Fitting an aftermarket twin exhaust

Anonymous · December 22, 2003, 08:41

I have done a couple of searches but cant seem to find an install guide of any sort for removal of stock and then fitting an aftermarket exhaust?

has anyone written such a beast? and if so can you point me to the right thread please

many thanks

perry

Slacey · December 22, 2003, 08:43

Check out the 'Articles' section at w www.spydermagazine.com w - there are a couple of useful bits there.

Anonymous · December 22, 2003, 08:47

cheers matey s;-) ;-) s;-) :-) :-) :-)

Anonymous · December 23, 2003, 21:07

perry be wanred the 2 dosent talk back when your pleading for answeres like

"how dose your bumper come off"

Liz · December 24, 2003, 01:04

Haven't you put it on yet Buster s:roll: :roll: s:roll:

Anonymous · December 24, 2003, 07:36

Have decided to fit the exhaust at the same time as the Trial kit as the bumper will be off anyway. Kit goes in for spraying on monday, so the following weekend I'll be fitting kit, rims and zaust all in one hit! (tired just thinking about it s:? :? s:? )

Slacey · December 24, 2003, 07:49

Quote from: "perry190"...so the following weekend I'll be fitting kit, rims and zaust all in one hit!

Are you doing the kit yourself, or the bodyshop?

Anonymous · December 24, 2003, 07:52

body shop spraying, fitting myself.

Slacey · December 24, 2003, 08:12

I wish I had the competence to try stuff like that myself s:? :? s:?

markiii · December 24, 2003, 08:14

just wait til you get the garage, and teh RX7, ot's amazing how much more confidence you get when you know your not against a deadline to get it back together :-) :-) :-)

Slacey · December 24, 2003, 08:20

Quote from: "markiii"just wait til you get the garage, and teh RX7, ot's amazing how much more confidence you get when you know your not against a deadline to get it back together :-) :-) :-)

LOL! You could be right....

Anonymous · December 24, 2003, 08:22

Very very true! Since we moved to a place with a garage I've been a great deal more adventurous, plus I've been 'modding' motas for a good few years now (I'm an old bugger!)

year before last I cut two circular holes in the hatch of my then 18 month old celica to take round fogs with leds around them with only a 2mm tollerance for mistakes s:? :? s:? but after the first time taking almost all day measuring/re-measuring I was knoocking out club cars in about two hours :-) :-) :-)

the more you try the more confident you get, thats not saying everything I tried was a success s:oops: :oops: s:oops:

Slacey · December 24, 2003, 08:35

Quote from: "perry190"the more you try the more confident you get, thats not saying everything I tried was a success s:oops: :oops: s:oops:

Come on then Perry, spill the beans!

heathstimpson · December 24, 2003, 08:57

Quote from: "Slacey"
Quote from: "perry190"the more you try the more confident you get, thats not saying everything I tried was a success s:oops: :oops: s:oops:
Come on then Perry, spill the beans!

Hear, hear. The horror stories are much more fun s:lol: :lol: s:lol:

Anonymous · December 24, 2003, 10:19

Ok , OK s:lol: :lol: s:lol:

decided to do away with the double din adaptor plate that was at the time taking my single din HU and mould a 6.5" alpine screen into the dash and have a slot above it for the HU where a cubby cupboard usually is.

Spent ages wrapping the screen in masking tape and proceeding to mould the required shape with filler etc, finished aticle looked the dogs so not wishing to delay my moment of glory any more I proceeded to spray the whole thing in body colour/lacquer

voila! finished aticle ready to go back in the car :-) :-) :-)

As I was clipping it all back in place CRACK! the filler split along the whole width of the console s:cry: :cry: s:cry: lesson to be learnt? use FG or at least some mesh in with the filler.

Not to be put off by this minor set back I proceeded to dig out the cracked filler and mesh/fill it again s:? :? s:? , plus spraying it all over again as well.

Voila! Mk 2 console looking good and ready to go in :-) :-) :-)

clipped it back into place (carefully!) and there she was a master piece of modern day engineering :-) :-) :-) Last thing left to do was to slip the hU into place and off we go...................... s:roll: :roll: s:roll:

HU went two thirds of the way in and stopped???, pulled it out and checked to make sure the wiring loom wasnt fouling some where and tried again, nope want having it s:x :x s:x

After pulling the whole thing apart whilst making sure I didnt crack it a second time I checked out the space behind the console.

