Well, many people (including, previously, me) think that a muffler can only be installed on the maxima on a lift, due to the fact that it has to be angled WAY down for the pipe to clear the axle (what a stupid design) and the tight clearances.

Well, I'm here to tell you...you can do it on jackstands, provided they are VERY tall stands and you have some powerful jacks to get the car up that high. Even then, you really have to do some "creative maneuvering" of the muffler to get the flange of the pipe to go through the axle frame and some other little stupid frame brace...

Credit to Jason (soonerfan) for his deft maneuvering of multiple mufflers, and Jason (cutler) for providing the impact gun. Joel took off his Frankencar muffler and installed the Cattman, and I took off stock and put his frankencar on.

Also I will mention that we found it "odd" that the cattman came with NO hardware at all (bolts or gaskets) while the frankencar did....seems kind of strange that a $350 muffler doesn't include hardware - but we gave them the benefit of the doubt and assume that it was just an oversight and they forgot to ship the hardware, since Brian just got back from vacation!

Here's some pics, just for the hell of it (sorry, none of Joel's car - he'll have to post his own)

Jack it up high, yo!



Stock vs. Frankencar



Cattman vs. Frankencar



on the left, the cattman twin howitzers...

 

Here is the pass-through area...what a pain and a terrible configuration/design by Nissian.



On the car (Frankencar)

 

looks very good

 

i've taken my stock muffler off a few times with only jackstands.. i swear it's a puzzle.. it makes it a tad bit easier to take off the passenger left wheel too.. and to put some cardboard on the floor so the tips don't get scraped up

 

yeah I forgot to mention that we took off the right wheel...left wheel didn't seem to be in the way thought

 

Good job Irish. Looks good.

 

i used jackstands too, good thing my friend helped me cuz, you cant really do it by your self, you need to try many different angles before you can get it in there. what a pain in the ***. good job irish, you deserve a cookie.

 

Josh, you forgot to mention the specs of the 2 big@ss jacks that Cutler had... a 2 ton race jack and a 3 ton garage jack... that we used on both sides of the cars to get the rear high enough. Definitely proved ourselves wrong by doing this install in about an hour, not counting the trip to HD I had to make to get hardware.

For my car, the Frankencar took some wriggling to get off but the Cattman, being much smaller, slipped on there very easily. I'm guessing the stocker off Josh's car came off pretty easily and by now, since Jason was an expert, it took 2 secs to stick the Frankencar on.

 

it was a fun little project. definatly can be done, you just have to figure out the way to get it out (muffler to the left, half way out...muffler to the right, the rest of the way out)

good times with my fairfax maxima homies

 

Hardware is included with Cattman. At least my rear section came with it. I'm sure it was an oversite by Brian, as you mentioned.

Never tried the Frankencar, but I love my Cattman.

 

Just don't let Josh jack up your car w/o supervision, cuz he might damage your side skirt...

 

Yeah, knowing Cattman, figured it's an oversight. Seems like he's been pretty swamped recently (since apparently his email server is down) since he got back from vacation....

 

it was the Jack's fault....it is supposed to roll!!!!!

i have some epoxy I'll bring over and we can fix the little clip that broke....

 

I've gone stock -> GReddy EVO -> Frankencar -> Cattman... I like the Cattman so far...

 

My Cattman came without the hardware but I ordered it from SCO, not Cattman directly. I assumed they forgot to put it in so i called them and they sent out the hardware the next day. I don't know the deal if you buy directly through Cattman though....I thought there was a $15 hardware package you had to buy or something.

 

just playing... we can fix it when I'm done with exams and you can bring your impact so I can re-install my y-pipe as well...

 

in first pic it looks like the front bumper was gonna hit the sidewalk...scary scene...

Great job guys... the rear looks sick

 

Nice job....it looks bad a$$

 

Looks nice....

 

i actually did it myself about a month ago when i put on my HKS. i used a little 2 ton jack with some 2x4's on it to get the car higher. was a little scary since the car wasn't real stable but i got it done and i wasn't hurt and neither was the car. good work guys on getting those rear sections on and they do look good.

