Armani

Yes, I finished yesterday. It took me about 6 hours total, but it was well worth it.

I followed everyone's advice and bought some tools, which as previously indicated, I did not have. At first I was going to wait till Sunday and install it with Dave Sz. But I just couldn't wait, so I got to it late Saturday. I Finished Sunday evening, with lots of breaks in between.

Some of you mentioned it was going to be difficult. Others have said it's a piece of cake. My take on this: it depends.

I used about 1/2 of WD-40 on all the nuts and bolts, but that's pretty much as far as I got before I again began searching for a near by muffler shop. I literally called at least 20 places in near by towns to find it which would be cheapest.

No, I was still going to install the y-pipe myself, but after trying to unscrew the 2 cat screws for an hour, I gave up. Too much rust caused me to strip the heads of both screws. At last, I found a cheap muffler shop that would take off the screws for $10. I couldn't f**king believe it. $10????!!!!! Midas and others wanted $70!!!!! Now check this out - it took 2 guys at the muffler shop a half hour to take them off! They had heat torch, gun, etc. so you can basically imagine how tough it really was. They themselves were honestly having trouble with this.

Anyway, I got home only to unscrew the new screws in seconds. What a relief! From there it was quite simple. The 6 nuts holding the down pipes went like butter. Then I cut my hand open trying furiously to unscrew the front o2 sensor....mother f**ker just wouldn't go!!!

I now have the y-pipe installed and it's great. I feel better throttle response. The car definitely lost a little bit of low end power. However, I do not worry because what it loses down low, it makes up for BIG TIME in the high end...4k+ RPM.

FINAL WORD: car definitely pulls harder and IS faster. END OF STORY.

NCSU_MAX

iTrader: (36)

sweet, congrats. hows the sound?

you feel a loss of low end power?

Armani

yes. I had everything stock before. The stock y-pipe had definitely less lag down low. However, it always sucked during heavy accelerating. I mean, pass 4.5/5k RPM it would just sit there. No, I don't have a defective KS, coils, or anything else.

Now the car is set more towards the higher RPM range. It still accelerates hard after 4.5k and I feel a bigger "boost" kick in.

It sounds awesome. I have a new OEM Nissan muffler with a big tip, so basically stock. It's quiet as it used to be. Except under WOT I can hear a slightly deeper tone.

I30tMikeD

iTrader: (8)

No dyno has ever shown a y-pipe to lose power at any point. It is probably just the gains up top playing with your head

Congrats on the install

NCSU_MAX

iTrader: (36)

does it get pretty loud at high RPMs of first and second gear. Ive heard its supposed to sound very close to stock but mine is def kinda loud at those points in first and second. Mines smooth and deep most all the time except at those points - its seems much higher pitched.

NCSU_MAX

iTrader: (36)

think you could get a sound clip up?

Armani

I noticed that at high RPMs there's this hissing sound. It appears as though it's the exhaust gasses rushing forcefully into the downpipes. But it's only at WOT.

Armani

Yeah, I could probably do that but not until tomorrow morning on my way to work.

macallik

iTrader: (6)

congratulations... another satisfied DIY'er

NCSU_MAX

iTrader: (36)

ok good - mine did the same thing.
thanks - a sound clip would be appreciated. congrats again.

Zeus97MAX

Congrats, and just think now you have the beginning of a collection of tools. You'll smile every time you make a repair on your own.

97PKIMVQ

iTrader: (2)

Congrats, My CAT Bolts were a pain in the butt. When I was installing a short throw had to get em off... I BROKE THE WHOLE HEAD OF THE NUT. I was like 0_0 what do I do now?

get a sound clip up... I'm going to get a y-pipe soon so i want to hear various sounds of the y-pipe's out for the maxima

Chief Brody

iTrader: (2)

Glad to see you were able to do the install yourself. Sounds like a good idea to get a shop to break the cat bolts for you. Enjoy the new found power.

Caracicatriz

iTrader: (3)

Congrats. I know it took me like 6 hours before I finally took it to a shop to get the cat bolts loose. I started in the morning and finally finished around 10pm. It was well worth it. Now you can try and tackle some more difficult installs.

twiggy144

Congrats!

As a matter if fact, I am in the process of installing a new Y pipe myself. I would have finished, but I decided to call off the job last nite and buy 40mm bolts instead of the 30mm I had bought to fasten the test pipe ( I removed the cat).

