kkw1004

I have 98 GXE. I decided to upgrade my stock y-pipe (DIY). of course, I researched couple days before I even decided whether I do it myself or I go to muffler shop. when I researched, I figured that I can do it myself. I got the budget y-pipe the other day. I followed pretty much everything with the y-pipe installation thread and the point where I got to unscrew 6 14 mm (3 front and 3 middle) nuts, I got problem.
front 3 nuts, I got no problem. However, I got big trouble on middle 3 nuts.
It is really hard to get access to those nuts (1 is fine and the other 2 nuts are pain in the neck). without breaking old stock y-pipe, to me there is no way to get those nuts out.
I can't wait to change that y-pipe.
any suggestions will appreciate.

MaximaSE96

iTrader: (8)

lots of pentrating lube and air tools.....for the manifold bolts....cut the oens at the cat and buy SS botls from a hardware store

kkw1004

thanks maximase96 for your reply
is there anyother way (not to ruin my stock y-pipe or bolt) to take that 3 middle nuts off? it is really hard to get access to those nuts.
I can't even get to that one of nuts.
I really want do it myself. those threads (already posted)for installing aftermarket y-pipe sounds simple and easy.
plz help me

loverholic

iTrader: (3)

how much did you buy that budget y-pipe for and where?

Swazey

the 6 bolts are welded into the headers. whatever you do, do not break one of the 6 bolts. take your time unscrewing the nuts. i did this, but i put in performance headers so i didnt care. use a lot of heat and some lube, and the nuts should come right off.

once youre under neath your car, the bolts shouldnt be that hard to get to. use a really long extension. i dont remember having much trouble other than rushing the process on mine, which resulted in breaking one of the bolts.

the biggest pain is gonna be getting the stock cat off from the old ypipe. spend the money on a high flow cat, or a test pipe. custom enterprise sells a test pipe for your car. the bolts on the stock cat are threaded and welded in place. or at least thats what happens to them after time and heat. i had to heat the threaded blots on mine up so much that they would ment, then punch new holes for new bolts to fit in.

actually the biggest pain was removing the rear header. you dont have to do this but incase you were thinking about it... be ready to take one of your motor mounts off and the cross member so your engine can drop down enough to get to the rear header.

good luck, dont rush, and dont force things otherwise youre gonna break something.

MaximaSE96

iTrader: (8)

hi-flow cats are useless for maximas.......but yea if u get the car high enough up in the air its should be easy access with extensions.....pre-soak the bolts mutilple times with a good penetrating lube..i recommend Thrust from Castle......heat is nice but not really necessary.....

kkw1004

I got this y-pipe (called budget y-pipe) from canada.
Here is there website address: www.lssexhaust.com
I got stainless steel y-pipe $250.00 canadian dollar + $25 canadian dollar for shipping.
got it in a week after I ordered.

kkw1004

thanks for your reply
if I am not wrong, there are 3 nuts (14 mm) in front (not welded) another 3 nut (14 mm) in the middle (not welded, before flex section) and 2 12mm nut to CAT.
I am having problem with those 3 middle nuts.
one is ease to access and the other 2 nuts are hard to get access to.
plz help
any ideas will appreciate
thanks

Swazey

well when you need a new cuz yours is rusted thru, a $100 high flow cat is much better than buying a stock one for like $800, plus you get more flow than stock. well IMO

Swazey

ohh, i thought you were having trouble getting the ypipe off the headers, my bad.

youre right, 3, 3, and 2. if you cant get them off, go to meineke or a shop near your house and have them heat up the bolts so you can get them off. tell them ull give em 20 or 40 bucks to take off 8 bolts. it will take them 10 mins. its such a pain. from all the years of hot and cold the exhaust goes thru, the blots just melt to the exhaust.

lube it up as much as you can. and the bolts break easy too so be careful.

Swazey

if you end up at a shop and have them do it, driving your car home with open headers or even with just he ypipe and no cat back will leave you with a **** eatin grin all day long!

the hardest thing is the bolts on the cat. its just a threaded bolt. such a painintheass. if you break the bolts on the exhaust dont worry about it. youre gonna want to get new bolts anyways. just dont breal the 6 botls that the ypipe screws into

if you have a good drill and a really nice drill bit, you can drill thru the center of the bolt to get the exhuaust off. but that would be my last resort.

kkw1004

thanks again

Of course, I lubed for couple days before I even got those 8 nuts.
front 3 nuts I unscrewed without any trouble, One of 3 nuts in the middle, not a problem at all. But rest 2 nuts are really hard to get to.
if those guys (meineke or a shop) can do, I can do , right?
there should be a way to access to those hidden nuts without breaking stock y-pipe.
money is not a subject, I just wanna do it by myself.
thanks

l3ftonm3

iTrader: (2)

long extensions. I had air tools so it made it real easy but I just threw some extension pieces on and found a way to get up in there.

