Exhaust conversion problems
G'day All,
The other month I bought a 3" Stainless exhaust system which came with the rather optimistic advice: "DIY install time: 3 hours". Now the first problems I had with the install were that 2 of the nuts fastening the original cat. to the turbo were siezed. There was no room to get the rattle gun in there so I tried to get them off with a socket, one stud on the turbo snapped (fortunately with just enough thread to get a nut back on) and the other required careful application of a nut splitter, visegrips and much patience to remove.
The rest of the removal went off without a hitch. The real problem turned up while attempting to install the new system. The front piece of the 3" system is a gooseneck which bends up to the dump pipe, however this has to be run through a rather tight gap near the sway bar and requires rotating the section of the exhaust to get it in . This Piece when rotated fouled with the garage floor, so I got out and put my stands up as high as they would go and tried again. It still fouled with the garage floor!
It also looked as if the sway bar would be in the way even if I did have the clearance under the vehicle. I decided to consolidate my losses and spend the next couple of hours re-installing the factory exhaust, it really looked like a hoist was required for this job.
Fast forward to now when I took a few days leave from work, I drove the Vehicle to an exhaust specialist who agreed to install my new system for me. 5 hours later he had it in and talking to him it seemed his tone was 'Please don't ever come here again'. He had encountered the same problem as me, that the goose neck piece at the front couldn't freely go up to meet the dump pipe and even with the vehicle on a hoist they had to remove the sway bar to negotiate the piece in. Also that once it was in place it was nearly impossible to get the bolts to halfway up the engine bay to attach the gooseneck to the dump pipe, requiring makeshift tools and many extensions.
The main problem seemed to be the gooseneck and the short dump pipe. The original system has the dump pipe & cat as one piece, so no nuts midway up the engine out of reach, the piece that connects to the bottom of the cat. is purely horizontal, ie: has no gooseneck or 90 degree bends in it to negotiate through the underside of the car.
I don't want to go naming names yet as even the frustrated mechanic agreed that "it is a real nice exhaust, just a **** to get on" but my question is, has anyone else done an exhaust conversion themselves? Would you consider it to be DIY or professional install only (Maybe some of you have hoists?) I haven't seen the actual parts/assembly of other brands of exhaust systems, so I have no idea if mine is a particularly awkward design or if they're all similar but as it stands if someone told me they were going to change their exhaust at the moment, I'd recommend they take it to an exhaust shop
New System for reference:
http://img708.imageshack.us/img708/4595/ugz2.jpg
Pic from internet showing an original exhaust (next to taipan system)
http://i273.photobucket.com/albums/j...t001Medium.jpg
