downpipe fiasco
 

well installed my down pipe today, talk about a pain in the ass. took 8 hours on a lift with very little help from others. i removed all heat shields and no dice pain to get out and pain to get in. (pipe itself) i did get 3 of the four studs out i purposly left the top front in which helped got 3 of the four back in the top rear will not go in:wallbash: . any thoughts? i dont think its leaking but i am sure the stud is stripped out so i know i need a new one, any body know where i can get a bolt that will fit in? p.s it sounds great but not worth the hassle i will not do it again. i would rather do slp headers on an ls1 camaro which isnt much better.

^ Call Ray Crowe @ Malloy Mazda --> (888) 533-3400, or (703) 490-8170 if you're using a calling card<--. He can get you the correct studs/gaskets, and will ship to FPO/APO. His ship times are very quick and the prices are excellent.

Believe it or not the OEM parts are incredibly high quality and probably your best bet.


Also, for future reference, it's best to leave those studs in if at all possible.

oh yeah it would be simple to leave the studs in however my pipe did not want to clear the steering rack (rhd) so it was a very tight squeeze it took four guys pushing and wiggling to get that sob in there. not to mentions my big ole american hands were not ment to be fiddling in the engine bay, i need to get a japanese friend who likes to work on these cars, everybody has one but no one wants anything to do with working on them. i will give him a call on monday so i can get a oem stud and nut, then pay the afees garage to put it in.

Yeah, clearance can be a bitch due to the steering rack. Just another reason why I prefer the LHD 7's to the RHD ones (not to mention I know, for a fact, I'll be able to take mine back to the states with me when I rotate off this fucking island!).

Have you considered using a crow bar to shift the ending over to the left a bit while getting in there to install everything? I would honestly NOT trust AAFES to do the job correctly (in time you will realize that they fuck EVERYTHING up, and are in it to serve themselves, only). If it's above your skill level than do yourself a favor and take it to a Rotary Specialist. Honest.

why didn't u just open the steering rack and remove that "joint" part.. a bolt on top and a bolt on the bottom..

correction in bold... gotta love automatically typing some random word instead of the one you mean..

thought about it but i figured i got it out with it in there so i can get the new one in with it there. i know afees is a joke but they should be able to install one stud, i could but i am done messing with it for a while.

I would def be sure to get the stud from Mazda regardless. If you're just installing one stud and the DP is already off than it should take you all of 5 min with the car on a lift (provided you didn't break a stud off in removing the DP)

i am getting a new stud for it. however i am going to pay a garage to put it in as my hands dont fit in there too well. and i dont want to deal with it anymore. btw no leaks. ran it hard today hit .9 bar dropped to .7 and then went to 1.1 bar. i suspect some boost creeping obviously so now its time to get a boost controller and a pfc.

The nuts for my down pipe seized to the studs, effectively turning most of them into bolts, I'm thankful of this, because it made getting the DP in a hell of a lot easier.

Wait, what??? you ran 1.1bar (16psi) on the stock ECU :Wconfused

Do you have a completely open (catless) system or something?

no it was completely stock to my knowledge when i bought it minus a cat back, boost gauge, timer, and some adjustable shocks. i put an intake and down pipe on it. but with the intake i was hitting between .8 and .9 i do believe this car was modded and tuned and then put back to somewhat stock when they sold it to the dealer but left the tune in because it runs smoother and just feels good. the gas milage even increased. the cat is still inplace and i may even have an exhaust leak. but i will go run it again this weekend and try to get a vid of it.

alot of guys will actually pull the engine to do a downpipe on the RHD FD's just because of the lack of space with the steering column and turbos in there.

A boost controller is only good for SPIKE, it won't help you with creep. Neither will the PFC really.

This is stupid. I did my FEED downpipe in 2 hours, including removing the old one. You mark the steering rack and disconnect it and then tie it up out of the way. Then you take the heatshields off, and then the four nuts holding the downpipe on.

You can then slide the downpipe on a funny angle to get it out.

Installation is the reverse of removal.

For reals, its a piece of cake and just takes some thinking about your approach to each fastener.

i thought of that but several others in the garage told me it would be easier to pull the motor than to take off the steering rack. a little force goes a long ways though.