Swazey

i agree with you all the way, but for example in my situation, my bolts where so rusted that when i put a wrench on them and turned the bolt, it broke right off. then i had a piece of bolt still stuck. all the shop did was make the bolts so hot they melted off. no harm was done to stock yipie.

kkw1004

when I checked those 2 12mm nuts by CAT, it was rusted bad.
how bad that was, I couldn't even place the 12mm wrench on the nut.
it got rusted bad and size of nuts kind of got bigger little bit.

once again thanks for your help and seems like I am ending up to muffler shop in near future. I don't want to break any bolts or nuts.
I jusy wished I can change it by myself.


thanks you guys

konak85

iTrader: (10)

All you have to do is borrow an angle grinder with a cut off blade and cut the two ends of the two bolts connecting to the cat converter and it will pop right out. You may have to whack it a few times with a hammer after cutting. Then replace them with new nuts and bolts from home depot or autozone. Easy. I had the same problem as you. Careful with the 6 bolts up front.

kkw1004

THANKS KONAK85 FOR REPLY

I can get those 2 12 mm nuts for the CAT, so I don't really worry about those.
However, I can't reach 2 out of 3 14mm nuts (right before the flex section) in middle section.
How did you get those 3 nuts in middle section (not the front 3 14mm nuts) ?
2 of them are really hard to get an access b/c those 2 nuts are right above the stock y-pipe.
any suggestions will appreciate

thanks

TurTLe*

iTrader: (11)

do you have any swivel sockets? Those make everything a lot more easier. I haven't doing a maxima Y-pipe but i've done a lot of VW cat's and its the same thing unbolt the 6-8 bolts from the header and upbolt the cat. Mind you my bolts are way up there. 24in long extention with a sviwel impact socket at the end of it and my impact at the other end gets them out pretty nicely.

kkw1004

Thanks for your input.
I have a swivel socket and I haven't tried yet.
Because there is not much room between crossmember and stock y-pipe. So I havn't thought about putting an extension with swivel socket.
But without even try, you will never know.
I will try that swivel socket this weekend and post it again.
thanks

TurTLe*

iTrader: (11)

oh yea. i kinda forgot, you are probaly going this off jackstands.

I was just looking at my y-pipe bolts today when i did my oil change. of course the car was over my head on my hoist. But yea, front a hoist point of view those bolts look easily accessable either with a impact extentions and swivels or just a rachet and u-joints and socket.

All i saw was a crap load of rust and those 2 bolts on the car are beyond rusted. Makes me kinda want to pay someone $50 to install my Y-pipe in. Just so i don't have to fight those bolts. I sprayed break-away on it today. Will spray again next week and see.

Something to think about prior to taking off the cat. Would it be as hard to put on?

BigLou93SE

iTrader: (10)

I was going to ask if you were using a U-joint or not with a bunch of extensions. I'm going out to do this today - the cat-y bolts have been taken out already, and I only have the 6 nuts connecting the y-mani so hopefully they won't be that much of a problem. I sprayed pb-blaster on them the other day...

kkw1004

thanks biglou93se

I hope everything goes smooth when you do that.
also plz let me know how you did on 3 14mm nuts in middle section (right before flex section).
good luck

BigLou93SE

iTrader: (10)

F this.

This whole time I've been working, I haven't gotten one o2 sensor off (the first thing I tried to do), and instead have been trying to free the o2 sensor socket that I just bought off of this sensor. This is bs. Once I get this o2 sensor socket off, I'm calling it quits. I have spent way too much time on my car in the past week for spring break, it's ridiculous. Good luck if you still want to install yourself.

konak85

iTrader: (10)

i remember using a swivel socket on the middle section. The right combo of tools will do it. Go to sears and get a swivel socket or any other tool you think will help.

triumphD6

I had that exact same problem doing mine. Soaked it PB blaster first, but it wasn't that they were rusted, but just getting the socket on 2 of the nuts. Once you get the socket on, a long handled ratchet should do the trick for them. I first tried using a crappy Craftsman swivel attachment, but it kept flopping over on me once I got it up there. Fortunately, my friend had a Snap-on one which did the trick . . . the swivel was tight enough so you could put it at the angle you want and it stayed there while you reached up into the headers. So, make sure you buy a swivel that holds it shape, and you'll be good to go. BTW . . . make sure you put anti-sieze on ALL the threads during the install. I even applied to the nuts and bolts after they were bolted tight to help prevent any corrosion from happening down the road. Good luck.

Swazey

o2 sensor is threaded and just unscrews, idk how you would have a hard time with that

Swazey

its not quite that easy... once you cut the 2 ends of the cat bolts off, you still have a piece of the bolt stuck in the middle of the flange because the bolts are threaded. thats why heating them up and punching them out works the best. once you cut the bolts, youre gonna have to drill thru to make a hole for the new bolts. its not just as easy as cutting them

S Cranaw

I know exactly the 2 bolts you're talking about. Yup they are annoying to get to. I did use extentions as everyone else said, didn't see the suggestions yet of pivots on the extention. Try this. After some manuvering this worked for me.... but just make sure you don't get a ton of torque and have the pivot move causing the wrench to come back and pop you in the mouth and chip a front tooth like I did. I'm a genius!

