Maybe I'll give it another shot. I was looking at the wheel well and it doesn't look too difficult to take off. Just some pop rivets and screws. So, is the only point of removing that bracket with the 4 bolts to spray WD40 on those heatshield bolts? Because you said to reach through the wheel well to get them off.

Any tips for getting the bolt off the back of the O2 housing itself? The one that everyone on this thread has said is the most difficult. Man, I sure hope this mod is worth it because so far it's turning out to be a huge pain.

 

No, don't take apart the wheel well, there is plenty of room to stick you arm through.

The bolts at the back I approached with a mirror, just to get he wrench head on it. The good part is on the AMS one it's much easier to get those back ones back in.

Oh, and I ended up removing the bracket from the block just to get the AMS one back in, but it was a pain to put the bracket back. Maybe you could just loosen it a bit to have some wriggle room to slide the AMS housing in.

 

Sorry, I misunderstood you. I guess I would have some room to maneuver if I took the wheel off of the car. I got frustrated as hell trying to put the downpipe on last night, so today I put on my Ultimate Racing test pipe instead. I thought my car was loud before with my Buschur CBE. But it's even louder with the test pipe. Now it sounds pretty mean I think.

I have an auto-x event next weekend, so I'll probably attempt the downpipe again in a couple of weeks. I might try to recruit a friend to help speed the process too. Thanks for the advice.

 

Use "liquid wrench" it works better than wd-40. Use alot of it! Let the fluid sit there for a bit before unbolting. Use a tortch and heat up the surrounding areas if it is really stuck. Use a breaker bar or use a "cheater bar", so you can apply more torque on the bolt, so you dont break them. If you break the bolts you will have to drill them and tap them out.

Make sure you apply some grease like "copper coat" when you put it all back together! Put lots of copper coat, so they dont seize up next time!

 

A couple bolts don't allow the use of a breaker bar because the bar is so large. A few bolts are in tight spots with not a lot of room. That's the problem.

 

When you get to the last difficult bolt, try wiggling the 02 housing back and forth. This helps to loosen things up a bit. This also works with the heat shields where one of the bolts are difficult to get to.

 

Can someone who has finished installing this please post up the total time spent on the install?

Thanks!

 

Noise and I installed two ultimate racing 02 down pipes over the weekend. First one took about 6-7 hours going slow and taking our time, second one about 4 hours (due to power outage and working in the dark).

Key Points IMHO are:

- Use lots of penetrating oil
- Make sure everything is "sat over night" cold
- use hightemp anti seize when putting it all back together
- Yes the nut on the driver side of the houseing is a pain in the ***, you need a long handle, offset, gear wrench to get that one.
- Go around and break all bolts and the one nut loose before removing any of them, add more penetrating oil after you break them loose.
- Remove the bolts SLOWLY so as not to cause heat build up in the bolt (this will lock them down and lead to snapping)

 

I started Friday by spraying penetrating old. Took me all Saturday to remove the old one. Took me all Sunday to put the new one back. But... I'm old and slow and worked alone plus I watched a couple of baseball and basketball games in between. A skillful and motivated helper is definitely a plus.

 

it took me about 4 hrs to install my Ultimate Racing one in my garage using hand tools and on my back... My buddy just got his installed at a shop and it took them 2 1/2 hrs with a lift...

 

Damn 4-6 hours on a downpipe, this is scaring me

 

If you've done any DIY work on your car in the past, you'll know that 4 - 6 hours pass by way faster than you think, you'll enjoy it.

 

Yes, it is not an "easy" job to say in the least. The problem is that the turbo is on the back side of our motors. It makes maneuvering difficult, and some of the nuts and bolts are just hard to get leverage on.

I promise all of you that tonight I will post detailed pictures of the whole assembly so you know where to look when you do yours. I'm sorry it's taken this long to get around to it, but I actually had a slight change in plans (since the turbo was out) so I'm waiting to put "a" turbo back in there this week

- Louis

 

took me about 4-5 hrs (ETS O2/DP) with a lot of cursing!

 

yea... normally i can spend hours on end on my car and it IS fun.. This job however is far from fun. I always volunteer to help with installs and such, but this one was a job i swore to myself I'd never do again!!!!








... unless i got paid a billion dollars!