licrisisfe

OK. I'm going to order a budget Y pipe for my 95 Maxima tomorrow. This evening I ran the Maxima up on ramps and crawled under it. I found all 8 bolts that hold it on. I soaked them good with WD40 and am letting it set all night. I'll do this a few more times before actually installing the Y pipe. This having been said, I am mechanically inclined, and feel good about doing the install myself. I just have a few basic questions. 1. Are the nuts that I'm seeing attached to regular bolts...ie will I have to hold the bolt heads while trying to loosen the nuts or are the bolts somehow fixed/welded so that their heads don't have to be held while loosening? 2. Has anyone else on here actually installed their own Y Pipe? 3. How much better will the job go with a 1/2 inch impact wrench? 4. The old rehashed question...did the new pipe make your car much louder? Any and all help appreciated in advance.

BadKarma99-4spd

iTrader: (4)

ok im all over this one. i went out and bought some liquid wrench(the kind they brag about that will melt a foam cup) and soaked the 8 bolts for about five mins.

1. you dont have to hold the bolts, you just have to have a long enough extension on your rachet.

2. if your mechanically inclined and have tools you will be fine, ive done all my mods so far. no problems so far except my vb, which im working out the kinks right now.

3. i dont have air tools, but id guess it would be much easier.

4.yes louder but not much, at idle it kind of burbles, sound pretty good no V8 by any means. during regular driving you really wont be able to hear it. at wot you will hear a hissing underneath your *** like rushing air. most people wont be able to tell the difference in your exhaust note.

ps to make the install much easier get a friend to help remove the old pipe(rather heavy) and also to hold the new in place when putting back up. also get an angle attachment(dont know what it is really called) for your rachet it will let you reach the bolts around the precats easier.

good luck

96white

BadKarma99-4spd, i saw in your notes you have a "cooler" noted? what is that? and how hard is install? cost?

thanks

ORBRIT

Here's a link to my installation writeup

http://www.cardomain.com/member_page...=255278&page=3

Install time and difficulty depends entirely on whether or not you can remove the bolts that join the stock Y pipe to the Cat.
That's why in my writeup I say not to remove any nuts until you have at least broken them all free.
I had a nut that wouldn't come off, so I took my car to midas and they removed it for free - after that it was about 1 hour to swap the pipes.
My car is barely louder - I still have the stock cat, b pipe and muffler. It maybe rumbles a bit more at idle - all I can hear at WOT is still the intake - cruising is quiet.

Scruit

An air impact wrench will help you with the front manifold connection only. The rear manifold connection requires a u-joint (you got an *impact* u-joint? - don't use a chrome one) and the rear connection is too tight against to pip to get the impact wrench in line with the bolt. You need a huge breaker bar.

What I did with the rear bolts was hang an 18" breaker bar from the bolt and the heaved with my leg to break it loose.

Also, there is one bolt that I would have had to go between the subframe and y-pipe to reach that was a paint to reach. Since I was removing the y-pipe for a tranny job I just removed the subframe (would have had to do so anyway). Just plan on thatbolt being a PITA.

Finally, there are to bolts supporting the factory y-pipe to the oil pan. I missed these and wasted 10 mins trying to figure out why it wouldn't drop...

Anachronism

Get something better than WD40, liquid wrench or PB blaster. You need a universil swivel to get at some of the bolts as someone said. Heating the nuts on the cat with a torch may make it easier to get them off.

licrisisfe

Thanks ever so much for all that have replied. If anyone else has any additional comments, I'm wide open. I want this to go as smooth as possible. Again, thanks for everyone's response.

jigsaw

I put mine in last Tuesday. The 3 bolts from the second exhaust manifold are a pain in the @$$. Make sure you have swivel joints and a breaker bar for your ratchet set (or you'll have a lot of new cuts and bruises). I used 2 swivel joints and some masking tape to hold them in a "S" like shape to go around the factory y pipe). Also, make sure that the exhaust system is cool to touch before working. Once you get the factory one of, the new one is a piece of cake. It's much less bulky...