FJ62 EMS Powered Install and Review (1 Viewer)

[Pacer]

I was feeling fancy and ordered up and EMSPowered Exhaust for my 62.

Little background first: I had already built an exhaust system for my truck, using new down pipes from MAF. I cut up the down pipes and eliminated the under frame loop that seems to bother 3fe owners so much (tho I never caught it on anything).

With help from a fly by night exhaust shop and an old Flomaster harvested from a BMW race car we made a nice Y pipe and built a 2.5" system.

Ditched the cats (mistake), but kept the O2 sensors.
We cut and turned the new down pipes so they ran between the driver side frame and the trans, past the TCase, into the muffler, up and over the rear axle and straight out the back.
It was under muffled if you ask me, this could have been solved with a new, larger muffler... But EMS caught my eye and I wanted my cat back... The 3fe STINKS without cat converters!!! It made my eyes water.

Looking forward at my old system:

So, after reading up on his plans and prototype install on an Texas fj62 here on Mud, I reached out to Baktasht at EMS Powered in early November 2012. Left a message, did some research... He has done business with the Toyota MR2 community and others for years, and is now interested in LandCurisers. I read the good and bad about him and his business practices/customer service/responsiveness... I decided to give it a go.

He got back to me a few days later, we talked extensively; then went ahead. I spect a new stainless system WITH a cat converter and no extra silencer.
I let him know I was wary, and that I felt this was a lot of money to be laying out for an old truck and that I appreciate good communication.

He told me to expect three weeks delivery time. He is a busy shop owner as am I. I know how these things go... I PMed him early December to ask how things were going, he replied quickly and let me know they were finishing up the orders they had received and would be shipping shortly.

Brown Santa (UPS) delivered my shinny EMS Powered exhaust on Dec 27th. Cracked open the well packed box and found:

Nice, I had not read that he was using MagnaFlow. All hardware included!
Nice new manifold studs, washers, nuts. New down-tube gaskets, three stainless band clamps that actually fit and lots of screws nuts and washers for hanging the system from the stock exhaust mount locations I suspect... most of my stock hangers had removed from the last go-round...
Even new O2 sensor mounting hardware

Yup, there's a cat down there

So far so good. Some more pics of what was contained in the box (cuz we all love pics) and I'll move on to the install in the next post, need some coffee!

 

[Bomar]

I am looking forward to the rest of this review....

 

[60Works]

x2

 

[Pacer]

Install Notes

I mentioned in my previous post, I felt my Flomaster system was under muffled. It was a smaller Flomaster and it sounded better than my leaky stock exhaust, but it droned. Not bad once in converter lock-up, cruising down the highway, but annoying enough coming up to speed that I wanted to do something about it after two years.

Cut my old system at the rear axle and behind the trans cross-member, then mooved on the the downpipes...

Broke one stud

That sucked, and added an hour plus to the install...
But, learned a trick... I ended up slotting the manifold with my sawzall just down to the threads, which relieved the stress.

With the old stuff out of the way, things went together well.
Once I liberated my recently replaced O2s from their old home we were rolling.
No new O2 sensor gasket included with the EMS package. I would recommend replacing your O2s at this point anyway and new gaskets come with new sensors, so there ya go.

The EMS down tubes went up with no trouble... I had to remove a bracket on the driver side of the bell-housing outer edge. Two 14mm bolts, cant remember what it held originally, maybe my stock exhaust??? Dunno, moving on.

I only used a few of the manifold nuts provided with the kit, needed to use a bolt to replace the stud I fuct up and I did not use all the fancy indicators or e-clips provided. (pic to follow)

O2 bungs are super nice, located well, wires reach with ease and clear! Little antiseize on the new studs and good to go. (pic to follow)

I laid the system out on the floor, I scratched my head for a while on the orientation of the muffler; centered hole on one side and offset on the other. Referred back to Baktasht's pics in the EMS 62 thread and saw it both ways. This would not have been a problem I presume, if I had any stock hangers left on my truck, as EMS has kindly tigged some stainless plate onto the Magnaflow for mounting to what should be existing.

This leads me to my only issue with the system as is...
The mounts EMS chose to incorporate leave the large muffler wedged between the driver side frame rail, the TCase and trans cross member. There is plenty of space and stock heat shield aft of the TCase. I may cut some pipe and move it back.

After the muffler, the mid pipe slips in nicely and gets things headed up and over the rear axle. Then the tail pipe slips through the rear spring just before the rear shackle. Tucked up nice and tight, no pinched 60 series tail pipe here.
I was worried that it may not protrude far enough to properly vent fumes away from the body, and mentioned this while talking with Baktasht. He assured me they had tried several methods and this was the best solution. I have no complaints, and as mentioned before, I'm sensitive.

Everything slipped together nicely and is slightly adjustable before I wrenched down the stainless band clamps. It is high and tight and out of the way.

The cat does it's job, truck stinks WAY less.

And yes folks, it sounds good. No lovely V8 rumble, but certainly pleasing. Louder than stock for sure, plenty of muffler and NO DRONE! It will roar when you pin it.

The neighbors, the dogs and the applaud my purchase and I am a satisfied customer.

Let me know what else you'd all like to know.... I know, I know, a sound clip...

We'll see if I can get something up on uTube...

Maybe another recent customer has something to add about their experience, feel free.

