Hopefully going to get all this put on tomorrow... -brake pads -Kartboy rear endlinks -STi rear sway bar -STi quad tips (new hangers and donut gasket from my trip to GS today) Only thing I’m nervous about is performing surgery on my rear bumper to get those to fit since I don’t want the droopy exhaust hanging down.
Brakes and sway bar/end links are done, waiting while the bolts for the muffler soak in a gallon of PB Blaster. They are not budging.
Rears off, sheared the bolts that have the spring on them to connect the mid pipe. Looks like I’ll be taking a trip to the dealership...boo!
Well, it’s all hooked up, have an exhaust leak at the mid pipe/downpipe junction. Used a Grimmspeed donut, torqued it down to what they said on the Foz forum...14 lbs/ft. in the front, 34 in the rear. Thoughts? I don’t want to overtorque the spring bolts, considering they were 50 bucks at the dealership. Looks/sounds great besides that!
Consider disassembly as MAYBE the gasket didn't seat 100% correctly. I remember torquing the heck out of ours.
Think I'll need a new donut since it's a crush type one if I disassemble? I'm just nervous to torque the heck out of those bolts, they're really skinny on the nut side. End pipes are a bit longer than the Foz ones, so they stick out about an inch past the rear bumper. Luckily it was cold out when I was doing it so I could see the leak though. Only thing I can think of is that I had to jam that donut on since the old one rusted in place, and I tried to clean off the flakes from the old one best I could. I may take it up to a friend of the family's who works at a muffler shop and see what he says.
If you need new bolts, Dorman makes them and you can get them on Amazon for less than $7 prime... https://www.amazon.com/Dorman-03114...114&qid=1584587447&sprefix=dorman+0311&sr=8-1 Just bought a pair recently and they worked great. Didn't know of any special torque spec so just tightened them til the nut hit the shoulder on the bolt I believe. Also, if it's the donut style gasket and you're anywhere near me, I've got a new one you could probably just have. I bought it for my job but ended up reusing the old one with no issues.
Funny 2 ppl now saying just torque them. I'll try tightening them up tomorrow and see what happens. Other thing I've read is just don't tighten them all the way down, the spring is supposed to provide the seal, not the bolt.
I actually use high temp copper rtv instead of gaskets on mine, but they're also flat flanges. Works awesome.
Well, I decided to tear it all apart and start anew. There was some rust buildup at the downpipe that I think was inhibiting a seal. Wire brush and sandpaper later, used some vise grips to keep the pipes aligned, and now there's no leak! Car sounds a LOT better. Pretty smelly/smoky on cold starts, but it goes away. Hope that's usual with the STi setup. Super nice rumble up to about 3k, then tapers off so you can't really hear it. There is drone, but I think I'll get used to it. STi rear swaybar and the Kartboy endlinks are working really nice! Next on the list a little down the road is I think I'm going to look for some WRX/STi seats for the front (driver's side is sagging due to a broken weld in the seat). Overall, I'm super excited with the new setup. I know it took a little longer than a "weekend project", but it was a PITA to get apart (had to cut all 4 muffler bolts, both spring bolts sheared off, had to cut 2 of the exhaust hangers rubbers off, bolts from the endlinks to the swaybar were rusted and the allen bolt wouldn't move...). Word of advice for anyone doing this...the muffler moves A LOT between tightening and fully tightening, so my cutouts are a little off kilter. I may try to think of something to dress it up a little in the future, but the cutouts are clean, even, and there's no rubbing.
Sounds like a typical day working on anything on the underside of my car. Hooray for a 17 year old MN car. Pics of finished product?
Here ya go. Yeah, around 1500 RPM the drone is pretty loud. Less when your foot is on the gas. Still loving the rumblez! If I get sick of the drone, I guess that's what they made radios for! Side showing the pokey from the bumper STi Sway Bar and Kartboy endlinks with my ghetto STi RSB hanger (with a peek of the Pedders springs)
After driving for a while, I guess I'm running into the car not liking not having a cat. CEL/TCS/Cruise lighting up. Looks like I need one of those things to fool the ECU. Or if anyone has an Accessport that I can use to flash my car do you think that would work? V003-sub3.
I'm guessing you lost a cat in the exhaust swap? Is there a place to put the O2 sensor in the "new" exhaust? If so, I'm guessing the non-fouler trick would work. It's quite simple.
Yes, after what I was reading, switching to the STi exhaust removes the only cat (unless there's one in the downpipe). Car is not tuned, and that's why I was asking if anyone had an AP that I could borrow to at least get a Cobb map. Don't really have an extra 3-700 bucks laying around for a tune/AP. I guess that I'll have to try to figure out the spacer/defouler for the O2 sensor.
I believe they can be had at just about any parts store. Here's a pretty good write up. https://forums.nasioc.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1473769