 

the wheel gap looked like stock on the jacks

 

Thanks for the phone call, Blake... it was good to know that someone had actually done it so we knew it was possible... Tim (Semy2k2go) was the other person whom I knew did it with just jack and stands.

Just to set the record straight, I got my Cattman rear from SCO as well BUT it was shipped directly from Cattman and it didn't come with hardware... anyways its really no big deal... I'm sure it was an oversight and Home Depot and Fairfax Autoparts had what we needed.

Dealing with Steve at SCO was great and the part was here a week after I ordered it from him over the phone.

 

Great job, Josh...hey, what jack-points did you use for the rear section?

 

I'm not Josh, but I know the answer because we tried it on my car first... the pinch welds in the frame... the ones for the emergency jack...

 

Hey, an answer's an answer, thanks.
I'll be deadening the wheel wells this weekend, thanks!!!

 

on one side of joel's car josh used the side skirt

 

I did NOT use the side skirt...the jack slipped off the sill when it was raised to the top, since the wheels didn't roll.....

 

Please refer to post #11.

 

He said it, not me...

 

since you've had both joel, (frankencar and cattman) what do you think? is there a difference between the two, and if so, is it worth it to buy the cattman?

 

Nice pics, It took me forever to put on my Greddy Evo 2, I had a 2 ton floor jack and jack stands and i couldnt even get the car high enough to take my stillen rear section out, irish your right about having to do some manuvering, i used 3 small pieces of woood and my math book lol, to raise the car even higher to fit the evo because its bigger then the stillen and then put the jack stands, well it worked out fine but it took some Sh*t.

 

i had a brain fart, i meant to say passenger rear wheel..

 

I'll give you a preliminary answer since Joel is studying for his Master's exams....

After install, of course we heard them both. His car with the frankencar (before) was quiet, like stock except for a low rumble at certain rpms. The Cattman is noticeable, nice deep, smooth growl but not "loud" as I expected it to be. You can hear it down the street, but it's not loud and ricey.....it WILL be louder once he puts his y-pipe back on.

On my car, the Frankencar is virtually silent. Only time I hear it is when the revs drop through the 3000-1000 range, and on startup. Otherwise, it's quiet enough that my intake drowns it out (from inside the car). Of course, quiet is what I wanted, so I'm very happy with the sound. I'd say it's maybe 20% louder than stock at best......

I'm sure Joel will have some additional thoughts.

 

It depends on what you want, although the almost $200 price differential almost sways me towards FC... I'll try to have a more detailed thread later to include my experiences with the GReddy too.... but for now in comparing em both:

Frankencar rear - quieter, no drone, heavier, cheaper, more restrictive chambered design with great sound suppression

Cattman rear - louder, slight drone till 2500 rpms, lighter, more expensive, appears to be a straight through design

As you can see, they're very different, but I can't say if one is more "worth" buying than the other one.

 

Study break...

 

Agreed.... once again, we're posting the same stuff at the same time...

 

Nice job all of u.. Are u all running on stock Catylitic converter? IS that next to be changed or is VA strict on smog? Puppet good luck on your exam.

 

i got mine rear section from SCO also Feb of 04, and it didnt include anything except the muffler assembly

 

That's pretty much what i will be looking for when the time comes....i definitely don't want my neighbors to be able to hear it loud and clear all the way down the street like this this one ricer civic that lives three houses away from me...i like to keep it subtle but i do want to hear a low growl every now and then...

now by cheaper, do you mean to say just "less expensive" or is there a noticable difference in the quality of the two products? If i get anything, i want it to last as long as possible, and even if that means spending an extra $200 i will do it....I've heard great things about FC's quality but i just wanted to double check...thanks a lot for helping out, and I'll probably be doing the same thing as you because i'm too cheap to have it professionally installed

 

cheaper as in slightly less expensive....the build quality of both mufflers appears comparable, and they're both stainless steelll....