ARK DT-S 3.0 Supra Exhaust

[Wumb0]

Pm'd

what did you end up going with?

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[bitsnflips]

what did you end up going with?

@Wumb0 have you got one yet ? I'm in the same boat.

 

[Tacoma714]

@Wumb0 have you got one yet ? I'm in the same boat.

I have one for sale right now in the forum. Less than 3k miles on my ARK exhaust and need to sell it so I can get my car back to stock.

 

[bitsnflips]

I have one for sale right now in the forum. Less than 3k miles on my ARK exhaust and need to sell it so I can get my car back to stock.

Are you selling your car ? I can't buy the exhaust since I live in Canada, east coast. How was your experience with the ARK ? I'm looking to pair a deep sounding valved exhaust with the stock DP.

 

[Wumb0]

@Wumb0 have you got one yet ? I'm in the same boat.

i got the ark exhaust

pros:
1. sounds great
2. has valve
3. doesn't sound like a vacuum cleaner, like many other quieter exhausts and stock. Its not overly loud and reaches a good decibal level. Some of the quiter ones just sound so bad imo.

cons:
1. build quality is not great. valve took some tweaking to stop getting it to like flutter when closed. It sounded awful before I was able to fix it.
2. ark was not helpful. I sent them videos over email of the valve making a ton of noise and they basically said, thats how it is designed. I guess its designed for the valve to not have enough strength to be fully closed idk. They eventually just stopped replying altogether after saying the would. 0/10 customer support.
3. I have a manual, so sitting at 3k rpm there is sound exhaust noise in cabin. Its not drone, but you can hear the exhaust. Could be a pro or con for different ppl.
4. normal mode is quieter outside the car, but only a little quieter inside the car. The biggest difference is there is less of a "boomy" sound when in comfort
5. taking the valve actuator on and off caused one of the bolt holes to strip on the 3rd time. Could be a me issue, but unscrewing bolts isnt that hard, so not sure what if anything i did wrong there.

Overall, its definitely one of the exhausts of all time. I really like how it sounds, but the initial week or so was super ass trying to get the issues figured out. I'll be keeping it because of how expensive exhausts are and I like how it sounds a lot.

 

[Meraki Autoworks]

Anyone else interested, we're doing 30% off MSRP right now.

-Josh

 

[bitsnflips]

i got the ark exhaust

pros:
1. sounds great
2. has valve
3. doesn't sound like a vacuum cleaner, like many other quieter exhausts and stock. Its not overly loud and reaches a good decibal level. Some of the quiter ones just sound so bad imo.

cons:
1. build quality is not great. valve took some tweaking to stop getting it to like flutter when closed. It sounded awful before I was able to fix it.
2. ark was not helpful. I sent them videos over email of the valve making a ton of noise and they basically said, thats how it is designed. I guess its designed for the valve to not have enough strength to be fully closed idk. They eventually just stopped replying altogether after saying the would. 0/10 customer support.
3. I have a manual, so sitting at 3k rpm there is sound exhaust noise in cabin. Its not drone, but you can hear the exhaust. Could be a pro or con for different ppl.
4. normal mode is quieter outside the car, but only a little quieter inside the car. The biggest difference is there is less of a "boomy" sound when in comfort
5. taking the valve actuator on and off caused one of the bolt holes to strip on the 3rd time. Could be a me issue, but unscrewing bolts isnt that hard, so not sure what if anything i did wrong there.

Overall, its definitely one of the exhausts of all time. I really like how it sounds, but the initial week or so was super ass trying to get the issues figured out. I'll be keeping it because of how expensive exhausts are and I like how it sounds a lot.

Thanks for the write up. I have a few follow-ups.
1.'How did you fix the valve ?
2. Does your left side exhaust tip sit lower than the right one ? I have heard that it doesn't align well.
3. How would you describe the tone ?

Appreciate your response.

 

[ky.supra]

i got the ark exhaust

pros:
1. sounds great
2. has valve
3. doesn't sound like a vacuum cleaner, like many other quieter exhausts and stock. Its not overly loud and reaches a good decibal level. Some of the quiter ones just sound so bad imo.

cons:
1. build quality is not great. valve took some tweaking to stop getting it to like flutter when closed. It sounded awful before I was able to fix it.
2. ark was not helpful. I sent them videos over email of the valve making a ton of noise and they basically said, thats how it is designed. I guess its designed for the valve to not have enough strength to be fully closed idk. They eventually just stopped replying altogether after saying the would. 0/10 customer support.
3. I have a manual, so sitting at 3k rpm there is sound exhaust noise in cabin. Its not drone, but you can hear the exhaust. Could be a pro or con for different ppl.
4. normal mode is quieter outside the car, but only a little quieter inside the car. The biggest difference is there is less of a "boomy" sound when in comfort
5. taking the valve actuator on and off caused one of the bolt holes to strip on the 3rd time. Could be a me issue, but unscrewing bolts isnt that hard, so not sure what if anything i did wrong there.

