I promised at the onset of creating my account that I would include posts about DIY Car Installations

Well, after a few months of being on Steemit, and a few more months after having purchased my new exhaust, I finally had the time to Install it on my car!

Step 1: Elevate the Vehicle

I went out in the morning with my wife to pick up some supplies from Lowe's for a project she's working on (building built-in bookshelves), and on the way we picked up some ramps and wheel blocks for me :)

Make sure that your car is securely situated on Ramps (or jack stands), and make sure that your front wheels are blocked correctly before you do ANY work on your car. If you put your car up on 4 jack stands, then you don't really need to worry about blocking the front wheels.. However, I wouldn't be exerting a whole lot of energy on removing parts from the car either (in case the car slides off from the jack stands and falls ... ).

I've gotta say that these ramps worked awesome for this job, however, a professional car lift would have been more helpful. Especially for loosening the bolts connecting the Mid-Pipe to my High-Flow-Cat (HFC) (Catalytic Converter). More about that later.

Step 2: Inspecting some Exhaust Parts

I bought a new TurboXS Catback Exhaust System. I already have a downpipe and HFC installed. This is replacing my Extreme Turbo Systems (ETS) V2 "Quiet" Exhaust, which is anything but quiet! I love the exhaust, but I can't drive my infant son around so I need to change out the exhaust for a lower decibel emitting exhaust.

If your Box looks as beat up as this one, I highly suggest CLOSELY inspecting every single item that is included in the package. I made the silly mistake of only inspecting the Muffler Section of this Exhaust when I ordered it in May. Thankfully, that section was VERY well-protected. However, the smaller parts were not as lucky..

This piece is meant to be a little malleable, but it's supposed to generally be round ... I'll have to fix this up before I can attach the two mid-pipe sections together with this piece.

The first mid-pipe section looks a little bent, but is good enough for me to not complain.

The second mid-pipe section looks much better, although I wouldn't exactly consider this "round" either.

All Better!! With the help of my handy dandy hammer, and part of the wrapping the exhaust came with, I was able to round out the connector =D.

Getting this to work, and fit, was a big deal for me. I showed this part to one of my other car buddies (sounding like a beaten man -- and moderately peeved off). If he didn't suggest trying to "hammer it out", I probably would have slunk down and become even more depressed about not noticing this issue when I originally inspected the box contents in May and tried to send a complaint to the manufacturer and wait for new parts.

Step 3: Remove the Muffler Section of the Exhaust

I'm sorry, I didn't really get a good picture of this while it was still on my car, so here is a photo of the new and old exhaust side-by-side.

In previous experiences, getting this rear section of the exhaust off the hangers was the most challenging part (I don't have the tool that makes your life ridiculously easy - I use my bare hands, and a flat head screwdriver). Getting this piece off of the car only took me probably 30-45 minutes (max).

However, the most challenging part were the bolts coming up in the next picture!

Step 4: Remove the Mid-Pipe Section of the Exhaust

After spraying these bolts multiple times with PB Blaster (similar to Liquid Wrench) over a time period of about 3 hours, and still not being successful at getting them to budge, I decided to enlist the help of my neighbor. He recently arrived home from work (to start the holiday weekend) and I was discussing my problem with him.

He offered to help, and provided some additional tools to make our lives easier! Within 15 minutes of my neighbor helping, we got the 2 bolts, and the mid-pipe, off the car!

These freaking bolts were threaded on so tight that by the time we finished getting them off, they were such a hot temperature from the friction that you would have burned your hand if you held onto it for too long.

Here's a pic of the full ETS exhaust:

The worst part about the bolts from the ETS exhaust was that they were somewhere between a 16mm and 17mm size (probably because of all the excess debris that attached to them over the years this exhaust has been on my car). The bolts weren't close to an SAE (Standard) size either.

The best part about these new mid-pipe bolts is that they were spot-on for 16mm! =D

Look how shiny they are! (After this pic, they were sprayed with some PB Blaster to provide some added lubrication during install).

Steps 5/6: Install the Mid-Pipe and Muffler Sections of the Exhaust

Getting the mid-pipe on wasn't too bad. I used a car wash bucket, flipped up-side-down, to loft up the side of the pipe toward the rear of the car and held the other side up manually while I threaded the bolts through the holes of the mid-pipe flange, gasket, and HFC flange. (Sorry, I didn't take any pictures of this).

So, remember how I said that it's usually most difficult to get the muffler OFF the car? Getting the muffler ON TO the car was quite a challenge as well!

