Neil F

I know some people have done this themselves and I've read some basic encounters where there are reports of siezed or broken bolts, but could anyone give me the definitive guide to replacement.

Also, with regard to wrapping downpipes, are we talking about the white bandaging as used on regular exhaust manifolds or something different? Is it a specialist job?

I like to have a crack at such things myself if it's not gonna lay the car up for 3 days.

What do you reckon?

Neil.

Rob W

Neil, You have mail.

Rob

dowser

Downpipe is a pig, but do-able.

On my my00 it looked for a while like a stripped lambda sensor thread (due to overtightening at the factory) was gonna' be a showstopper - might be worth checking this on yours before you start!

Richard

RON

Neil
Strange you should ask this today, cos I did mine yesterday.
I think the seized nut/bolt problem occurs on older cars, due to the fact that they have heated up and cooled down that many more times, mine was fine (my00) it took me about 3ish hours with the car up on ramps, which made the top bit a bit difficult but the underneath bit a sinch.
The most time consuming bit was trimming the heatsheild to fit the new d/p, cos it's a different shape to the standard.A couple of the heatsheild bolts were a bit tricky, but thats only due to their location not being seized.
With regard to the wrapping, I've had bad experiences with this (not on a turbo though) and I wouldn't bother.
Go on, have a go, you know you want to, plus the fact if you're nifty with a set of spanners anyway it'll be no probs.
Ron

MTR

Niel F,
Like Dowser suggests, attempt to see if you can loosen the lambda sensor, and ALL 5 turbo attachment bolts.

The other 4 on my car just cracked free then screwed straight of, just 1 would not budge, even after heating with a propane blowtorch.

The heatshield bolts are fiddely but that is not a problem, and the intercooler can easily be detached and moved to one side to allow the heat shield to be removed.

Good luck.

Ron,
My car was 3 weeks old, 800 miles, and I sheared 1 of the turbo top bolts (£8.11 +VAT just for the bolt, the nut is extra, but am still waiting for delivery).
Also the Lambda sensor thread picked up, and very nearly wrecked itself. This is not caused by overtightening or cross threading, during manufacture, but the differing nature of the materials used in the downpipe and the sensor itself.
A new sensor, should it totally strip, is £90 + VAT.

Cheers MTR

[This message has been edited by MTR (edited 05 April 2001).]

Ken E

I had a downpipe fitted on my WRX this week. It appears that the heatshield was left off and the lambda sensor was not fitted. The fitting point seems to have been blanked off. Can this cause problems ? I still have the old pipe with the sensor and the shields.

Thanks

Ken

Adam M

Ken E

are you sure there was a lambda sensor there before?

Older cars had their lambda sensor in the headers so the downpipe when used on older cars, must be blanked off.

Ken E

Adam

Don't know if there was one before, it's a MY95 WRX. There is a device on the old downpipe with a braided wire coming from it but I was told this was some sort of preheater and wasn't needed, only used in Japan.

Cheers

Ken

Neil F

OK guys, I'm probably gonna give this a go myself (although I think if I'm honest with myself, I always new I would )

I will take all your advice about checking lambda sensors and turbo bolts at some point and just hope the girlfriend doesn't notice the noise increase when I've done it..........

Thanks especially to Rob who's sent me some handy photos and given me some good contacts.

I'll let you know how I get on!

Feel free to add more advice/experiences to this thread though if you feel it's helpful.

Neil.

ROBO

MTR- Why wouid you heat a bolt up with a blowtorch?

Chris L

Just be very careful Neil - I've watched Steve Lawson (ex Cheam Motors and now Scoobysport) change a couple of downpipes and they can be real ba*tards. It is very easy to sheer off the nuts/bolts and the problem can occur on new cars, just as it would on older cars - as MTR said. Steve can do an 'easy' car in about an hour, a 'bad' one - well... I've seen enough to know that I'm more than happy to pay a professional to do it for me!!

Chris

StephenDone

Some of the bolts are very difficult to get to. You can save yourself some time by getting some fixed size ratchet spanners - 10, 12 & 14 mm will do a complete exhaust. Socket sets are too bulky to fit down some of the gaps.

The catalytic convertor is in the standard downpipe, so if you swap it, you'll probably be decatting too. You get a lot more turbo whistle once you've done this.