Like Armani, the 6 nuts connecting to both exhaust manifolds were very easy to undo.

The 2 bolts connecting to the cat were also also easy to undo, but that's only because they were replaced last year with a new b pipe: no thick rust on them.

Makes me thinking if it would be my worth to replace the exhaust line bolts were convenient, or at least remove, brush the rust off, antiseize and reinstall. In the rust belt, that will make future maintenance much easier.

twiggy144

As a side note, I was able to replace the o2 sensors with a deep o2 sensor socket. But space was tight on right bank o2 sensor ( closest to the firewall). If I need to remove it, I will have to use one of these short, offset, O2 sensor socket.

Armani

I installed my suspension already. I had a few universal tools for that and what I managed to borrow from friends. I seriously thought that the y-pipe would require more advanced tools. In all honesty though, installing H&R w/ illuminas I found to be much easier. I also replaced my rotors/brakes, tails, bumper, etc. none of which I found to be as challanging. Even unhooking the stupid o2 sensors from the harness sort of gave me problems.

I think installing the y-pipe was hard mainly because I used regular jacks and it's very difficult to take serious stuff apart with very limited space to work. I was never this "deep" under the car before. Kind of strange and SCARY at first.

crazy97

iTrader: (1)

Armani, which Y pipe do you have?

Chief Brody

iTrader: (2)

Wow, you are having quite the week of mods. Nice to hear that you were able to do all of that stuff on your own. Gives me insperation.

lilaclucymaxima

iTrader: (16)

sweet man, yea which y-pipe did you get? didnt you say something about the warpspeed super-flo? mine is coming in tomorrow and im installing it thursday in my autos class (i would do it myself, by my autos teacher has all the right tools, including a lift) congrats!!

Germr497SE

hey, you go boy have fun now, I just oder mine(Y-pipe) it should get here by thursday ,hey guys i got me a (turbo muffler) a.k.a cherry bomb do you guys think it going to be too loud ? im going to custom my b-pipe 2.5 thanks

JOMAN

iTrader: (3)

congrats!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! have a sound clips???

|Bijan|

iTrader: (12)

6 hours? Whoa.......

oigs

Sounds like fun. Do you have a link to your previous thread? I'm considering installing a cat-back system myself (from the guy who can barely change oil...) and I want to be in the know... thanks!

thumper10s

i really dont want to hijack this thread, but for some reason i cant post in this area, the bracket that attaches to the cat where the cat meets the ypipe on my car rusted through, if i purchased a new cat from say warpspeed would that come with a new bracket or would i need to buy one, thanks for any help

Zeus97MAX

Thumper...No, the only parts that come with the cat converter will be 2 gaskets, and 4 bolts and nuts for connecting the cat to the Y and B pipe. You will need to order that breacket from the dealer, its about 40 bucks or so.

thumper10s

thanks, and out of curiousity how neccessary is that piece, on a scale of 1 to 10, i guess im in for a lot of work i gotta do the ypipe and cat and catback this weekend, should be fun, and opinions on warpspeeds cats and exhaust-specifically their noise level and quality of the magna flow muffler

thanks again

86maxima96

iTrader: (10)

Ok, so I'm seriously planning on getting a y-pipe by this weekend. I'm sick of putting it off! But which one? So, none of them lose power? Can anyone suggest based on quality, install, and price? I'm looking at Warpspeed or Budget, unless I should conside something else...
Thanks.
Also, Armani, people keep talking about special tools? What really did you need? I was under my car to put on my heat shield and the cat really is rusted on there, so some shop is gonna take 'em off for me.

tonelocnyc

iTrader: (3)

i need to do this soon..but it seems to rain every weekend in nyc

Zeus97MAX

Thumper...I dont know about necessity level, but I know that when i drove to Nj for easter, when I would hit a hard bump on 95, I could hear something thumping against the floor panel. I am guessing that since I have not replaced that hanger for the cat yet, that there is too much play and that is the thumping that I hear when I hit a hard bump. I have recently oredered the part because I dont want to go through another cat converter from all the banging around.

twiggy144

Instead of the $40 oem part, try fastening some 1" wide steel strapping, the one with pre-drilled holes, to the rubber hangers on one end, and to a standard exhaust pipe clamp on the other end. Obviously fasten the pipe clamp around the cat pipe.