Dax951

My new SFR exhaust and testpipe should be arriving Monday. My mechanic won't install it, so I'm going to have to take a whack at it myself. I hear it's easy, but I'm not a mechanic.

Anything I should keep in mind?

I'm going to get some jack stands and a 1' extender for my ratchet. Anything else I need? Should I get replacement bolts? What size are they?

I was thinking of enlisting help from some of my more mechanically inclined friends, but I kind of wanted to tackle this myself. Am I crazy?

Thanks!

adrial

No, not crazy, but from what I hear it couldn't hurt to soak the bolts in penetrating oil overnight....

Perry 951

Yea.. some good jack stands, 10, 15, and 17mm wrenches and some good penetrating oil. Toss some anti-size on the bolts too on install.

Getting the downpipe out is real fun. You have to twist and wiggle many diffrent ways to get it out.

Not a hard job at all.

tecart

the toughest bolts are the ones that connect the back of the converter to the muffler pipe section, their are 4 big bolts and tough to break loose, but if you got the elbow room easy with a breaker bar about 1 foot long, also dont reuse these bolt as the will be rusted and stripped after you take em off, goto sears and get the same size ones and new stainless washers too, the 3 upper bolts that hold the upper downpipe on are reusable and they dont rust bad, they come off with pressure and 1 is hidden but use a flashlight and you can get it, no special tools needed for those 3 either just a long extension, and make sure to reuse the metal "O" ring in the end of it it may fall out but prob. wont, again the 3 bolts here are special and can be reused

Luke

You'll most deffinately need a torch on the header bolts. And you'll probably snap a couple of them.

Perry 951

Luke..

How many times you gonna change your screen name? <img src="graemlins/c.gif" border="0" alt="[ouch]" />

&lt;EDIT&gt;
Oh.. check that out. It was post "930". 951 is just around the corner.

Skip

I'm 5 hours north of you, but you're certainly welcome to park in my spot. Got all the tools and half the brain-cells needed for this sort of operation Still haven't swept the floor from the last exhaust install.

[EDIT] Oops... here's my big tip to ya: Eye protection!

Skip

TurboTim

First off, you will not have to touch the headers when you put on the testpipe, downpipe or cat-back so you dont have to worry about snapping those studs:^)

Here are a few tricks to installing the exhaust.Remember our exhaust contain two slip fit connections.One of the testpipe and one on the cat-back.This allows alot of adjustment when fitting the exhaust.

For starters, put the testpipe on first and bolt it to the factory hangers.Put the slip fit on the testpipe and leave it loose.If you have an 87' or later model you will have to remove the hanger for the cat-back piping from the torque tube(by loosening the two 13mm nuts and bolts), flip it around and slide it as far back as you can get it.Do not just pull the hanger out of the rubber mount because the whole hanger assembly has to be moved back on the later model cars. Put the cat-back on and bolt it to the four bolt flange.Put the muffler on.Bolt on the hangers for the muffler. Now you can adjust the fit of the cat-back piping so it clears the sway bars and torsion bar assembly.One note here though.If you are doing this on jack stands or a lift that doesnt compress the suspension, the cat-back piping might come in contact with the CV joint.This is ok since the suspension is in an uncompressed state. Once the car is back on the ground it will clear the CV joint with ease.The final step is to tighten the two slip fit connections using the appropriate clamps.Thats it.It is really a piece of cake if you do it in the order I described. If you have any questions cal us. Take care.

Dax951

Thanks for everyone's help! I'm going to hook up with a friend of mine and use his Uncle's lift for the operation. Exhaust should be here on Monday, so I'll probably be driving down there some time next week (hopefully I'll be able to drive myself back too!)

Thanks again,
-D