Hey all,

Heaven knows why this is so long. I guess I was just in the mood to write. Anyways...

I got a Warpspeed mandrel-bent aluminized mild steel Y-pipe for Christmas, and today was the fateful day of the install. (BTW, for those who're interested, the Warpspeed was delivered to my doorstep one week after the order was placed. The pipe came wrapped in plastic inside a nice cardboard box, and included the crush gaskets and cat gasket The pipe looked real nice, the welds weren't the cleanest in the world, but looked plenty solid. Overall, very nice IMHO.)

My wife talked me into having a local shop do the work, and I had a place quote me at $60.00 for the labor. Which I thought was pretty reasonable, especially considering the potential bruising and self mutilation the installation reportedly inflicts. So, happy to let someone else cry Uncle for a change, I drove down to the shop this morning looking forward to gaining 15hp before lunchtime.

But once they had her up on the lift, the nice mechanic feller took one look at the two stock pre-cats under the car, and compared them to the straight tubes of the Warpspeed pipe, he said, in a nice Minnesota-kinda-way mind you, that he'd really like me to get myself and my illegal Y-pipe the hell out of his shop. Oh, and take my dog with me. But his kid was busy feeding the dog milk-bones, and I took advantage of the distraction and talked him into loosening up the catalytic converter bolts. For no charge, even. I left the shop disappointed, but somewhat relieved.

Anyways, I made a detour to Sears to pick up a 14mm deep socket, and to trade in the 2-1/2 ton jack that my in-laws got me for Christmas for a 3-1/2 ton model that's just, well, manlier. And it's got yellow accent colors which gives it that "caution heavy construction underway" kinda look. Looking good when screwing up your car is important. Plus, I got free jackstands with it, in matching black/yellow livery.

Okay, once I got home, it only took a few minutes to get the car up on stands, and slide underneath to see what kind of carnage would ensue. After assessing the potential for installation disaster, I deemed it relatively low and went inside for a few beers. Once properly, um, motivated, I got to work.

First, I sprayed all the bolts with some can of crap designed to dissolve rust on ocean-liner propellors or something. While that stuff was doing its magic, I got to work unplugging the O2 sensors. Cracked the first housing, cause I couldn't figure out how the damnable clasp worked. Once the first one was split open like a walnut, it was easy to see the mechanism, and the second one was opened without incident. Then it was time to go for those little plastic clips. Basically took a long screwdriver, and decapitated most of them. The one clip between the firewall and engine block was a PITA, but otherwise pretty easy. Oh, and also remembered to disconnect the battery for ECU reset. Total time, 10 min.

Next, I got underneath the car, and started in on the six bolts to the headers. They came free surprisingly easy (one good grunt apiece was all it took), and next came the cat bolts, which were a cinch thanks to the once-over with the air tools at the exhaust shop. The rubber hangers were unhooked, and the final two 12mm bolts were twisted off. The old Y-pipe came down, and I went at the O2 sensors. Both got a liberal dousing of rust penetrator, and the came out pretty easy. Total time, about 30 min.

Beer break. 6 attempts at the Dreamer's Realm level in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, plus two beers. Total time, about 30 min. No, I didn't clear the level. Stupid video games.

Okay then, back outside to stuff the Warpside pipe into place. Gotta give props to Warpspeed here, cause the new pipe went in without a hitch. Actually, I take that back. There was one small hitch, and I can't figure out how it could possibly be designed this way, but it seems that the rear O2 sensor is rubbing on the steering knuckle. There wasn't anything I could do about it, short of gouging out a chunk of the steering knuckle, so I let it be. Otherwise, the new pipe went in without a hitch. Took a few more minutes to fish the O2 sensor wires back up through the engine bay, and reconnect the battery. Total time, about 20 min.

And hey, that was it! Total time, 1.5 hrs including lengthy break. This is for a car that's spent the last five years in Minnesota snow & salt. Not too bad.

I hopped in for a quick test ride around the neighborhood. Took it easy for a while to get things up to temperature, and noticed a bit of buzzing down around the flex section area (or perhaps the rear O2 sensor area...). Once she was warmed up, I played with the throttle a bit, and was greeted with a moderately increased exhaust sound between 100-2500 rpm, by which time, the intake would drown anything out. Couldn't really tell whether performance was changed much, since I didn't want to kill any of the neighbors or their kids. They're touchy about that.

In the end, if you're considering doing your own Y-pipe install, I'd say definately go for it. Of course, read all the horror stories too, cause I'm sure I got lucky with a straightforward install.

Thus we come to the end of this totally useless and completely redundant account of a Y-pipe installation. As if the world needed to hear more about Y-pipes. If you were bored, then you're welcome. If you weren't, sorry for stealing 5 min of your life.

the Loon

Oh, for the sake of completeness, all this was done to a '97 SE 5spd.

 

You didn't get lucky, you had people loosen the bolts for you

Anyways, that might be in record time. I didn't even attempt to try mine. 13 years of rust would have broken my arms.