Overall, its definitely one of the exhausts of all time. I really like how it sounds, but the initial week or so was super ass trying to get the issues figured out. I'll be keeping it because of how expensive exhausts are and I like how it sounds a lot.

I didn't experience the valve issue on my ARK DTS exhaust, I have over 20,000 miles on the exhaust with two tracks on it.

 

[ky.supra]

Thanks for the write up. I have a few follow-ups.
1.'How did you fix the valve ?
2. Does your left side exhaust tip sit lower than the right one ? I have heard that it doesn't align well.
3. How would you describe the tone ?

Appreciate your response.

2. The exhaust tips are attached to the muffler box so you can't adjust them. My exhaust tips aren't aligned well and you can tell by looking at it from the side of the car.

3. here are some clips of the ARK DTS Exhaust paired with armytrix catless DP on my 2020, 2 port AT

I have the ARK DTS exhaust paired with armytrix catless dp on a 2 port supra, stock tune.

here's some clips


Normal & Sport mode revs


Normal Mode Pull


Sport Mode Pull


extra clips of revs, cold start and on track

 

[Wumb0]

Thanks for the write up. I have a few follow-ups.
1.'How did you fix the valve ?
2. Does your left side exhaust tip sit lower than the right one ? I have heard that it doesn't align well.
3. How would you describe the tone ?

Appreciate your response.

I had to pull apart the detent spring used in order to create more tension. Took a few tries. That helped, but it needed to be pushed further “in” as well to create even more tension as it is curved, so the wider part is closer to where the turn happens with the valve. I also attached a rubber band to add more tension.

another issue I didn’t mention is that occasionally the valve squeaks when opening. This is easily fixable to spraying some white lithium grease, but still annoying. Happens like once a month.

For ark to take a look at the issues I presented them they said I would have to ship at my expense. Would have been around $500

My tips are aligned thankfully. I guess I won the lotto there lol. The tone is a lot more clean than other exhausts. Not throaty/airy like titanium

 

[MikeyG_U2]

Hi everyone,
I purchased an ARK exhaust for my new Supra last week and am working through the install right now. My valve actuator bracket was also bent out of the box like another member mentioned. I just unwrapped it from an undamaged shipping box today, so the bent bracket was provided by ARK (or by poorly secured parts inside the box during shipping). It was easy enough to bend back straight, but still annoying for the amount of money I spent on this.

Quick question for those of you that installed this exhaust, did you leave off the metal shield on the valve actuator? (picture below, you can see light scratches on the shield where the bracket bolt hits it, directly below the big hole)

The actuator fits flush in the bracket without the shield, but with the shield it hits one of the bracket bolts and will not sit flat, so just want to check to make sure I'm doing things correctly.

Thanks in advance for sharing your experience. Looking forward to finishing up the install and starting the car for the first time.

 

[dustwhyn]

Hi everyone,
I purchased an ARK exhaust for my new Supra last week and am working through the install right now. My valve actuator bracket was also bent out of the box like another member mentioned. I just unwrapped it from an undamaged shipping box today, so the bent bracket was provided by ARK (or by poorly secured parts inside the box during shipping). It was easy enough to bend back straight, but still annoying for the amount of money I spent on this.

Quick question for those of you that installed this exhaust, did you leave off the metal shield on the valve actuator? (picture below, you can see light scratches on the shield where the bracket bolt hits it, directly below the big hole)

The actuator fits flush in the bracket without the shield, but with the shield it hits one of the bracket bolts and will not sit flat, so just want to check to make sure I'm doing things correctly.

Thanks in advance for sharing your experience. Looking forward to finishing up the install and starting the car for the first time.

Install the shield when you install the actuator. It’s there to isolate the actuator from the exhaust heat.

 

[MikeyG_U2]

Install the shield when you install the actuator. It’s there to isolate the actuator from the exhaust heat.

Okay, but how? The actuator+shield will not sit flush in the ARK bracket because of the lower bracket-mounting bolt being in the way (see photo). The actuator does sit flush without the shield as there is room for the bolt head. Did you cut a hole in your shield to accommodate that bolt?

I have also sent a note to ARK Support asking this same question and will call them when they open up next week.

 

[ky.supra]

Okay, but how? The actuator+shield will not sit flush in the ARK bracket because of the lower bracket-mounting bolt being in the way (see photo). The actuator does sit flush without the shield as there is room for the bolt head. Did you cut a hole in your shield to accommodate that bolt?

I have also sent a note to ARK Support asking this same question and will call them when they open up next week.

I did not use the shield and haven't had any issues without it—I have about 30k miles on the exhaust

 

[MikeyG_U2]

I called Ark on Tuesday and they confirmed installing the valve actuator without the shield is correct. That is how they do it on their own installs.

Overall I’m very happy with the sound. The fitment is just slightly off with one tip not-quite centered and sticking out a bit more than the other, we’ll see if it settles during a road trip I’m taking this weekend.

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