-Steve

konak85

iTrader: (10)

Worked great for me, just drill right through the part thats left in there. BTW i tried heating it up with MAPP gas but it didnt work well at all.

BigLou93SE

iTrader: (10)

Yes, which is why I was using a socket and socket wrench...that's not the difficult part.
What made it difficult, is when I tried using a U-joint on it, and instead of turning the socket, the socket mis-positioned itself, and was stuck on the sensor . And therefore, that hour or so was spent trying to get the socket OFF, not the sensor off.

gen4maxima536

iTrader: (14)

these are the times i'm glad they don't use salt on our roads out here on the west coast

kkw1004

I knew it that it is not that easy as people say.
so you decided to go to shop and do it
hope everything goes well by you.
let me know how muffler guys do it.
and can you write up how they did it?
which part they are having trouble and I have to be careful and so on
thanks

kkw1004

thanks for the input again

so sounds like right swivel socket is the key here for those hidden 2 14mm nuts.
I will try again with the swivel socket.
and also lot of guys mentioned about 2 12mm nuts to CAT is really tough to unscrew.
is it really 12mm nuts to CAT?
the reason why I ask is when I tried with 12mm wrench it was too tight, so I tried 13mm wrench and it was too loose.
what I am thinking now is they are 12 mm nuts with bad rust. so correct me if I am wrong, accumulating rust on the nut makes the nut bigger. does it make sense?
let me know how you did on those 2 12mm nuts to CAT.
thanks

kkw1004

thanks for the reply.
I am really glad to hear that from you. you had a same problem I have now. I guess you did it by yourself, right?
once again right swivel socket will do those hidden 2 14mm nuts, right? what about those O2 Sensor and 2 12 mm nuts to CAT? are they ease to handle, I mean easier than 2 out of 3 14 mm hidden nuts in the middle section?
Since you did it by yourself, are there anything I have to be careful, I have to aware of, I shouldn't do it and so on?
thanks

BigLou93SE

iTrader: (10)

I'm going to try and attack it over summer break. I have a feeling it's just going to take some convincing, and yesterday I broke the one tool that would have made/break the whole process - a universal joint. I've probably put in about 50+ hours on my car over the last week and a half for spring break, between doing my suspension, detailing, etc. This was just another little project that I wanted to get done, and I'm sure I'll get it when I have more time and a clearer mind to work with. If you want it done now though, I'd say do it now.

Either I'll wait, or when I come home for Easter, I'll grab the new ypipe, and bring it back to school with me, and do it up there. That's probably what I will do - it's the same place I replaced my axle and worked on my STS too.

kkw1004

I am telling myself that I am pretty handy man. I love to fix and mod things by myself if I can. Then I am very happy with what I have done.
internet is a great place where you get a lot of sources. specially for your maxi, Maxima.org is the best site to look into when you do things DIY.
The information from Maxima.org is more than enough. I am really appreciate those who runs this website. I never thought that I could do so much things by myself.
Just one condition when you do DIY, make sure you have enough time, sources, and right tools.
For installing my aftermarket y-pipe, I had enough time and source, but not enough right tools. those 2 out of 3 14 mm nuts in the middle section made me allmost quit the job. after I post my problem, lots of guys gave me useful informations about those 2 14mm hidden nuts. In fact I called couple places for installing my aftermarket Y-pipe after I couldn't take those 2 hidden nuts.
Since lots of guys tried to help me out, I will try one more time with right tools(swivel sockets) this Monday or Tuesday, then I will post it again. lot of guys also having trouble with those 2 12 mm nuts to CAT. So I am kinda scare but I will try anyway. I hope I don't break any bolts.

plz wish me everything goes well. good luck to you too.

thanks.

goldtooth

iTrader: (56)

Anyone care to explain this to me? Is this good or bad?
Im assuming bad for environment, good to torque and putting down power??
LMK

huyqvu

iTrader: (10)

haha i tried it today with no luck. drenched the bolts with liquid wrench and let it sit for a few hours. 2 studs came out with the bolts stuck on it. tried everything and could only get 1 of the 3 bolts on the back header. put back the bolts that didnt break or come out. i called up the shop and gonna have them do it on monday. oh i bought it cause it was cheaper than getting a new flex pipe installed with labor. old flex pipe was leaking. im putting my ypipe up for sale in a couple of months after i get my turbo installed

konak85

iTrader: (10)

Good for performance but very illegal and loud.
EK

konak85

iTrader: (10)

Get a long breaker bar or put pipe over wrench, give it all you got and it should come out. Remember the swivel socket.