Just out of curiocity, everyone says that the AS&M and RK Sports are identical except for a few small differences. What really are those small differences? Aside from quality of welds and coating, what is the difference between them? Any real way to tell them apart?

 

They are the same. There really is no difference. Some people may say there's a difference, but maybe that's because they've never see a set of each side by side. TPIS headers are the same as well.

 

RK's have oval-round port primaries, AS&M have D-port primaries. The coating on the AS&M seems to be of better quality. AS&M also comes with the coated Y pipe, RK's sometimes do but mostly dont.

-Dustin-

 

yea, not much difference as stated above
i'm gonna go with the rk sports myself, just plain cheaper

 

They are pretty much the same but the AS&M are a little higher quality. We sell a lot more RK Sports and customers are always happy with them.

The one thing that AS&M offers that RK does not is a 93 model year specific header.

 

One thing that RKSport offers that AS&M does not is horrible customer service, or so I've read here on several occasions.

 

Nicely put Bud

-Dustin-

 

Well if you want to talk to a guy who actually HAD RK sports ( unlike alot who are in the "I've heard..."crowd)

Anyway, My car had Jet-Hot hooker LT's originally. BAD choice for an A4 with 2.73 gears, mod was not worth the $$$ and aggrivation. Then PA enacted draconian emissions laws like a good **** state. So had to get emissions headers. Found a used set of RK's on Ebay that were freshly Jet-Hot coated. They went on easy as pie compared to LT's and they worked great, I loved them so much I'll get them again if I get another LT1. Some issues tho. First I actually broke my finger trying to get the dipstick in. OW!! Second, I'll be welding nuts to the back of the flange on the header collectors this time around. Bolting up that Y Pipe was damn near impossible. Having nuts welded to the back of the header flange would have made a huge differance. If they are coated this time around and I can't weld on them? Then its JB Weld time!!

 

Nice to see you again Baron4406, its been a while. Your Jethot Hookers are working good for me Glad the switch was beneficial for us both, even if you did sell the Z.

-Dustin-

 

ehhh, they're decent
i mean, i ordered some last year, and they were getting coated and wouldn't be ready til about 6 weeks after i purchased
they asked if i wanted to cancel the order since it was a long wait, and i said yea, since i did have other things to pay for at the time anyways
but yea, i'd say they leave just a little bit to be desired in the customer service dept, but not the worst i've had for sure

 

I ordered my RK's from Fasttoys about 5 years ago and couldn't be happier. The coating survived 3.5 years of daily driving (about 65k miles) 1.5 years of non-daily driving and they still look pretty good. No dis-coloration or rust anywhere and I live in the NW where it rains 75% of the time.

BTW, my Y-Pipe came coated.

Mike