Product Review Article...
Our review of the Hotpipe from Redline Performance Motors...
Redline Performance Motors are an American company based out of
The pipes are made from the kit sold by Quickdraw. It consists of stamped steel sections that must be welded together to form the pipe and the header. Included with the pipe is an aluminum flange with o-rings and a flexible coupler that goes between the header and the pipe chamber. The flange will fit as-is on Quickdraw engines. For use on Zenoah style engines a water-cooled adaptor must be added between the pipe flange and the engine. These are also available from Redline. I used an M-Boat adaptor for testing because I forgot to order one from Redline and I had this one on hand at the time.
I asked Mike at Redline about the assembling of the pipes...
The pipes are made from the kit that QD sells. The parts are cut down to size and a small lip is left to weld them up. I use patterns to cut them to the correct length and to weld them up so that the parts are centered etc. It takes welding several of them to really get the hang of it as the material is very thin, and they are tig welded. I have been a pipe fitter, and machinist for years (machine parts and stainless tube welding in the dairy industry) so it was a natural for me. Mike Sr.
When I received my Redline Hotpipe, the fist thing I noticed was the quality of the welds. I am not exaggerating when I say that the welds really are perfect. In fact, it's nearly impossible to see the actual weld at the seam where the two halves are joined! I must have looked it over ten times in amazement at the quality.
As mentioned earlier, the chamber and header are joined together by a piece of flexible stainless steel tubing. This helps reduce the effects of engine movement/vibrations on the tuned pipe and mounting components. To accommodate the flex coupler, both the chamber and the header have a double-walled section that the flex slides into. The entire assembly is then held together by two high tension springs. The system is quite similar to those seen on snowmobile and other larger 2-stroke engines. To adjust for different tuned lengths you either cut the flex coupler shorter or replace it with a longer one depending on your needs. I did notice a significant amount of oil leakage at the header/flex joint when testing the pipe. The folks at Redline informed me that this leakage should become minimal after fine tuning of the carburetor and keeping idling at a minimum.
The Hotpipe also features an internal stinger which makes it quiet enough to operate within NAMBA and IMPBA noise limits without the use of an external muffling device.
Another nice feature about this tuned pipe is its weight. It is amazingly light for an all steel pipe. Mine weighed in at exactly 15 ounces complete. This is lighter than any other steel pipe I have tested so far.
Some specs on the Redline Hotpipe:
Overall thoughts...
The Hotpipes already have a very good track record and many racers are successfully running these pipes in their boats. The only drawback that I noticed was the leaking issue at the coupler as noted above. The internal stinger keeps the noise down to a reasonable level. It is a great performing pipe that should work well on most Zenoah and similar engines. Redline strongly recommend the use of this pipe with their engine so we will be doing more testing with the combo...stay tuned!
Happy Boating!
Contact Information:
Redline Performance Motors 505 Brookneal Drive Saint Charles, MO 63304 USA Tel: 314-600-3052 Website: www.redlinemotors.usEmail:
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