I had stage I and II SFC's installed at the same time by Jeff and Dan at Maximum tuning. They are great; handling improved and the car feels a little more solid, even on my stock suspension with FSTB and RSB.

I had some problems. The driver side diagaonal stage II bar didn't quite reach, so they just welded one end for me. Also, the bar was hitting my cat and making such a ridiculous noise that I turned around and went back to the shop. Dan clamped it together for me, but now the cabin resonates since part of the cat is essentially clamped to the frame.

Anyone have clearance issues, and how did you resolve them?

 

At first I think I had a clanking noise coming from around the y pipe, but I forget what they did to fix that. probably just pull the sfc's down a little bit. prior to getting my PR motor mounts installed, whenever i got wheelhop, something in the rear of the car would bang/clang against something else. i think it might have been the b pipe, but ive never been sure.

 

The only issue i've had is going thru a car wash (my fault) and bending the middle cross bar.. but took it to midas and they just heated it up and bent it down a little bit.. dunno why your diagonal piece didn't fit... hope you get it figured out

 

I wouldn't have welded the cross bar to anything. I would have just redrilled a different hole. Anyhow, my cat flange was hitting the stage II cross bar because the clearance was within a 1/4". I simply pulled off the guilty bar and took a sledge hammer to it and flattened it a little to make more clearance. I then put in a couple washers at the mounting points of the bar to drop the bar an addition 1/8" or so. These two modifications gained me a full 1/2" between the cat flange and bar. My passenger side bar was the one that was hitting.

Another option would be to play around with some different hangers on the B-pipe. You could take a hose clamp and tighten it around the hanger to lift the hanger and B-pipe up a little. This may improve the clearance.

Why the guy at the exhaust shop thought clamping the cat to the SFC was a good idea boggles my mind


Dave

 

I have a rubber exhaust hanger wedged between the B-pipe and that little hanger behind the resonator. Without the hanger there the exhaust hits the SFCs. You can just barely see it in the Pic below.

I also used a pry bar to bend the cross bracing down a bit

 

how much did the install cost?

 

dave, thanks for the ideas.

the shop was closed by the time I got back there, and they had their own cars on the lifts. they actually took their car down and put mine on to have a look at it. I suggested a piece of rubber, but then they clamped it and I took a drive; it was much better but I knew it would be a temporary fix.

it is actually the passenger bar that's making contact with the cat flange.

they welded it because they drilled all the holes for the center attachment first, and then the overlap wasn't enough to drill another hole on the railing attachment.

install ran me $200; I know that's not the cheapest but I didn't agree on the price beforehand with Jeff; he does all my work. I'll probably ask from now on.

 

I wonder if I can make my own SFC's.....