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TSAIS NITRO DEVIL EXHAUST PIPE

I was looking at some different exhaust options after cracking my stock MT2 header. There are plenty of exhaust options out there for this truck, from many different manufacturers. For me, the one that stood out was the Tsais Nitro Devil rear mounted exhaust system, for side exhaust engines. It is the only exhaust of its type that I have seen for the MT2, and it looks to be a nicely executed kit, so I figured I would give it a try, killing 2 birds with one stone – increasing performance, and losing the ugly stock header. Lets see how this exhaust stacks up.

FIRST IMPRESSIONS
Rather than a boring brown or white cardboard box, the exhaust comes in a neat black and silver box. Upon opening the box, you are presented with a hardware pack (manifold, exhaust coupler etc.), an instruction sheet, a sheet of stickers, and of course the pipe itself.

The pipe feels very solid and well made, with a tough looking, reinforced 6mm stinger. The instructions are on a single sided sheet of A4, and cover the installation process in plenty of detail, and the stickers are a nice touch also. Onto the hardware pack.

The hardware pack is extremely complete, including everything you will need for the installation, even including a longer bolt for the shock mounting, and a longer length of fuel line for the pressure fitting on the tank. The manifold has a very smooth entrance, with no sharp edges or corners for the exhaust gases to have to negotiate, increasing the efficiency with which the exhaust operates. Included with the hardware pack is; the manifold, the cable ties (x2), the coupler, an exhaust gasket, a wire to hang the exhaust, a grub screw to keep the pipe in place, fuel tubing, and an M3 nut and bolt to replace the stock shock mounting screw. There is a lot of attention to detail here.

INSTALLATION
I will follow the instruction to the letter, for the purposes of the review. The first step is to bend the exhaust hanger to shape. It is supplied as a straight piece of wire with a loop bent in one end, and needs to be bent to hold the pipe at the correct height and distance from the rear of the truck. This is covered in the manual. This is then bolted to the rear shock tower, using the supplied longer bolt. In step 2, the manifold is bolted to the engine. Here, I noticed that the stock MT2 manifold bolts come rather close to the manifold…no biggy, but It could cause problems using different engines if the bolts protrude more.

The next step is to install the coupler along with the pipe, after that the cable ties and the grub screw are used to secure the exhaust. Finally, the pressure line is installed. Job done…all in all, it should take about 10-15 minutes to do at the most. The fit of the parts is perfect, and everything you will need is included in the kit.

On to the testing…

PERFORMANCE
After fueling and starting up my truck, I took it down to my tuning ground just down the road. My first impressions of the pipe in action were good – it sounds nice and refined, without being excessively quiet. Once the engine had warmed up I started running up and down the road, and it became apparent that the engine needed a bit of tuning adjustment, as you would expect with any exhaust system change.

I leaned the mixture quite a lot, and as I started getting close to optimal, the engine was showing lots of power – considerably more than I had with my original exhaust (RC10GT pipe/stock header).

The pipe delivers smoothly from when the clutch bites right up to a huge tire ballooning top end, but it’s with the low to midrange power, that this exhaust really shines

The torque is insane – if I punched the throttle from a fast walking speed, all 4 wheels would break loose – this is on grippy asphalt. The top end wasn’t bad either – to tell the truth once it was fully retuned I wasn’t able to get it to max out. The revs would keep climbing until I ran out of room – and this is a big, big space I was running in. The tires were ballooning so much the truck would lift up an inch or so off the ground. It certainly had my OS screaming! Like I said, this exhaust is killer in the midrange, where it works with the engines natural power band to give you a huge amount of power. After about a tank and a half, the torque had stripped my rear diff and I came home with a front wheel drive MT2. Power is there the instant you want it, especially if used in conjunction with the brilliant OS .18CVRX.

When I first saw pictures of this exhaust installed on the truck, I was slightly concerned that it would get damaged in a tail-landing. However, the strength of the pipe coupled with the re-enforced stinger and the flex in the mounting means this isn’t a concern. That, and the MT2 is a very easy truck to jump anyway ;)

CONCLUSION
My overall impression of this pipe has been really good – I can’t really find anything at all to complain about. If I was splitting hairs, I would say that it would be nice for the exhaust hanger to be pre-bent, but that is all I can think of. If you are looking for a new exhaust system for your MT2 and are looking for something that little bit out of the ordinary, you owe it to yourself to look at the Tsais Nitro Devil exhaust system. It gives you all the power you need (and more besides – you will want to upgrade to the heavy duty differentials with this otherwise it will strip them), whilst keeping your truck clean, and without too much noise. While is it one of the more expensive exhausts out there, the quality is stunning and it has the performance to match. Thoroughly recommended.


TSAIS NITRO DEVIL PIPE FEATURES per the TSAIS Web Site
- Newly designed TESTED & TUNED 2-chamber pipe for unrealistic power
- 6mm big-bore stinger provides excellent acceleration
- Higher grade aluminum alloy materials
- CNC machined stinger provides durability and style
- Mirror-polished pipe
- Kit includes everything you need to install the pipe

Click here for some Tech notes on the Nitro Devil pipe.

Click here to download detailed installation instructions.

Click here for a video from the Tsais web site that will give you an idea of the excellent tone this pipe delivers.

NOTE FROM THE EDITOR: Review written by "Tom F", long time BYT Forum Moderator and BYT Web Site Contributor. Tom F is based in the UK and is an excellent resource of RC knowledge. We are glad to have him as a part of the BYT Team. Thanks for the great write-up Tom!