

Mid-Atlantic Motorsports installed my set-up and they have a partnership with Fast Intentions for the race cars they build. M-A M are very experienced with Fast Intentions. I mentioned the support member concept to them before installation and they rejected it as not necessary, indeed they cautioned against welding anything to the cats or cat-back. They and FI guaranteed the install. YMMV

Sean

 

Does the Fast Intentions exhaust mount somewhere in the middle of the car?

I noticed after install my TP's that there's nothing moutning my stock exhaust from the headers back to the mid pipe. That has to be putting a ton of stress on the headers / TP's. I fully plan on re-utilizing the stock bracket referred to in this thread ASAP.

 

Note: It went on in October, not September.

Actually, I haven't any idea...it's attached there somewhere...LOL.

I have put about 10K miles on the car, though...including, obviously, an autumn, winter, and spring.

Sean

 

...Just throwing out an idea for you to check... The rubber exhaust hangers can go bad over time and introduce vibration through the surrounding areas of the exhaust system. I've experienced this in my prior car and noticed that one of the rubber exhaust hangers was split and dried out. After swapping those out for thicker rubber exhaust hangers I didn't hear any further vibrations.

Hopefully you'll be able to find a solution... G/L.

 

That's pretty smart. Not sure I ever would have thought of that.

 

Another year has gone by. My mechanic had the car for a few days in May (new ring & pinion in the diff, woot woot!!), and while there we gave a long look at his work on this bracket. Still solid, two years later. Lots of rust, obviously, so he brushed things up and sprayed it with header paint again.

Feeling very satisfied about this project.

 

I am prepping to install a FI RHFC, after this upcoming winter. Ill be ordering it soon.
I spoke to Kevin Verdina yesterday at Fast Intentions. I asked if they could offer a stock mount option.
He says they do not offer it or recommend it.

I'm an engineer myself (I deal with mainly pressure pipe systems) and I was not convinced that excluding the mount was optimal. Perhaps it is acceptable but I am not entirely sure it is optimal.
This is conjecture on my part, however. In my position, I deal with mainly pressure retention design rather than external forces exerted on pipe.
He did state at one point that it was intentionally excluded to allow the HFC to move with the engine.
When I asked about why then was the stock unit mounted to the trans, he said it was much more robust than the lighter FIRHFC and could endure the stresses better between a moving engine and fix mounted cat.
Kevin also shared that in 10 years and thousands of units sold, mechanical issues experienced with the FI cats are well under 1%.

I am still going with the FI RHFC but it was not clear to me from our conversation which choice was optimal. As designed or add a mount. Once I get under the car and have a good look at things I will decide. I am fortunate to also have a full-service machining and welding job shop at my disposal.

I will say this, FI has responded to my numerous inquiries very quickly with a phone call and following up with an email. That type of customer service is something I value highly.

This is his follow up email from yesterday:
"To recap our conversation, we developed our RHFC for the G37 way back in 2009 and they were designed without the transmission brace.
Our parts are lighter in weight than OEM and do not need the additional support, nor did we want to rigid mount them to the transmission."

 

Mount is a must in my opinion. Especially if exhaust is without flex pipes. That brace is designed to remove vibrations and take of stress from the cats.

 

how does it sound? Do you have clips and coupe or sedan awd or rwd?

 

that's a couple year old post teddy.

for the record, my FI HFC's do make a vibration at idle. I can feel it and see the rear view mirror vibrate ever so slightly.

 

few years late into the game but better late than never..lol I scored some berks hfc and stillen gen 3 intakes. I’m getting ready to install next week and it will be paired with oem cbe so I was trying to pick up as much info as possible. Before I can even get into any of that I have to diagnose this p0335 code. Car is in limp mode just got done changing the wire harness and intake sprockets.. along with tune up and fuel pump. Before the harness it was giving codes for 02 sensor. Of course I bought brand new from the dealer ($500/piece) and nothing has helped. My next bet is to find crank sensors and anything else related to vvel but hate to keep throwing money at it. Could’ve bought another car by now

 

Ive been running the FI R HFC for a couple years.
Install sucked but was manageable.
Maybe I get a little extra vibration? Cant really tell.
Ive got a check engine for O2 sensor a few times, maybe 3 or 4 times, but it doesn't return if I reset. Not for a long time anyway.
The exhaust note is very pleasing to me coupled with only Tanabe mufflers.
Slight indication that something is not quite stock, but quiet still under 3K rpm. Over 3k RPM its quite obvious the exhaust is not stock.
My only gripe is some metal to metal vibration sound over 4k or so.
I havent got under the car recently so i am not sure if it is originating from a heat shield or the cats.
The cats have a spun expanded cell inside so the cells are tight when new but I am quite confident that after the heat cycling they are no longer tight.
I bought a used set of these first and returned them based on my discomfort of the loose cells inside the chamber.
Al in all however, I am satisfied with the FIHFCs.

 

No new advice. The welds have held up over the years, but it sure is rusty looking now.