For a mechanical novice what can of time frame am I looking at to change my old factory exhaust to RB full exhaust? 8-10 hours, couple weeks, LOL.

Any goods tips or advice to make this job go faster besides lots of penetrating spray on manifold bolts.

Or should I just get a shop to put on and save the frustration, there labor rates seem pretty high for just removing stock exhaust and bolting in RB system.

 

Um, I would never pay someone to bolt in an RB exhaust. They are one of the best made aftermarket systems you will ever find. You might need to do a little bit of trimming or hammering of your heat shield if you have an 84-85 car. Not a big deal. If your rubber hangers are cracked, it is time to inspect and get some new ones now before you begin.

Oh and don't worry about getting the old system off. The only nuts you really need to take off are the ones holding the exhaust manifold on the engine, and they are not very hard on any 81-85. Now if you have an SA with the thermal reactor, I will pray for you.

for the rest of the exhaust, if you must cut it you could, but I would not recommend it. Stock pieces are getting harder to find.

 

Assuming penetrating stuff works and you aren't cutting any bolts, you can swap this out in an afternoon easily.

You own a rotary....you should take any excuse to get to know your car better
Doing the exhaust is an easy job and a good opportunity to get underneath to look for rust/corrosion, inspect your brake and fuel lines etc.

The only tricky part I found was removing and installing the cat back, takes a bit of wiggling to get the right angle to get it out from above the rear axle. If like me, you are only using jack stands rather than a lift, make sure you get it as high as possible to make your life easier. I think i left the front end on the ground (once the header was removed) to get even more of a raised angle on the rear.

Have fun!

Tom

 

As the other guys said, this is an EAAASSYYY job; every 2 years, I swap my RB header and presilencer off of the -SE and put the stock manifold and cats back in for state-required emissions testing. Then, after it passes with flying colors, I come back home and swap the RB header and presilencer back into it.

That's how easy and simple it is. It is literally 8 bolts and the electrical connector for the O2 sensor (on an -SE).

Here's a pro-tip. As you start to put the new system in place, unless you have a lift it can be pretty hard to position everything right. I lift the header section up onto the steering tie-rod and let it sit there while I position the back 2 nuts which bolt it to the tailpipe section. Once the tailpipe section has the studs through the holes (*don't tighten them, yet), then you can easily lift the front of the header into place on the 4 studs at the engine side. Thread on the 4 x 14mm nuts to finger tight, and then put a jack with a piece of wood between the jack head and the presilencer and use the jack to lift the exhaust system up and under the body. With the jack in place and lifting, go back and tighten the 4 x 14mm nuts holding the header to the engine, and then tighten the 2 nuts holding the tailpipe to the presilencer. Now remove the jack.

Viola! your exhaust system is now tucked up nicely where it belongs and not dragging on every speedbump you encounter.

Here's another pro-tip: after you get it installed, don't rev your engine around cops.

I hope you're also using the RB PowerPulse muffler,...? This keeps the tininess down and helps with overall tone of the exhaust.

 

I'm doing the same thing this week -- full RB exhaust system. My question is the air pump. Do I need to remove, and if so, what all do I need to do? 1984 GSL-SE - putting a full MazdaTrix system on with O2 sensor hole

 

k4,pretty sure i answered this question in your other thread. Happy to provide any more specific info you may need.

 

You did GSLSEforme, and I took your advise, and have the Banzai pulley. The header system came yesterday, but it doesn't have a blockoff plate for the air pump. I've looked on mazdatrix website, and only plate I see for 1984 is 81-92 Non Turbo Intake Manifold. Is that what I need? And, I prob need more detailed instructions on exactly what needs to be blocked off as far as any vacuum lines. Thanks

 

