RawWS6

Anyone done it and have decent pictures? Where are the hangers supposed to screw into the car?

This has been a ******* pain in the ***. No instructions first off. OK I'm no idiot I assume I can figure it out.

The pipes aren't all marked, there's no marking on the X. easy enough to figure out except the X...call and ask if there is a right/left because it doesn't look symmetrical... "No, it can go either way". OK fine.

No screws to hold in the hangers...call and ask..."you use the ones off the stock mounts" OK fine.

Finally get everything installed...the front pipes are all the way up against the o2 sensors...all other pipes are almost all the way on, except for the two on an angle going into the X, i am 1/4" off on one side and 1/2" off on the other side, and i can't move it anymore. Hangers are still over 1" back from where I assume they are supposed to mount. I can spin the bushing/mounting strap around the hanger and not touch anything on the car.

I cut the rear pipes coming off the X about 1.5" to give me some room to work. Finally get everything on and mounted...X pipe is ~1/4" below the torque arm, so i figure that's as far as it can go (I had a jack under the mufflers to get it up high). tighten up, drop it to the ground and no ****, the tips are ~1/8" off the ground. when i sat in it they touched.

Looking at it now, it seems like my biggest problem is that the "it can go either way" X is upside down, therefore it's angling the mufflers down. Grrr.

I will say it sounded better than the ORY/cutout. Too bad I can't drive it.

end rant

DreamState23x

iTrader: (4)

Mine was the same way clearence wise when I first did it. It takes a lot of turn this pipe this much and this one that much and pick up here kinda stuff. Also it sounds like you had the car jacked up with the rearend just hanging there, if you jack the rear end up aswell(while the car is already jacked up) you will have alot more room to move them up because this will pick the torque arm up to where it will usually sit when the car is not jacked up.

I used the old screws for the hangers at first but they kept coming out so now I have a bolt running from inside the car with a nut holding the hanger, so if i need to move the exhaust for maintenance I just take off the nut.

Just keep f*cking with it, it will move up alot.

RawWS6

hmm. i did have the rear end up...it was actually just sitting on rhino ramps. i had the front jacked up on the frame. how about the X pipe? can you tell is there an up/down? Did you have to cut anything off the back? I find it hard to believe I can get this thing up any farther without something major. does it actually bolt up behind the seat? did you have to go through that metal heat shield or whatever the hell it is on the passenger side?

DreamState23x

iTrader: (4)

If I remeber right I took the heat shield off. The x pipe I was confused about to. I just picked a side. If you look at the x-pipe it bumps down in one spot that is facing down on the drivers side if I remeber right. I also took out that flemsy cross bar(metal plate) that runs under the drive shaft from the drivers side to the passenger side. That thing is doing nothing anyways. The better you can adjust the curved pipe up by the header the more you can move everything up. I also put a jack under the mufflers to lift them to where I wanted them. I also had to flip over the plastic fuel line brackets that run down the drivers side of the tunnel to move them up away from the pipes. Yes they bolt up behind the seats.

gogogadget

iTrader: (1)

I have not installed mine, but I have a fully assembled one pulled from another car, and there is a definite tilt after the x to get the pipes up higher.

jrp

iTrader: (16)

lol, i had the same experience. i tried everything, tried the x pipe both right side up and upside down. my problems were either low ground clearance or no tq arm clearance. after many hours of ******* with it i gained an extra 1.5 and a half ground clearance and a 1/4 clearance around the tq.

im junking the setup in a few months, i'll be glad to get rid of it.

RawWS6

Well at least I don't feel quite as stupid now. guess I'll flip that x-pipe tomorrow and see what I can do. Sure am glad this isn't a daily driver, i'd be super pissed right now with no working exhaust.

RawWS6

OK I flipped this bitch over and it's looking better. not on the ground yet though.

