OK I recently made two purchases this last month and wanted to share my opinions as I always hear people argue about these two companies on who is better. I personally work at a performance shop that does their own welding and fabrication, but for Grand Prix 3800 series II GM engines and not DSM's.
My first purchase was a recirculated tubular o2 housing from Punishment Racing. They were on sale for $99 shipped and it was the mild steel version. They usually come painted, but I want to send mine out through my work to get ceramic coated so I told them not to paint it, so I could see the welds better also. The welds were so so. Not great, but not bad and I had my boys at work hit it again to make it better as there was some overlap. THe most impressive thing with them is their flanges are very good. You'd think for the price they would be cheap flanges, but they are the big thick ones. Overall it was a hell of a deal for $99. They have good customer service also. I emailed them and said something about the overlap and he told me to send it back for a full refund. Instead I didn't want to wait and just had it done at work.
My 2nd purchase, 2 weeks later, was an SLS Stainless recirculated Tial 38mm o2 housing. I saw the vendor post on here and was impressed with the welds. Main reason for the purchase is I decided to go external gate and dump the internal. I had some extra cash laying around so I figured I would spend the over $309 price tag from Extreme PSI. SLS has them for $325, but Extreme sells them for a little less. This thing looks hot right out the box. High quality welds. Guys at work say they have something called a pulser to get the welds look the way they do. Welds impressive, but the rest was hell. The housing has to be made perfectly to mate up as the flanges on the housing is threaded and the threads on the wastgate is threaded. Well let's say it was off a little. The downpipe and turbo flange on the o2 housings are not as nice as Punishment. Thinner and worst of all the downpipe flange is substantially smaller than the stock downpipe flange. I had to cut the crap out of a standard 2.5" exhaust gasket to make it work. I probably have a small leak as you have to cut right into the circular ring of the gasket to make it fit. It's literally 3mm smaller all around compared to the stock downpipe flange. I don't know where they get this flange from, but I checked with all sources at work and I cannot find a proper gasket for it. To make a long story short trying to get the wastegate mounted to it I ended up seizing and snapping bolts into the flanges. I had to get them drilled out at work and use nuts and bolts instead. Customer service from SLS wasn't so good. They told me that it is impossible that it was off a little since they build them with a Tial 38mm gate. Well my gate definitely wasn't off because it was a brand new one direct from Tial. After getting that taken care of I installed it and then found out about the undersized 2.5" downpipe flange and emailed to complain about that and asked if they would at least send me a proper gasket for it for all the hell I went through and they never responded. Been over 2 weeks now. So basically what it comes down to is they have sweet welds, but you'd think for all the money you'd pay for it it would line up perfectly and have proper flanges.
Also for all people planning to do external gate off of the o2 housing with either companies o2 housings you must totally remove a fan. Doesn't matter if you have slim fans or not. It literally sits a half inch from the radiator. What I ended up doing is using one slim fan as a pusher and putting another fan on the front as a puller. Not an easy job and I wasn't expecting that. Here is some PICs you can check out. Look how close it sits to the radiator and check out the downpipe flange down below. Notice how much gasket is showing and it is perfectly centered. Turbo is an extended tip Bullseye S200. Bad ass turbo!
My first purchase was a recirculated tubular o2 housing from Punishment Racing. They were on sale for $99 shipped and it was the mild steel version. They usually come painted, but I want to send mine out through my work to get ceramic coated so I told them not to paint it, so I could see the welds better also. The welds were so so. Not great, but not bad and I had my boys at work hit it again to make it better as there was some overlap. THe most impressive thing with them is their flanges are very good. You'd think for the price they would be cheap flanges, but they are the big thick ones. Overall it was a hell of a deal for $99. They have good customer service also. I emailed them and said something about the overlap and he told me to send it back for a full refund. Instead I didn't want to wait and just had it done at work.
My 2nd purchase, 2 weeks later, was an SLS Stainless recirculated Tial 38mm o2 housing. I saw the vendor post on here and was impressed with the welds. Main reason for the purchase is I decided to go external gate and dump the internal. I had some extra cash laying around so I figured I would spend the over $309 price tag from Extreme PSI. SLS has them for $325, but Extreme sells them for a little less. This thing looks hot right out the box. High quality welds. Guys at work say they have something called a pulser to get the welds look the way they do. Welds impressive, but the rest was hell. The housing has to be made perfectly to mate up as the flanges on the housing is threaded and the threads on the wastgate is threaded. Well let's say it was off a little. The downpipe and turbo flange on the o2 housings are not as nice as Punishment. Thinner and worst of all the downpipe flange is substantially smaller than the stock downpipe flange. I had to cut the crap out of a standard 2.5" exhaust gasket to make it work. I probably have a small leak as you have to cut right into the circular ring of the gasket to make it fit. It's literally 3mm smaller all around compared to the stock downpipe flange. I don't know where they get this flange from, but I checked with all sources at work and I cannot find a proper gasket for it. To make a long story short trying to get the wastegate mounted to it I ended up seizing and snapping bolts into the flanges. I had to get them drilled out at work and use nuts and bolts instead. Customer service from SLS wasn't so good. They told me that it is impossible that it was off a little since they build them with a Tial 38mm gate. Well my gate definitely wasn't off because it was a brand new one direct from Tial. After getting that taken care of I installed it and then found out about the undersized 2.5" downpipe flange and emailed to complain about that and asked if they would at least send me a proper gasket for it for all the hell I went through and they never responded. Been over 2 weeks now. So basically what it comes down to is they have sweet welds, but you'd think for all the money you'd pay for it it would line up perfectly and have proper flanges.
Also for all people planning to do external gate off of the o2 housing with either companies o2 housings you must totally remove a fan. Doesn't matter if you have slim fans or not. It literally sits a half inch from the radiator. What I ended up doing is using one slim fan as a pusher and putting another fan on the front as a puller. Not an easy job and I wasn't expecting that. Here is some PICs you can check out. Look how close it sits to the radiator and check out the downpipe flange down below. Notice how much gasket is showing and it is perfectly centered. Turbo is an extended tip Bullseye S200. Bad ass turbo!
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