Down pipe install Deal or no Deal
 

So I just shelled out 475 for labor to have my Pettit downpipe installed by my local mechanic. Seems the factory turbo studs are copper and a royal pain to remove. I have no idea if I was robbed or saved because he seems to have spent more than 5 hours on it. All in all I rather pay 475 than spend 5 hours on my back in the garage attempting it with my lame tool collection.

Anyone have an idea what the average labor cost is for a downpipe install?

On the plus side the car seems to breathe much better and I can almost hear the exhaust now.

7zoom
Boost gauge- check
Down pipe with heat wrap- check
Ground cable- check
next on the list vacum lines to hopefully cure the flat spot before the turbo comes online.

It's not uncommon for a downpipe install to be that difficult. If it took a mechanic that long, you'll almost certainly have taken longer.

Some guys negotiate the labor up front and get it done for a flat rate. Then if the mechanic has a hard time they deal with the extra time, not you.

Dave

Damn, $95 an hour for labor? At that price, I'd expect faster work.

Downpipe isn't hard by any stretch. Yeah, the fasteners can suck, but that's true of most any exhaust install on any car.

I'd find a better mechanic.

Dale

$475 is a little steep for me... but if your happy thats all that counts. now go out and play with your new toy!!

If it was the first time your mechanic has done the job, then thats reasonable.

It took me about that long the first time I installed mine. Now I can pull it in maybe half an hour?

I paid $200 about 5 years ago. A mechanic that knows what he is doing will give you a lower rate up front, and won't take 5 hours to do the job.

I paid zero.

ramps + tools + an hour of my time = free

+1

If you have the time, a jack, jackstands, and a basic craftsman tool set, you should be able to do it in 4 hours or less in your own garage (assuming you've turned a wrench before).

The studs on my down pipe came off a little too easily, but you can use the two-nuts-in-parallel technique to remove studs that refuse to come out. Using a solvent such as PB Blaster definitely makes the entire process a lot smoother.

dang anybody need a downpipe installed i will do it for 300 bucks! haha

i installed my downpipe myself for free, i win.

Screw getting an education, Im going to install downpipes for a living!
Lol jk, but as long as its done and you're happy

I also installed mine by myself.. spent total of 4hrs, 2 hrs each day. with lots of pb blaster, and bruised bloody knuckles... :lol:

The stock studs and nuts are made of inconel, not copper. The problem with them is when they get old they become brittle. As you try to remove them the metal tends to splinter and dig into the surrounding metal. This is why they sometimes break loose, then get tighter as they unscrew. If you force it you will break a stud and them have a mess to deal with. I like to soak the hardware with pb blast and then use ample heat from a torch. If something starts to bind, I stop and heat it more. Usually the studs come out along with the nuts. I like to replace all the hardware. I use high quality steel studs and self locking copper nuts. I hate the mazda hardware.

i changed mine along with the whole exhaust system in under 3 hours

Thanks for the replies the mechanic did show me what looked like mangled copper studs and suggested that the heat he used didnt really help.

I'd love a good rotary mechanic and have tried to find one in Orlando but no luck.
Can anyone suggest a mechanic in Orlando???

Perhaps I'll just have to take some time off and drive down to West Palm and let Pettit do the vacum lines/EGR removal and a tunning.

Thanks
7zoom

$475 for a downpipe install is insane

possibly one of the easiest mods to do YOURSELF.

Yes you might run into some tough studs/nuts, but it won't cost you anything near $475. Think I did my original DP in about 2 hours, with $10 worth of part

You could have spend <$100 on a nice tool set and done it yourself

just my opinion

and you could use the tools again, and again, and again.................etc.

Just watch you're boosting within safe limits of your FD, don't want to blow it!

Ignore all the I-did-my-downpipe-in-60-minutes posts. Car boards are full of heroes who do 10 hours jobs in 10% of the time. (My favourite is the 20 minute fuel filter change, though no doubt someone will soon claim to have done the downpipe in the same amount of time.)

While it is theoretically possible to do a downpipe in 60 minutes, it is extremely unlikely for a first timer. 5 hours is a good guess if everything goes right, but if a stud is stuck or the downpipe provides poor clearance you can add many hours to that time. I had to spend an hour grinding my poorly fitting downpipe for stud clearance and then had to wait for the dealer to open after the weekend to order an extra shorter stud (there are two stud types on the stock system).

Your mechanic clearly ran into issue with studs and still managed to finish the job in five hours, which is reasonable. And $100 or so per hour is pretty standard.

This explanation is why I didn't give the OP a hard time.

I had mine installed when I had the motor rebuilt a long time ago. I've never attempted that part of the exhaust, but it looks relatively simple. Just seems like a very tight space to work with.

I think I would have done it on my own if I didn't have it installed with the rebuild.

except that it did take an hour... :icon_tup:

All the studs came out without any issue, and I tapped the holes and installed the new one with my ARP studs.

easy as pie.

When you've done engine swaps, changing a d/p is cake.

+1

I have done a few engine swaps, and my downpipe was a nightmare. I got everything off, except for one stud. It came part way off, and then froze. I put everything I could on it to loosen it up. No dice. Finally, the edges on the nut rounded off, and I was fucked!!! The precat was hanging there by one stud, and I couldn't remove it. I bolted everything back up as tight as I could, and drove the car (with an exhaust leak) 200 miles to an expert rotary mechanic. I was very happy to pay him $200 to install the downpipe.

Not all downpipes come off easily. While I don't consider myself to be an expert mechanic, I'm no noob either. A downpipe installation can be a total bitch.

Did that price include hardware/gaskets? Just remember the Mazda studs are around $8-9 each and the downpipe gasket is around $80. The nuts aren't cheap either.