Here are the stages to fitting. Well, the way I did it anyway:
# Loosen the turbo->intercooler hose on the turbo end, and the intercooler->manifold hoses.
# Unbolt the dump valve from the intercooler - it's easier than trying to pull off the recirculating pipe.
# Unscrew the two intercooler bolts and ease off the intercooler.
# Remove the intercooler bracket, so that you've got space to remove the turbo heat shield.
# Undo all the heat shield bolts. This is where your 10mm ratchet spanner comes in handy!
# Remove the 5 bolts holding the turbo onto the down pipe.
# Unplug & unscrew the lambda sensor from the old downpipe. This requires a 22mm spanner.
# Two bolts hold the downpipe onto the centre section. You need 12 & 14mm spanners for this. There are also two bolts that hold the downpipe onto the gearbox & chassis.
# If you've got a twin dump pipe, you'll need to angle grind a big chunk out of the heat shield. Pretty obvious once you see the shape of the pipe.
# Reverse the process with the new down pipe.

Soak your turbo bolts in WD40 for a couple of hours before you try to loosen them.

If you're interested, I'll stick some photos on my web site.

Hope this helps.

Steve

P.S. I hope I haven't forgotten anything - it was a couple of months ago that I did it !

RB5108

I had a full Jetex fitted including the downpipe and it took a little under five hours as the bolts had seized, this was on a my99 rb5. I was lucky as I have the same garage do all my servicing and they only charged me the quoted job time before they started the job (two hours. Just as well coz at £35 plus the vat an hour it could have been very expensive.

Neil F

Thanks for all the comments guys.
I finally got around to doing it last Thursday and I found it reasonably easy.
As RON said, the most time consuming part was trimming the heat shield (and I'm a bit of a pain when it comes to doing a neat job) and 1 hard-to-get-going heatshield bolt.
Took about 3 1/2 hours at a gentle plod (as I used my parents garage, my Mum kept plying me with tea) so all's well that ends well!
I did wrap the pipe in the end and am glad of it as the cabin noise isn't too much louder.
The performance was a better increase than I thought it would be; stronger pull from much earlier and so much freer higher in the rev range.

I just need to get it properly mapped in now (unichip)!

Neil.

SimonH

I had my Scoobysport d/p fitted at Powerstation the other day and they didn't refit the heatshields, saying that it was too fiddly to make it fit and that most of the mounting bolts for the shields were on the old downpipe.
Question is then, is it a bad thing not having the heatshields fitted?

bennetm

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:<HR>Originally posted by Neil F:
<B>
I did wrap the pipe in the end and am glad of it as the cabin noise isn't too much louder.

Neil.[/quote]

Neil, what did you wrap it with and where?

Ta,

MB

GraemeC

I would've thought it was a good idea to get it re-fitted - just look how close to the nice _plastic_ brake fluid reservoir the nice _hot_ turbo and down pipe are!!

Mac's Power

Firstly a couple of pointers on fitting the Downpipe. We have fitted quite a few here at Mac's Power Motorsport

The instructions above are excellent.

If I'm booking in a car for a downpipe I now ask for it to be left in the night before if possible and I'll have them out for lunch the next day. The reason for this is in my experience the turbo bolts are much easier to loosen when completely cold. I soak them overnight in an excellent product called rusty penetrant and they normally come open pretty easily. DONT USE HEAT ON THEM!! It will never get them open IMO.

Again the sensor can be a pig. I have found a number of them to have damaged threads direct from the factory.

Use a good quality rachet or similar. If you find the bolts twisting under extreme pressure then stop as they will wring.

These are my experiences and I hope they add to the excellent instructions already given.

Paul.

Neil F

SimonH
I agree totally with GraemeC in that the brake/clutch cylinder reservoirs are very close to the turbo unit.
This was my only reason for refittng the shield.

BennetM
I used Cool It bandange by Thermotec, as bought from Burton Performance in Essex.
I have also bought similar stuff mail order from Merlin Motorsport (www.merlinmotorsport.co.uk) in the past as well (can't remember the brand) but I found that it is much of a muchness price and performance wise.

£32 (I think) for a 1" roll (not sure how long) that will cover from just below the Lambda sensor to the flange on a SS DP using a 1/4" overlap.
Hope this helps,

Neil.