so i just got my budget y pipe but my bolts connecting the stock y to the catalytic converter are rusted solid. after no luck by myself on the bolts i called a few exhaust shops and they quoted me $200 to install my y pipe!! that is ridiculous!

how did you guys get yours installed? id like to do this myself so is there some trick to getting those bolts off? or do i need to take it to a shop?

 

i seen mechanics use a blow torch on such bolts, i know u can buy a portable blow torch with a little gas can at a store. not sure if this helps but i tried

 

ive heard of torching them off. does the blow torch burn through the bolts or just loosen them some how?

 

the torch will burn through the bolt then all you have to do is buy 2 new bolts for the ypipe to the cat and for the top bolts of the ypipe some pb blaster will work

 

ok thanks. ill try torching em off since my dad has one i can use.

 

Tons of PB blaster as well. Search, few of us(like me) just went to a shop to get them to loosen those 2 bolts and then I drove home and did the rest.

 

If that doesn't work I know others here have gone to the shop to have the bolts changed out (~20 bucks I believe)

 

torching them will heat them up and effectively loosen them. I just bought a new cat, and took the y/cat down together still together

 

check the stickies there is a y-pipe installation step by step and what tools you need.

 

You need this.....




Seriously, PB Blaster and a ratchet that will allow you to put a long pipe over it to get some serious (torque) leverage.

 

Yeah I started using my feet lol. I'd set teh breaker bar on it and kick it and bam

 

i tried using a socket but the bolt was so rusted that the end of it pretty much fell apart as i tried to get it off. so now its impossible to get it off with a socket. im gonna try torching it tomorrow.

 

Vise grips ftw, and using heat & pb will help as well, the torch that someone suggested earlier is merely for heating it up so the nut itself will expand, you would need an oxy-acetylene to torch the bolts off. If either of the bolts break just put in the new y-pipe, and leave it disconnected, then bring it to an exhaust shop with the new gasket, it should only cost about $10 to have them tack weld it togethor.

 

so i tried vise grips, pb blaster, etc... for an hour today and said screw it, took it in to get the bolts connecting the cat and y torched off. they told me itd be a quick 15 min job at $60/hr so i thought no biggie. it took them 75 min!-luckily the guy was nice and only charged me for a half hour. sucks tho that i ran out of time today to get it installed myself. gonna have to wait til next week now.

 

It cost me 35 to get them torched off by a local shop. Although sounds like you got a damn good deal and very lucky. The rest of the installation should be very easy for you.

 

No shops around me will even take the time to torch the bolts for me. I drove around all day to shops asking if they could heat them up and loosen them so I could remove them later. Everyone said no. WTF? Not sure what to do now because I can't get to them easily and I was told by another shop I had a good chance of snapping the bolts and being in big trouble with the manifolds.

 

well i took my car to farm&fleet which is similar to like a home depot but more car focused. they have a car service center so i figured a job like this would be best done there cause i called a few muffler shops and they all try to rip you off.

 

i have a family friend mechanic that said he would do it next week but said I had a big risk of causing damage to the manifolds. Scared me. I haven't heard any stories of that on here in all the threads about ypipe installing. I just hope it doesnt happen to me.

 

I ran into the same problem as you cdg, the shops overquoted me because they didn't want to deal with it. I ended up telling the mechanic that my parents go to that I'll do it myself with his tools and a jack and pay him 20 bucks since he quoted me 150. It took forever to find a shop that would do it for me.
I don't think you'll damage the manifolds as long as they're just torching off the y-pipe -> cat bolts (2 of them). The manifold -> y-pipe bolts (6 of them) are easy to get off. Just get a breaker bar, 12" extension, and a swivel. You'll be able to set it up in your garage. Also look in the stickys.

 

^agree. your just torching the 2 cat bolts they are not in the area of torch for the cat bolts. No damage is done to them. Just tell him to do the cat bolts only. Hell i've torched manifold bolts off before without damage to the manifold itself.

 

Just take the tips from that pm, and remember the only car I had them snap on had been overheated about 20 times until the headgasket blew, and when i say overheated I mean it would start to idle rough and the temp gauge was taching out! Your family freind mechanic might have had a bad experience, but there's not a good chance of snapping them, it's the opposite. And hey, worst case scenario you snap one on the rear manifold and you get to experience the joy of working on cars, when a small job turns into a royal pita, but then afterwards you realize you have that much more experience and you saved out on a shop quadrupling your bill.
But you shouldn't have a problem anyways, it's the y-cat bolts that like to break, and those aren't hard to deal with.

 

and you'll find that with most aftermarket y-pipes installing the 6 manifold nuts is much easier, you probably won't even need the swivel for re-assembly

 

i had the same problem here. i couldn't even get a socket on them. i had to use an angle grinder w/ cut off disk to cut them off, then drill through the holes. hope that helps.

 

well its good to hear all this stuff. I had my b-pipe put in a few months ago so those bolts to the cat probably won't be too much of a problem. I'm thinking to take the y and cat out and then getting those bolts off. I was just concerned about the manifold bolts. I guess I'll start drenching them in pb blaster for this week and I'll remove the y after driving so it will be hot. I hope that's ok.

 

yup thats what I did

 

Torch Em Off!

 

go to some auto shop and just buy an exhaust cutter, thats how i got mine off when i put my cat back on

 

I second the corner grinder idea i used that to remove a pesky bolt off my corssmeber. (you can replce the fat stone with a cutting one that fits look in home depo this costs about 50$) and you get a usefull tool.