Yes,that's the plate you need+gasket. You'll need a pair of belts for your pulley install,when installed they need to have equal tension. In the "old" days,lots of domestic cars had dual pulleys & matched belts were common,they came taped together as a set. The demand for that being long gone,it's hard to find a "set" in size you need if at all. Use brand name Gates,Dayco belts for best quality. Fit and adjust tension,need to be close to equal tension. Look at your exhaust hangers closely,with age of car likely stretched out/sagging. Streetport system is heavier than what you're taking off & your new system may not match up that well with sagged hangers. i replaced all mine as several were stretched out of shape after 30+yrs. Looked for aftermarket,have a friend that does high end custom exhaust work and has in stock all kinds of hangers,some were close but not enough. I bought oem replacements which weren't cheap,but only wanted to do this once. You'll have to do some minor creative bending of heat shields at header/presilencer connection & back at opposite end of presilencers. Some say to take off heat shields,personally i wanted to keep my car as much oe as i could putting car up in air and using rust penetrant spray couple days before removal is a good idea. On my SE,didn't have to do this,all hardware was like new(garage kept) but other RXs i've had had some breakage on removal of exh. system. There's other stuff you need to address,i'll get back to this later,try to find some pics of install on mine to show you some of them.

 

LongDuck nailed it. Loosely bolt it all together, jack it up so its tucked under the car good and
then tighten from the front to the back.

Also replace all the hangers, as the old ones are toast at this point and not worth reusing.
Don't mess the shields unless you have too. The bolts will be old, rusted and likely to break off
when you try to undo them unless you use heat and penetrating oil carefully to get them
undone.

This is easily an afternoon job.

 

Don't be afraid of PB blaster or liquid wrenc. It took about an hour or an hour and a half to install the entire exhaust system. This was the first mod I made to my car and my first time ever replacing an exhaust on any car. The next time I worked on exhaust on a Honda I learned how much the recommendation of using PB blaster actually helped.

 

Also, when I bought the exhaust kit from Racing beat it came with both block off plates in the box.

 

k4,i don't want to cause any confusion,nor do i wish to disagree with previous posters.. The system LongDuck is referring to he's taking off & on his car is a RB header & presilencer that replaces cat converter(s) and bolts up to i assume the stock midpipe that goes to muffler. Your system is different in that it's a streetport system,header is an offroad uncollected unit,your center section is two presilencers,pipes,f&r flanges and is pretty heavy just by itself. Suggest proceeding in this manner: Remove complete exhaust system,make an effort to save(as in not cut up/off) sections for reuse,either for yourself if you find you need to reinstall for possibility of further emission testing,or if certain you'll never reinstall,resale to someone else looking for those oe pieces$$. May help you recoup some of cost of your new system. Next remove air pump,brackets and hose going up to air cleaner,you'll need to plug the hole in airbox left after removing hose. Unplug connectors going to ACV & remove it(3 bolts),clean the manifold thoroughly of old gasket material& install ACV blockoff plate with new gasket. Remove hose from rear of intake that went to check valve in exhaust back pressure airpipe originally coming from cat converter,will need to plug this port also on manifold. Right by this check valve at front of airpipe is a small nipple with a hose held onto it with a spring clamp,remove this hose from airpipe and follow it to its other end which is the backpressure supply tube for 5th&6th auxiliary port actuators. This is the tube you will attach the backpressure tube/hose supplied in your exhaust system contents. The tube sent to you is straight when unpackaged(it screws into the fitting on header for 1st rotor chamber) & can be bent to faciitate install & routing of hose on opposite end. I would leave this til after system is on car. Next remove oe gasket for rotor housing,clean off any remaining gasket material,slip new gasket provided on then fit headeron and finger tighten the original manifold bolts to hold it relatively in position. You may need/opt for new washers/nuts for this depending on shape of your oe one. Take two of the bolts that attach presilencer section of exhaust to header and lift this section into place to header flange and install couple bolts to hold it loosely together. Don't worry about the gasket at this point. On the other end of presilencer section you can use one of the bolts that held the oe midpipe on to the hanger to hold this up. Now you can go back and remove the bolts,fit the gasket and put all six bolts and nuts in place finger tight at the presilencer/header flange. Take the hangers from original muffler brackets AND the ground strap,don't leave this off! and transfer them(or put new) to the new muffler. Slip the muffler gasket onto welded studs at back of presilencer and from the back of car slip muffler pipes over axle and onto presilencer studs,hold it on with one of nuts supplied in kit for now and fit muffler hangers and start all bolts and nuts til finger tight on muffler. Put all washers/nuts supplied in kit on muffler/presilencer flange finger tight. Install all hangers on system. You may wish to put a jack with a flat piece of wood on top to bring header/presilencer flange flat together. At this point tighten header to engine,believe 25 ft lbs. is torque spec. Then tighten header/presilencer flange,then presilencer/muffler flange and finally all hanger hardware. Install backpressure pipe and connect to actuator pipe nipple. Install O2 sensor removed from exhaust manifold(use neverseize on threads-don't get any on sensor partion). Last thing,unless you want your fingerprints to be on header tubes forever,use some spray wax on header and wipe fingerprints off. There are no vacuum lines to be removed for any of this. Recommend you box up all parts and attaching hardware and store them until you decide what to do with them. People are always looking to buy these things but you may want to hold onto them. About 100 miles after install,you'll want to go back and check tightness of all exhaust system hardware as after several heating/cooling cycles things will loosen slightly-particularly the six bolts/nuts at header/presilencer flange. There's your ehaust system install chapter,lol...

