i decided to try and tackle the downpipe today and im running into a little bit of a snag.

heres a pic to get an idea of the routing



theres a 90 coming outta the vband on the turbo down towards the pass side of the stock K, 45 going into the K mated to 45 coming outta the k, then another 45 going back by the trans.

everything is cut and lines up great, heres my problem. i cant for the life of me figure out how im going to get the thing in and out of the car in 1 or even 2 pieces. i basically taped the pipes together to check getting it in and out and right now i cant figure out how its going to happen. i have the starter outta the way as well.

as things stand now it looks like the 90 coming outta the turbo is going to be one piece, the 45 into the k mated to the 45 out is going to be another piece, and the last 45 going back towards the rear is the last piece. i really dont want this and would prefer at the most two pieces.

anyone have any ideas or pic of their dp that might help me

if im stuck with 3 pieces, what is the best, and cost effective,way to join them. i really wanted as few pieces as possible to make it easy to heat wrap

thanks

 

Could you get it in in 1 or maybe 2 pieces with the K member dropped ?

I know a pain in the a... to do and you would have to support the engine from above, but hopefully not the sort of thing you have to remove to often.

 

dropping the k is definitely not something im planning on doing. ill just add a couple vbands even though i dont want to. heres a pic of the downpipe, unless i figure something else out clamps are gonna have to go where the black tape is

 

i would defiantly use vbands to join them, but remember the vbands take up some room if you have them in close spaces.
what side are you routing the downpipe?

 

I ended up welding my downpipe in 1 piece. I have no reason to remove it and if I do I can cut it and re-weld it. If you think about it, if you need to remove you turbo, just un-bolt the flange and to remove the turbo.

Mine is routed similiar to yours and I can remove the starter no prob along with the motor mounts.

 

i would advice against that , you will be kicking yourself every time you need to service your vehicle, there has been many times i have had to remove my downpipe like to drop the tranny or whatever, and if i had to cut and reweld it every time it would look pretty bad and be a major pain.

 

Funny thing is, it's not in the way of anything. But then again I have it dumped on pass side @ clutch. If I wanted to run exhaust to the back all I would do is use a 3 flange exhaust collector.

 

i have a vband off the first 90 on my setup

 

We used a butted 5" flat band clamp to join my dp in 2 sections on my car. They are used in big rig diesel applications, They make them in the smaller sizes too. You will want to make the exhaust has some sort of mounts or hangers. They are only like $10-15 for the stainless versions.
The other car I am working, has a front dp section that ends at the starter with a v band flange, the rest will be 1 piece to the axle.