 

[bapmia]

Looks great! Did your system include a resonator? I am interested in this system, but do not want anything even remotely loud--my truck is loud enough as it is!

 

[Godwin]

I'm wondering about the likely longevity of this exhaust system. Anyone have any ideas, guesstimates, or speculations on this?

 

[bapmia]

I'm wondering about the likely longevity of this exhaust system. Anyone have any ideas, guesstimates, or speculations on this?

I have no experience with this particular system, but assuming all components are stainless steel, the system should be around long after you and I are gone.

 

[Pacer]

Looks great! Did your system include a resonator? I am interested in this system, but do not want anything even remotely loud--my truck is loud enough as it is!

Thanks bapmia.
I opted to go without the resonator/silencer. I did question Baktasht about it and he described it as "mellowing the tone slightly but also adding a slight hissing sound". I understood this as the sound one hears from a car with a clogged cat converter or pinched exhaust. YMMV.

Maybe he will chime in here.

Sounds great to me as is. Mellow at idle and low throttle input.

 

[Pacer]

I'm wondering about the likely longevity of this exhaust system. Anyone have any ideas, guesstimates, or speculations on this?

yup, bapmia covered that.

I would add that Magnaflow makes a decent product and it is stainless as well.

 

[NKP Garage]

Thanks bapmia.
I opted to go without the resonator/silencer. I did question Baktasht about it and he described it as "mellowing the tone slightly but also adding a slight hissing sound". I understood this as the sound one hears from a car with a clogged cat converter or pinched exhaust. YMMV.

Maybe he will chime in here.

Sounds great to me as is. Mellow at idle and low throttle input.

Pacer, I'm glad to see that you got your EMSPowered FJ62 exhaust installed. I always tell Land Cruiser owners, the most difficult part of installing one of our exhaust systems is usually the removal of the factory exhaust system. Putting on the EMSPowered exhaust is fairly straight forward.

On the silencer sound, the reason I tell people that you will notice a little bit of sound that resembles air coming out of the tailpipe compared to no silencer is that it quiets down the exhaust sound, but the air coming out is still there, side by side with the two systems you'll notice almost no difference at idle. But while driving and especially at full throttle you'll notice it's quieter with the silencer option, but since the exhaust is quieter and you have the same amount of air flow you end up hearing the air sound a bit. Probably 99% of people don't even notice the air sound, but a few do.

It's difficult to describe it effectively in words. I hope that makes sense.

 

[NKP Garage]

I'm wondering about the likely longevity of this exhaust system. Anyone have any ideas, guesstimates, or speculations on this?

As mentioned above by other members, these exhaust systems will outlast most of these trucks. All of our exhaust systems also come with a lifetime warranty.

 

[Bomar]

Pacer did you still have the factory mounts on your truck. I know I removed all of mine either one bolted or cut off.

How hard was it to mount without the mounts if you didn't have them?

I am sold on the system just got to get the slush funds together...right now they are going to guns.

 

[Pacer]

Pacer did you still have the factory mounts on your truck. I know I removed all of mine either one bolted or cut off.

How hard was it to mount without the mounts if you didn't have them?

I am sold on the system just got to get the slush funds together...right now they are going to guns.

No mounts, well, the tail pipe mount was still there, and it actually lined up.

For now I have tacked a couple peaces of strap to the frame to keep things in place, but am planning to move the muffler back away from the cross member.

 

[NKP Garage]

No mounts, well, the tail pipe mount was still there, and it actually lined up.

For now I have tacked a couple peaces of strap to the frame to keep things in place, but am planning to move the muffler back away from the cross member.

Pacer,
Are you missing a couple of your factory brackets that were supposed to be on your truck? I'd highly recommend keeping them in place and using the factory mount points, the exhaust tucks nice and high the way it's laid out and fits like a glove. User "arcteryx" from CruiserYard may have the OEM brackets you need: https://forum.ih8mud.com/parting-out/681389-parting-out-red-gray-1988-fj62.html

 

[Pacer]

Pacer,
Are you missing a couple of your factory brackets that were supposed to be on your truck? I'd highly recommend keeping them in place and using the factory mount points, the exhaust tucks nice and high the way it's laid out and fits like a glove. User "arcteryx" from CruiserYard may have the OEM brackets you need: https://forum.ih8mud.com/parting-out/681389-parting-out-red-gray-1988-fj62.html

Thanks for chiming in Baktasht.
I am missing mounts, they've been gone for years. I will find some and try the intended location before I take a knife to it.

 

[Bomar]

Pacer if you have a chance to snap a photo of it mounted and how you attached it that would be great for me.

Sound clip would rock also.

 

[NKP Garage]

Pacer if you have a chance to snap a photo of it mounted and how you attached it that would be great for me.

Sound clip would rock also.

Lots of pics of hanger locations:

 

[robustbambi]

I like this. i want this.

 

[redtoy]

Ditto.
How about a sound byte?

 

[Pacer]

Lots of pics of hanger locations:

Thanks for the participation Baktasht. I mentioned the head scratching on muffler orientation and you have shown what I was speaking of...

If you look carefully at the system that is laid out on the ground in your pics the muffler inlet is centered and the outlet is offset.

Compare that to the pic under the truck, which is obviously the correct orientation, the inlet/outlets are reversed.

Again, had the stock mounts been intact on my truck, this would have been a no brainier.