 

Forgot the pics. Pic with white plug is at airfilter housing where air pump inlet hose was installed. Pic with yellow cap is back of inntake manifold where backpressure checkvalve tube went to intake manifold.

 

OMG! Good info but it looks like one continuous sentence. Paragraphs and white
space please. Us old folks have a hard time reading as it is. LOL

 

Pretty frustrated with this site about now,have posted about this previously. Put some time into writing a reply to help someone here,try to submit,only to have a screen come up and tell me i can't because i'm not logged in-which i am. When i login as prompted,response is gone. 3 times to rewrite response to '80 with 6-port engine thread AND when posted,everything jammed together,just like this thread. Doesn't happen til i submit a post...

 

Thanks so much GSLSEforme -- and your response was perfect -- I know exactly what to do now. You've helped me a lot on this and suspension. Hope to meet you next month in North Carolina

 

Glad to help,hope to be there too.

 

So are you using a browser or and app for your posts?

 

Google Chrome,app on my tablet that does wacky things from time to time,don't post much from it on this site.

 

Does the RB exhaust sound the same as stock? What is the quietest exhaust you can buy?

 

RB offers two systems,have had each on different cars. One has a collected header bolting to a presilencer,uses your oe midpipe into their muffler. Noticeable increase in power,increase in sound,wouldn't call it noise. The exhaust sound is a low mellow tone,not tinny,no drone. Their streetport system has an uncollected header into a pair of presilencers making up the mid section of the system which in turn connects by a flange to the muffler like the front of system does to header. The separate exhaust pipes are collected in the muffler itself. This is known as a long primary system which builds torque on low end and lets the engine free breathe all the way to redline. It's capable of allowing even the most radical of porting to breathe with no restriction. This is the best designed and built system made for a rotary hands down,will last the life of the car. The tone at idle/low rpm is mellow,guiet. As rpm builds the tone gets raspy,but not tinny. At cruising speed both systems are civilized,streeetport slightly louder. Have spent fair amount of money building custom exhaust for some of RXs i owned,while they gave an increase in power they were also noisy and tinny sounding. While initially the noise was"cool"it got old fast and attracted too much of wrong kind of attention. More important,they didn't last long,packing in mufflers burned out in short order which made more unwelcome noise,pipes cracked,burned out. Not a RB salesman but learned the hard way$$$. Their systems make more power without unwanted fartcan muffler sound and you buy them once... go on their website and look them over.

 

Just curious, has anyone ever added high flow cats to the RB long primary system?

 

Would be no place to fit them in that system for one, it's designed front to back to extract exhaust gases efficiently and relatively quietly. Installation of any type of catalyst would change that and not for the better. It is considered an off road system and marketed as such.

 

All these guys trying to reinvent the wheel.

 

I guess I was thinking, having the advantage of a long primary setup, but using a mid-pipe design with cats instead of silencers. So you get the power of the long primary but the street-ability as well. Or will cats immediately negate any scavenging benefits?