 

Wow, can you write my essays sometime? Good job!!! Installing is not impossible, just time consuming and frustrating. When I added the ypipe, I noticed a difference, but when I complimented the pipe with an intake, I felt bad about how much I was restricting my engine stock. The difference between a stock car and one with intake/ypipe is night and day. For anyone who hasn't gotten a ypipe yet, GET ONE!! It is worth it. Don't forget the intake also.

P.S. My Budget Ypipe came bubble wrapped to my door step in 4 days, makes no noise and cost me $158.xx

 

illegal y pipe lol!
what does he think the cat is for?! bah to him!

 

I had a similar self installation experience with the Budget y-pipe. I would recommend the Rhino Ramp route versus the floor jack (more room!). I also had to go and pick up a 1/2 inch socket since I couldn't get leverage with the smaller sockets.

Buffy the vampire slayer? Try some BF1942, CS, DOD or SOF2! We run some servers over at http://www.the-space.net if your game.

Cheers!

 

KLoWnPR109: No way dude, it was luck! Just like my wife gets lucky when I hand her the peanut butter jar... after I've loosened it up, I mean. Dang, that sounded bad...

JsL: Yeah, I went the other way 'round and put in the intake first, since that was so much easier. To be honest, I think the car 'feels' faster with the intake, cause it makes so much noise. Hopefully it actually *is* faster with the y-pipe. As for yer Budget, yeah whatever

Lime: Stupid laws...When I was trying to explain to my buddy (non-car guy), he says "you mean your car pollutes more now", to which I replied, "yeah, but I make up for it by using a push lawnmower".

2kSeattleMax: Good thought on the ramps. Once you get the jackstands into place though, you end up with the same amount of room As for Buffy, what can I say. I like pretending I'm a waif-like little a$$-kicking one-liner spewing blonde. Sounds like you've got pretty serious gaming mastArs setup. I never even finished Half-Life though, so you guys would probably just waste a bunch of time laughing at me and then forget I'm there

the Loon

 

Can you name that exact product that you pretreated the bolts with? Rust is always the major obstacle when doing anything on my 95 so anything better than Liquid Wrench is always sought after! Thanks...

 

Try Break-Free CLP or something called Kroil. Kroil is the best, but its hard to find. Any good oil which touts itself as "Penetrating Oil" should work.

 

Hey MishMosh, the stuff I used is called "The Revolutionary Penetrating Magnetic Lubricant PB Powerful Penetrating Catalyst" made by the folks at B'Laster/B.C.C.I. As Seen on TV (tm). Seriously. The label looks like a bottle of Dr. Brommers on acid. Anyways, I got it at Checker Auto Parts.

Best part about the stuff is that it shoots out a nice thick stream of solvent, which made spraying recessed bolts a cinch.

the Loon

 

LOL! Well you still have a stock CAT right? I mean, you're going to pass the emmissions with the Y, no problem. So tell him to kiss off!

 

The best Rust Remover I have ever used is Spanish Jim's Rust Remover as seen on SNL. It works like a charm....


Gange

 

Had 2 shops tell me "no way in hell they can install that thing". the last shop did not even given it a second glance and put it on in 20 minutes.

 

wow, 1.5 hours?!

lol, when skeelo took transmission out to get my clutch, he traded my warpspeed y=pipe for his stock y-pipe to give to junkyard and after spending a good 2-5 minutes setting the car up, he took about 10 minutes....15-20 tops to take off my y-pipe and put the new one in...1.5 hours?! sheesh!

 

Don't hate. I personally take my time to do everything right the first time. Even if it requires a little more time, at least you'll know you weren't careless about it.

 

oooooo minnesota? where u from? im gonna do mine soon here maybe u wanna help anyways minneapolis here

 

I30tMikeD: Yeah, thought about shopping it about some, but really I was just looking for an excuse to do it myself. It makes me feel like I'm actually *saving* money when I spend twice as much on new tools...

meccanoble: okay, well screw skeelo and his confounded competence It's lucky I finally got so ****ed at Buffy that I didn't spend another hour on break...

TurDz: I agree. Still manage to fock stuff up all the time, but it's nice to try anyways.

93max: If your Max is from the same year as your handle, I think you'll have to wait until I get air tools . But hey, if you want a hand, I'm in south mpls, just off 35W.

Anyways, I got to spend some time romping around the freeways today, and I'm absolutely delighted. Winding out second at full throttle on the freeway onramp results in a deeply satisfying sensation of...whoosh. Like I'm eating a York peppermint patty. Anyways, the Max has never felt so lively! I'll be curious to see how things feel once the ECU's settled in.

the Loon

 

Did you put the original bolts back on, or did you replace them?

 

I had the exhaust shop put in new bolts at the cat, and used the old bolts everywhere else. Just checked everything out last weekend, and looks fine so far

theLoon

 

You can just use all the original bolts. Just make sure you replace all the gaskets.


superloon: My WSP Y-pipe gave me about 4-5mph at the track and about .4 a second.

When I first installed it, my intake wasn't as loud. It took about 2 weeks before it got loud again. I guess this was the ECU relearning how much air it could get in and out?