What do you mean about flipping over that fuel line bracket? I can push the X-pipe all the way up now and it will hit that bracket and I still have ~1/2" clearance from the torque arm. Did you push those lines up higher when you flipped the bracket, or did you actually have to re-run them? How did you protect them from the exhaust?

thanks all for the advice.

DirtyJohn

iTrader: (8)

I did this two weeks ago.
I'd give you some comments but I wrote the whole thing out already.

(Link) Read if you want, maybe it'll help.

Lane

iTrader: (1)

Drill holes and run bolts/lockwasher/nuts to hold the hangers. Screws won't stay in for long. That's what I used on my first systems until they started ripping out and ripping up customers floor-boards. This may or may not happen to everyone, but using this method of securing your exhaust is better than self-tapping screws IMO.

Also - A rubber bushing of some type(cut up old tire, etc. on the inside and outside of the floor-board) will knock 99% of the vibration out that you'll get if you don't use any type of dampener. It will also give the exhaust a little more room to 'flex'.

Make sure you flip your fuel lines - that will help you get more clearance, and safely move them up away from the hot exhaust. Doing a 'search' here will help you with that if you're not sure what I'm talking about.

Good luck and enjoy duals on your F-body.

RawWS6

I did a lot of searching last weekend, right before your post, John! Great writeup, and thanks for the advice guys. I took the fuel line brackets off earlier, but was uncomfortable pushing them up so far, so I called it quits for the day. Hopefully I'll convince myself to finish it up tomorrow night.

V6 Bird

iTrader: (15)

What did the inside of your X look like and how about the drivers side pipe?

Mine looked like this that i had to work with.

V6 Bird

iTrader: (15)

Probably the best thing you could do.

RawWS6

Yeah, the X looks pretty shitty inside like that. i've never seen an x-pipe before though, so i don't know how much cleaner it should be

AKIRA

I take it youre installing it yourself without a welder. I dont want to do it myself and I dont have a welder, if I ever get a dual setup.

And now that I hear that you gotta do all this **** just for an inch here and there...no exhaust shop around here is gonna do that either.

God damnit I am stuck.

jrp

iTrader: (16)

agreed. however lets not go down that route again...

the inside of my X looks just like you posted




for the price as compaired to comperable catbacks the TSP duals are good for an economical setup. however if i could do it again i'd of spent the money on something thats higher quality and better fiitting.

V6 Bird

iTrader: (15)

Go see Dr Gas stuff and ask them to send you pics of the inside of their X's and you'll see why they are the leader. They can also explain exhaust pulse technology and give you why its built the way that they do. Its smooth as silk on the transition.

You guys getting what you pay for.
Mike

V6 Bird

iTrader: (15)

Glad to hear your feedback good or bad. ANd yes, i agree alot with building it right the first time bro! Right on. I hate having to re-do things.

RawWS6

I wasn't planning on welding it, but my neighbor offered to help me do it. I might just have him weld the mufflers onto the back of the X now, since I cut off some pipe, it doesn't seem like they are on as far as I want. I don't think you really need to weld it, assuming you don't **** with it like i ended up doing.

I've got it tucked up under there pretty good now it looks like, though it's hard to tell since I haven't got it on the ground yet (stupid drill broke, so I can't bolt up the hangers). The driver's side bullet is basically touching the bottom of the car (similar to DirtyJohn's pics), but I still have about 3/8" clearance from the tq arm. It's also touching on the driver's side just after the header, though that doesn't surprise me since my y-pipe did the same thing. rubber hose and cable ties, here I come for those two spots.

I can't get the damn thing centered, it's off to the driver's side a bit, but not too much. I can't move it farther toward the passenger side because I don't have one of the connections on the driver's side slipped on that far. Move it toward pass side and that comes farther off. Hopefully tomorrow I'll have a working drill so I can finish up and take some pics.

RawWS6

werd, that's why I bought them... seemed like a pretty good price. it was either buy these, spend too much for a custom dual setup, or throw a hooker on it. I'm sure I'll be happy once I get it on there assuming I have a little ground clearance and they aren't leaking.