DeweyD

This will be more of a lessons learned guide based on my personal experiences with this install, rather than a detailed step-by-step how to. I did this on jackstands in my garage by myself, pretty much relying on other how to guides. There was a lot of improvisation involved as well.

Overall it wasn't that difficult, but I took my time and kept making trips to the hardware store to get different tools to try. My car is a 2012 GSR with about 30K miles on it.

Lesson 1: Give yourself room
Remove everything you can to give yourself space to work. This means at a minimum the strut bar and the upper intercooler pipe. I also removed the intake all the way back to the compressor inlet. This will give your arms room to move and get leverage. I recommend covering the compressor outlets and inlets with a plastic bag or aluminum foil to keep debris out.



Lesson 2: PB Blaster
I knew to use this going in, but it absolutely is amazing. Don't be shy, soak the housing bolts, the housing nut, and all the heatshield bolts. Let it sit overnight. Then use more. You wont be able to see some of the nuts and bolts so feel with your fingers and try to get the PB Blaster hose in there and spray. While some of the heatshields were tricky due to leverage issues, the infamous housing bolts and the nut came off like butter.

Lesson 3: Heatshields
The most annoying part in my opinion was getting all the heatshields off. The exhaust manifold shield and the firewall shield are easy, but there were numerous shields covering the stock downpipe itself that had to come off. Don't try and fool yourself into thinking you can leave some on, they will get in the way when you try to pull the pipe out. You will be under the car for most of these and they are hard to reach. There are some very difficult 12mm bolts on the bottom of the O2 housing heatshields. I bought a ratcheting 12mm cross force wrench to take these off, the cross force wrench was a little longer than a standard 12mm wrench for better leverage, and the twisted shaft is more comfortable to pull on with your fingers. In addition to the downpipe heatshields there is a shield over the passenger side axle attached to the transfer case that needs to come off (it will go back on after the install).



Lesson 4: Extensions and going through the wheel well
Most of the housing bolts can be reached from the top of the car. I found it easier to get some of the lower bolts from under the car. A variety of extensions will let you reach them. You can also use a couple feet of extensions and go in through the passenger wheel well. Attached is what the bolt heads look like peering in through the wheel well, you will need to remove some plastic trim as well. A housing bolt and the bracket bolt can be seen right above the axle boot.





Lesson 5: Remove the stock downpipe in 2 parts
I tried to wiggle the downpipe out still assembled. I was almost able to get it out but in the end I decided it was easier to just remove the spring bolts and take the pipe and O2 housing out separately. The AMS downpipe is less curvy and has a nice flex joint, so sliding it back in was easier than trying to get the stock one out.

Lesson 6: The housing nut
This one was intimidating. While you can get a breaker bar in to attack the bolts with extensions, the nut is hard to reach. In fact you can't even really see it. Make sure you've hit it with PB blaster and let it soak. I went in through the top of the car and was able to use a flex-head ratcheting wrench and wiggle the head onto the nut using my fingers. The wrench isn't very long and still barely cleared the fire wall. I was able to force the nut off despite the lack of leverage. If yours is frozen you may need to improvise.

Here are some additional pictures from the install...

Removed DP view. The lowest hole on the image is where the stud/nut combo was. All of the other holes used bolts.


AMS Pipe reattached

Overall the removal isn't that bad if you are willing to take your time. If the car is your DD I wouldn't recommend it unless you have a lift and some help. It took me 3 days (8 hours in total) if you include PB Blaster soak time. If I think of anything else important I will post it. Let me know if you have any questions!

beetle_orange

iTrader: (58)

The bottom heatshield is a pain in the *** but with the right tool should be a breeze. I used an extra long box wrench accessing it from the passenger wheel well and it came right off.