Some how I had failed to notice the 'scaffold tube' type bar that goes the full length of the dash and couldnt possibly allow a HU to be in the required location s:cry: :cry: s:cry: s:cry: :cry: s:cry: s:cry: :cry: s:cry:

To cut a long story short I had to re-do the whole thing again but with the HU angled downwards to miss this bar

Lesson 2 to be learnt? LOOK FIRST !!!

I'm sure the whole thing was about 3mm thicker with paint by the time I had finished s:lol: :lol: s:lol:

aaronjb · December 24, 2003, 10:37

Pictures! Pictures! We want pictures!

s;)

s;)

Sounds good though - also sounds like you're rather handy at this kinda thing.

[edit] You already posted pics of the console you did in the Celica didn't you.. d'oh s:D

s:D Still, if thats one of your 'failures'... s:)

s:) [/edit]

Anonymous · December 24, 2003, 11:38

Thats the one :-) :-) :-)

Anonymous · December 24, 2003, 16:11

Yeah done loads of screen in dash installs but i never use filler all the way ! LOL s:lol: :lol: s:lol:

Always use FG with a good solid mesh and then get eth basic shape with MDF then mould it all around that like a shell !

It's raely easy once you get the hang of! i had loads of good adivce and teaching from my old boss and company but sadly i dont work there any more and only do the odd private job now and again but you never lose the skills s:wink: :wink: s:wink:

Slacey · December 24, 2003, 16:50

Quote from: "Buster"i had loads of good adivce and teaching from my old boss and company

But YOU are the teacher now, oh wise man of ICE s:lol: :lol: s:lol:

Anonymous · December 30, 2003, 12:55

fitting the exhaust at the mo, could I just confirm with anyone whos done this

once the cat/down pipe is dissconnected from the box, it is held in place by the three bolts that are up high? dont want to crack these (iffy shoulder at the mo) if I dont have to s:? :? s:?

Anonymous · December 30, 2003, 13:49

to top it off my 14mm socket isnt long enough s:cry: :cry: s:cry: the bolt sticks out so far the socket wont get a good grip on it,b will have to try and source a longer socket...buggery bollox s:evil: :evil: s:evil:

Anonymous · December 30, 2003, 20:10

not that anybody answered s:cry: :cry: s:cry: but the exhaust is on now. that has got to be one of the most fiddly exhaust I've ever done, but alls well that ends well :-) :-) :-)

Anonymous · December 30, 2003, 22:35

any chance of a detailed explination or a trade for me doinf some of ya ICE for an exhaust fitting LOL s:lol: :lol: s:lol:

Anonymous · December 31, 2003, 01:04

I'll do a write up as soon as I get a chance, to be truthful when the stock one goes back on I'll get Mr T to do it, its a regal pain in the arse on your own. really needs two people to balance the cat/down pipe when refitting, but saying that I would be happy to give you a hand matey

Anonymous · December 31, 2003, 15:37

Quote from: "Buster"any chance of a detailed explination or a trade for me doinf some of ya ICE for an exhaust fitting LOL s:lol: :lol: s:lol:

s:roll: :roll: s:roll: No pics I'm afraid as it was freezing and I just wanted to get it done!

but heres a bit of a guide:- s:D

s:D

Having read a few exhaust install guides on 'spyderchat' etc I thought I would add my own for our site detailing the way I did it. That's not to say it's the only way, but it worked for me s;-) ;-) s;-)

Removing the stock exhaust and replacing with a twin exit unit.

Firstly you need to remove the 'nappy' or engine plastics to allow you access to the engine bay from underneath. There are a succession of bolts along the bottom edge of the rear bumper and also a few further forward more centrally located.

You need to fully remove the plastic panel that is furthest to the rear and at least partially undo the second panel that sits midway under the engine. Removing the secondary panel completely will increase access and allow a better view of the manifold but I managed ok with just some bolts removed and it pulled out of the way.

You will need to raise the car about 8" of the deck to be able to drop the OEM exhaust so you might as well do that now.

Some guides suggest that you remove a tail light at this point to gain access to one of the hangers/heat shield and 02 sensor wiring, I found that this wasn't necessary and I just removed one of the heat shield bolts and bent it back out of the way. (the heat shield is a shiny metal sheet and sits to the left of the drivers side tail light assembly)

To remove the exhaust (silencer and tail pipe) you will need to firstly remove the catalytic converter and down pipe (one complete part) this is fixed both at the manifold by three 14mm nuts/studs and by two bolts with springs to the exhaust and also a single rubber hanger.