This time, I tried enlisting my wife to help me hold up the muffler while I placed it onto the rigid rubber exhaust hangers. We were not very successful. While the pegs that go into the holes of the hangers were in the exact same places as the ETS exhaust, it was so long ago from the time I took the old exhaust off that the rubber had shrank a little (or maybe it was always like this to ensure that the exhaust doesn't move around too much).

As you can see in the picture, I wound up getting a little creative ... I used my low-profile mechanic's "creeper" and placed an unused tire (rubber only, no wheel) on top of the creeper to loft up my muffler (no scratches this way)! Within 5 minutes of me putting the muffler on this thing, I was able to get both sides onto the hangers and be SO CLOSE TO DONE!

There was only one thing left in my way...

These friggin spring bolts!

When I threaded the bolts and springs through the exhaust flanges, they wound up being maybe 1/8 inch short of being able to thread the nut onto the bolt! So I enlisted the assistance of my wife again...

Side-note: I highly suggest having at least 1 other person to help you with installing an exhaust .. and maybe some power tools.. and a torch for good measure.

Anyway .. after several failed attempts, one of which was where I put the spring in the wrong position on the bolt, we finally figured out the correct way to get the springs loaded enough to be able to tighten the nut onto the bolt and complete the exhaust install!

Total Time for Completion: 8 Hours
This includes the several breaks that I took throughout the installation process. After spraying the mid-pipe bolts, I took 20 minute breaks each time to let the oils settle into the metal. Also, I took probably a 30-45 minute break to "shoot the breeze" with my neighbor before we tackled loosening the mid-pipe bolts together. And I think there was probably another 30-45 minute break at some point where I spent time inside with my wife and son before he went to his room for bedtime.

Oh, and don't forget the highly important breaks to drink my beer .. and chug lots of water because my garage door was open throughout the process and it was probably 85*F with 90% humidity!

Big Shout Outs Go To:

My Wife (because she was a huge help, and "allowed" me to work on my car, and she's my wife so she always comes first)!
My Neighbor, because without him, I was going to drive my car (without a muffler section on it) to a Home Improvement Store to buy a Compressor and Power Tools! His extra tools and added strength made quick work of removing the ETS mid-pipe.
and last, but not least, my car buddies for the moral support and useful tips provided on our group chat throughout this process!

Well, that's my story. I hope you enjoyed it, and maybe learned something about the joys and pains of installing an exhaust!

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Thanks for reading, I hope you have a great day! _____________________________________________________

If you want to read more, please take a look at some of my other posts:

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winstonalden (65) 7 years ago

Hats off to you, that's a serious day's work!

It would be cool to see a before and after video so we would hear how different the new exhaust sounds.

$0.02

1 vote

goldenarms (66) 7 years ago

That's a great idea. Next time haha

$0.00

evolved08gsr (57) 7 years ago

haha, this type of advice always seems to happen a few minutes too late. Where was this advice BEFORE I did all of the hard work? =P

... I enjoy sarcasm -- the advice is well-taken :)

Thanks! Yeah, it was a lot more time consuming than I had originally thought. I was planning (hoping) that I would only need to exchange out the muffler section of the exhaust, but the mid-pipes/mufllers of the different exhausts had different output locations (they lined up differently), so I had to do the whole shebang!

Hmm, I have several friends with the same exhaust that I uninstalled, so I can get a sound clip from them. As for the sound clip of the new exhaust, I should be able to pull that together in about a week (which is the next time I'll be with my car).

Good advice :)

Oh, cool!

I always patch my mufflers for as long as I can (because I'm a cheapskate). When I finally get a new one it always sounds like a new car.

I changed this one simply because the previous exhaust was naturally louder. It's still in awesome condition (as the picture shows). I'll probably try to re-sell it because it's in such good shape and an awesome exhaust.

Great work man. We'll put together post aswell. Nice whip bud

evolved08gsr (57) 7 years ago (edited)

Thanks! 2008 Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution GSR (I bet you never would have guessed that from my Steemit name). She is the longest love of my life to-date ... and my wife always rolls her eyes at me when I tell her that :)

Yeah bud I figured lol

investlimestone (47) 7 years ago

Did you happen to have any check engine lights on after the install?

Nope, no CELs. I didn't touch anything other than the Cat-back part (I didn't change the HFC or anything else closer to the engine), so it all worked out.

I know that when I did my HFC, the CEL was popping, so I had a shop help me out with an o2 sensor extension and that stopped the CEL.

By the way, It's good to see you stopping by!

Evolved08gsr's Exhaust Installation Experience