so i was looking under the hood again, and i notice that i can see the top flange of the factory down pipe, and the nuts/bolts that are holding it together. My question is this.. is it possible to swap out for test pipes WITHOUT having a lift? assume i can get the car up enough for me to get under it, is it feesable to even attempt this? or would it be a huge waste of time?

 

You will need jackstands on both sides of the frame to bring the whole front of the car up. DO NOT even think of crawling under there without jackstands on the lifting points. Actually, for about 30-45 minutes of rack time, any local exhaust shop could put them in ($40-60). Not really worth getting crushed or injured for. And you have a receipt if anything gets screwed up, their insurance pays. If you screw it up, you pay.

 

true. I would NEVER go under the car w/o jackstands.

i was just thinking that if i have to take them (test pipes) off for any reason, could I do it? but, yeah i guess the 40$ would be alot easier.

 

I'm hoping to throw on some test pipes before I go to the track (road course) in a couple weeks but was wondering a few things..

1-Who sells the cheapest test pipes that fit? It doesn't have to sound good, I like a raw engine sound and it's just for the track anyway (unless I really like them )

2-How hard is the install? Do I have to mess with the O2 sensor? Can gaskets be reused, or could I at least just use the old ones on the track and then change back to new ones when I put the cats back on? I have plenty of tools I'm hoping to do this myself...

Thanks for any help

 

depending on what year your g is you might throw a cel with test pipes. theres a fix for this..i think it had something to do with nonfouls or something..

since you dont really care about sound then IMO test pipes are test pipes

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...MEWA:IT&ih=014

 

Thanks... I did some more searching, all I need to know now is how hard are they to install, and how hard is it to drill out the 1/2" hole in the non-foulers, do you need a drill press or can you do it by hand?

 

not too hard to install, it's a real tight fit to get to the upper nuts but other then that it's easy. like you mentioned, you need to get the upper nuts from the top, so you need to remove the intake pipe for access. You'll need a long extension for your ratchet, I think a 24". Also a flex head ratcheting gearwrench will make things a little easier. I think it took me around 1 to 2 hours? for drilling out the non-foulers, you don't need a drill press, you can do it by hand, just hold the fitting in a bench vise. if that's not available, you can put it in a socket to hold it and stand on the handle and drill. The easiest way is to work your way up to the final size using each drill bit in a progressively larger size.

 

Okay I have an mrev2, 5/16" spacer, and the dreaded ebay test pipes (and hopefully clear corners) waiting for me two hours away and I'm going to try to install them tonight. Is it any easier to access the upper downpipe/testpipe bolts while all crap is already off of the engine for the mrev2 install? I might actually just do the mrev2 because I have to have everything together by tomorrow morning. Anyway I thought I'd bump this thread so I can find it later when I'm having trouble with the install

 

I have seen it done and you are going to need some long extension tools. If not just pay and get it done.

 

Alright I successfully got the cats off the car! All you need really is a 24" extension and a swivel joint and maybe a couple little extensions/adapters depending on what tools you have. Anyway I got one test pipe on hand tight and I'm about to go do the other one, but I need torque specs. Does anyone know the torque specs for the test pipes?

Also I bought the non-foulers and drilled the holes, but when I stick the O2 sensor through, only the end of it is exposed (it has a tiny hole on the end), but not the sides at all. Is this how it's supposed to be? Or is there supposed to be a little bit of air around the sides of the sensors?

I mostly just want the torque specs.... any help would be much appreciated

 

The nuts going onto the studs of the exhaust manifolds are 46 pounds. The o2 sensors(if these were being placed in to the stock cats) are 33 pounds. The nuts going over the studs connecting to the stock ypipe are 39 pounds.

Here are stock FSM diagrams:

 

thanks... I got them on and torqued down as well as I could considering how many different ratchet pieces I had hooked together.

The eBay test pipes barely fit, I had to pull the y-pipe as hard as I could just to get the bolt through, but once they were on there they tightened alright, it didn't seem like anything was being stressed too badly. It sounds AWESOME, way better than I thought, no 'ricey honda' sound at all.

A couple things though.... when I rev it up it sounds great, but then when the revs are coming back down there is a little hissing noise. Is this a leak? I had a leak on my WRX and it sounded nothing like this. I'm not too worried about it though cause it actually sounds kinda cool Second, there is more smoke and water (at least I hope it's water ) coming out of the exhaust than I thought there would be, is this normal?

 

the hiss is normal. at least for these pipes. the water sounds right too, due to the no "cat".

 

Water is normal with the cat actually. A byproduct of the catalytic process is water. My guess is the water he's seeing was some residual water left in the muffler prior to removing the cats.

 

Just pray that your bolts aren't rusted because while it says the torque range is 33-49lbs, it's often a lot more after all that heat soaking and rust build up. This weekend I tried to swap out a muffler donut gasket on my friends 01 Maxima and the two muffler nuts/stud were rusted fairly badly and my friend's 250 lb/ft impact wrench couldn't break the nuts loose that were only suppose to be on there at 28 lb/ft. I tried my 18" breaker bar, but it was clear if I really forced it, the nut would get rounded off.