The nuts at the manifold end have studs protruding quite a way out from the centre of the nuts, I found that my standard 14mm socket couldn't get a good 'bite' on the nuts as the stud was stopping it reaching onto the nuts. Once I had purchased an extended 14mm socket it wasn't a problem (£2.80 from my local motor factors)

You may also find that rather than the nut coming undone, the actual stud may undo from the manifold, this isn't a problem and you shouldn't concern yourself if this happens.

Once these three nuts/studs have been removed you can move onto the two spring bolts that fix the catalytic converter to the exhaust itself. BEFORE removing these you should note that there is an 02 sensor protruding from the cat with wires running up into the engine bay, consequently once completely undone the cat will be hanging by these wires and damage could be done. Once I had removed the two spring bolts and the hanger (taking the weight of the cat/down pipe) I swung the whole thing around to the side of the car by the near side wheel and sat the cat on a six pack of john smiths smooth  This was exactly the right height to ensure the wires weren't put under pressure and it was stable enough for the whole thing to sit happily whilst I removed the actual exhaust.

Once the cat/down pipe is removed the exhaust will only be fixed by the black rubber exhaust hangers, what order you remove these is up to you but you should ensure that you are in a position to take the weight of the exhaust when the last one is released. (take time to have a good look around to see where they are all located)

Removing exhaust hangers/rubbers is basically a right pain in the proverbial , they are very stiff and determined not to slip off easily. I have always found it easier to slip a flat bladed screw driver in between the rubber and the peg on which it is hanging (so that the tip of the screw driver comes out towards the end of the peg) Once through you can then use the tip of the peg as a fulcrum and lever the rubber over and off the peg.

Some people spray where the peg meets the rubber with WD40 to ease the process, I prefer not to do this as slipping screw drivers can cause some nasty stabbing injuries as I'm sure we've all experienced.

Once all the hangers have been undone the exhaust will be free to drop down away from the engine and in my case it sat happily on the rear sway bar (black bar bolted onto both sides of the chassis with two 14mm bolts and a metal/rubber bracket each side.

One of the guides I read suggested that you need to remove the sway bar at this point to enable removal of the exhaust. I personally found that with a bit of effort (brute force) the exhaust would gradually come down past the bar and away from the car.

That's your exhaust removed 

(if you find that the rubber exhaust hangers are just to much hassle to remove you can easily slice through them with a craft knife, however you will need replacements to re-hang you new exhaust! They are available off the shelf at your local Halfords, just remember to take examples with you to ensure you get the right sizes)

Fitting a new twin exit exhaust

Fitting is basically the reverse of removal however with a twin exit exhaust you will receive an additional metal peg on a bracket and an extra rubber hanger, this is to take the weight of the extra tail pipe section (or at least I did with the magnex)

To fit the metal bracket you undo one of the sway bar bolts (14mm) on the drivers side (the furthest towards the rear) place the bracket over the hole and replace the bolt.

You will also need to cut the plastic under tray 'nappy' to ensure that it does not make contact with the new tail pipe. I found that if you cut it so that it is symmetrical with the passenger side it will be well clear. You can easily cut it with a sturdy pair of scissors or a craft knife.

When replacing the cat/down pipe section check to make sure that the two gaskets at the manifold end and one at the exhaust end are in place either on the pipe you have removed or on the manifold itself. I found that one stayed in place on the manifold and one fell off, I just replaced it onto the pipe (ensuring it was on the correct side – not where the other one was already) and rebolted the pipe to the manifold.

Of course I carried out this exercise on a car with less than 200 miles on the clock, so I fortunately didn't encounter any rust or damage to studs,nuts or bolts etc. If you do however find this then the replacement part codes are as follows:-

Cat to exhaust manifold nuts (3)   90179-10070
Cat to exhaust manifold studs (3)   90116-10146
Cat to exhaust manifold gaskets (2)   90917-06065
Cat to exhaust gasket (1)      17451-22060
Cat to exhaust bolts (2)      90901-05020
Cat to exhaust springs) (2)      90501-35036

(part numbers courtesy of spyderchat)

Lastly check the alignment of the tips, you will find that there is quite a bit of adjustment if you wriggle all the hangers about and also adjust the new bracket fixed to the sway bar bolt.

Your new exhaust will probably smell a little at first but this will soon go

Hope the above is of some use to anyone considering fitting their own exhaust, it would have been a lot easier with two people but it is doable on your own just takes a little longer :-) :-) :-)