I am buying a full turbo back Racing beat system for pretty cheap.

Got a few questions...

1. Do I need anything special to get off my 15 year old stock system? I have been told that I need an oxycyclene (sp) torch and even then it will be hard. Other people have said that I need to soak the bolts overnight and they should come off. The owner of the exhaust says it will basically come off easily but I have my doubts.

2. The RB exhaust will need some new gaskets. The seller says he can use liquid gasket stuff, does this work? Should I order the set of gaskets from racing beat (like 30-40 bucks ). Will this liquid gasket hold long without leaking and creating a problem with exhaust pressure?

Thanks

-scott

 

1. The main thing you need to take off the stock turbo back exhuast is patience. It really isn't that hard. The BIGGEST bitch is going to be the heatshield around the precat. I got frustrated and ended up just ripping it off, as there isn't any point in keeping the pre cat heatshield to begin with. When you are trying to get the 3 bolts that hold the precat to the exhuast part of the turbo there are thin pieces of metal, metal tabs, that are bent over the nut to keep it from loosening. You will need to loosen these with some needle nose pliers or anything else that you can get at it. Soak the bolts with wd-40 or anything similar. It's not hard, just tedious at first getting the heatshield off, and the occasional stubborn bolt.

2. order the gaskets. Exhuast leaks aren't cool.

 

the gaskets between the down pipe / presilencer and the presilercer / y-pipe are the same as the stock FD ones. you can get them from the mazda dealerships. thats what I did. the other 2 muffler ones I just traced onto paper. and matched it at a local parts store.

you will probably want a new downpipe to turbo gasket though. and those are $$ like $30-40usd I think from mazda. those don't come with the RB exhuast anyways.

 

perhaps, but I think it all depends on the age and mileage on the car. My car only had 50k miles on it when I replaced the dp/cat for a thunderfabrications piece. I re-used the turbo-dp gasket and I've checked it for leaks and to this date it's still alright.

 

will liquid gasket hold up at high temps and such?

 

no

 

Get yourself some of this stuff and you'll thank me later. PB Blaster

If they're really crusty, soak the Hell out of them several times and let it sit overnight, otherwise soak them right before. That stuff is great.

 

You will also need a 12" socket extension as one of the turbo bolts is very difficult to get to any other way. I would soak the bolts at least overnight, maybe blast them a couple of times a day for a couple of days.

Good luck!

 

so, will the liquid gasket hold or do I neeed to order all new ones from RB??

 

shabaday

 

I wouldn't use liquid gasket alone, maybe the super-high-temp stuff on good-shape old gaskets. Nevermind, that's no good.

I'd just get new gaskets for the piece of mind. Check around though, $7 per sounds high.

 

Having done this several times myself, I'd recommend just reusing the metal gasket at the turbo/DP connection assuming that it is not damaged (bent or blown from a leak).

 

go to O'Reilly's or Advance Auto Parts to get your 2.5" gaskets. They are US $2.50 each.

Do not use any liquid gasket stuff. It simply cannot take the heat of rotary exhaust.

I used liquid wrench on all my nasty-looking bolts. Stuff works well, just be sure and spray the bolts well and several times and let them soak.

 

Yeah, that expensive little bastard of a DP gasket is a different story. I'm on used gaskets all around and pretty good so far. I don't know if it's my mind playing tricks on me after driving with big exhaust leaks before for so long, or I may have a small one developing again. I've put 5k mi. on it so far with no retorqueing. When/if I ever upgrade my exhaust, I'll get all new gaskets.

I would put anti-seize on all the nuts & bolts and it'll be easy to remove next time.