WARNING! Public Notice for 300 Degree Customers 4-11-2009

It has come to our attention that 3rd parties are making inferior fuel rail kits and untruthfully selling them as authentic 300 Degree High Performance Fuel Rails. Not only are the kits counterfeit, they are also essentially non functional and in our estimation will fail with potentially catastrophic results.

This situation came to our attention at the beginning of April 2009. To the best of our knowledge the market exposure is limited to kits sold by Concept Z Performance

As of April 12th 2009, Concept Z Performance has agreed to cease and desist this activity in response to our attorney's letter of demand.

If you have any question or concern whatsoever about the authenticity of any 300 Degree product you may have purchased from any source, please contact us immediately for confirmation.

300 Degree will not be responsible in any way for anything which arises out of one these counterfeit products. Among other things, this has already resulted in an unexpected additional $150 installer charge to the end customer due to the additional time associated with replacement of the defective counterfeited product with authentic 300 Degree product.

Damon Serkland
President
300 Degree

Due to the overwhelming amount of requests to somehow authenticate HPFR kits through email, we've put together a quick guide on how to identify counterfeit kits based on information we have today. Although we have found numerous discrepancies between the counterfeit version and the authentic version, this focuses on things that distinguish between them while the kits are already installed in the car and what makes these kits dangerous. We are withholding some information on purpose because we are not in the business of educating our competition on how to make a copy work as well as ours. There is a lot more on a quality and performance level that we will not go into that makes our product superior to the counterfeits. We will concentrate on function and safety instead.

First off, if you purchased a 300 Degree HPFR kit from Specialty Z, SPLparts or Import Parts Pro, we are 99.9% sure you have an authentic kit. We spoke with all of them to find out if there could be any problems. From time to time our distributors will buy stock from each other and some of this did happen back in early 2007. Unfortunately, based on information on TwinTurbo.NET it seems the counterfeits were being sold back into 2007 where we originally thought this was a recent occurrence... and keeps us from being 100% sure.

The obvious differences that can be seen with the kit installed centers around the AN fitting junctions. This information is based on what we know of the kit we have in our possession. There are already photographs on TwinTurbo.NET suggesting there are a couple different versions of counterfeits that have been sold. We will try to cover this to the best of our ability.

A true 300 Degree AN junction will look like one of these two:

They are really both the same as far as the fitting and the rail are concerned. The top image is of the older version of our kit which included an O ring as a secondary seal to the primary AN fitting's seal. The bottom image is the newer version which does not use an O ring at all. The AN fitting is the primary and only seal. Notice there's still a gap between the fitting and the face of the rail where the O ring would have been compressed. We decided a few lots back to stop including the O rings all together. They had become 'throw in' parts to the kit and were not functioning as they were intended since we started shipping kits. They provided some amount of seal, but not enough to stop a high pressure leak. We depend on the AN junction to hold the pressurized fuel, which it has done for the military aviation community, the commercial aviation community, and other high performance/pressure fluid handling systems for decades.

To the best of our knowledge, the counterfeits all look like this:

The end of the threaded hole for the AN fitting has an enlarged chamfer on it so the O ring can squash into it. Notice the fitting will butt up against the face of the rail. Our production parts do not do this with or without an O ring.

Allegedly, this 'modification' was to stop leaks with our kits. We don't believe this to be true. The 'modification' is more likely because the counterfeit rails do not have a proper AN fitting port and the O ring is required as the primary seal. From what we've seen on the parts we have and from pictures depicting worse on TwinTurbo.NET of other counterfeits from the same source, it would be impossible for the AN fitting to seal per AN specifications. On top of this, the enlarged chamfer faces have machine tool marks on them and has already nicked at least one of the O rings in the kit we have, weakening it. Also, the pre assembled kits have teflon tape on the included AN fittings. This is a universally bad practice with fuel system fittings of any kind and ineffective with straight AN fitting threads.

snippet from the 300 Degree HPFR support forum:

• AN Fittings are designed to create a seal themselves... - Biz(MD) 23:20:50 03/22/07
  • This is correct, no teflon needed at all. (n/m) - Coz@CZP 00:10:15 03/23/07

Another trait of the counterfeits that is easy to spot when installed is the finish.

Our rails are plated for corrosion protection and have a satin finish as seen on the left. The counterfeits are not plated and are shinier as seen on the right.

It has been alleged our kits leak and the counterfeits do not. Unfortunately, it seems quite the opposite is true. We have not heard of anyone who could not stop a leak with the rails by simply tightening the AN fittings further until a solid seal was attained. If this were not the case, 300 Degree states in the instructions that are included in every kit we sell: "If you have ANY questions about installation/configuration please email us directly at sales@300degree.com we will answer or engage in discussions promptly." and "All merchandise manufactured by 300 Degree is warranted against defects in workmanship and materials. If an item is suspected of being defective, return it within thirty days from the shipping date on your package to 300 Degree for inspection ...". We openly encourage customers to get in contact with us if they are having any sort of difficulties during installation. We have not replaced any HPFR components due to leaks. We spoke to each of our authorized distributors whom most are also installers and Z1 Motorsports, who has installed several 300 Degree HPFR kits on customer cars. Unanimously they tell us customer problems with leaks were due to improper installation with the resolution being to simply tighten the AN fittings more. Even in our internet support forum, leaks are solved by tightening the fittings. Not by adding O rings or teflon tape. The counterfeit kits are now reported in several cases on TwinTurbo.NET to leak and cause the installers much extra time wasted in an effort to seal the rails by other means.

In conclusion: no possibility of a solid AN seal, utilization of an O ring in a manner where it is expected to fail as the primary seal over time, tool marks cutting into the primary sealing O rings, ineffective teflon tape and a now public track record of leaking fuel... Please be cautious with these parts if you decide for some reason to keep them installed. 300 Degree will not be held liable for any damages or expenses incurred from use of these parts.

If you find you have counterfeit parts please contact us at sales@300degree.com to let us know. You did not receive the engineered quality 300 Degree kit you purchased and will have less performance and a potentially serious safety hazard on your hands. We are working on a resolution for those that are affected.