G'Day David,
I don't think of it as disagree......more like "reach the same destination by different roads"
Be pretty boring around here if we all did agree though wouldn't it
Sorry to hear you had hassles with them....without making excuses for them I think they did have trouble keeping up with demand early on - they were trying to run a full time Rally Team & a Performance Shop at the same time with minimal staff. It really did depend "who" you spoke to at the time as to how good your info was. The mechanics & tech guys were always pretty cluey.....as usual, the sales guy was...well.....a sales guy
Was pretty convenient for me to just "drop in" & talk to the Head Mechanic as well.
I was equally surprised to hear the US guys Extractor problems. It was really rare from the Aussie buyers. Notice also that the US guys have a lot more problems with cracked stock manifolds than us as well. I put it down to a few things. The extreme cold weather these guys get - bad snow & temps well below freezing. Combine this with the extremely high extractor temps & the metal fatigue would be a lot higher. Also the use of salt on the roads over there can cause corrosion a lot quicker....& any sort of rustproofing is tough enough with high temp items - add salt & water.....
I didn't run the MRT Extractors on mine.....I didn't know about them when I bought the Genies & Sports Exhaust. After the whole sports exhaust fell apart on the 1st Outback trip I did ( lasted exactly 8 months in total ) the only thing that survived were the Extractors. MRT fitted a Flex Joint, High Flow Cat, & their Sports Exhaust. Very solid & well designed - lasted another 5+ years of everything I could throw at it.
At 100k km when I needed the Timing Belt down I decided to put one of their Camshafts in at the same time. They didn't have one in stock, but as my Feroza was sitting in the mechanics with the engine in bits I needed it ASAP - they had one made up & at my mechanics in under 24 hours - pretty good service if you ask me.....
Obviously we both had different experiences.......as with everything in life, "Your milage may vary"
Later - Mike H.