My mid-pipes with high flow cats should be coming in on Tuesday, unless I too become victim of RPM Outlet's "shady" ways. If in fact it does get here when it's supposed to, I'll be putting it on myself along with a Magnaflow cat-back and I'll be doing this all in my driveway with a jack and stands. Are there any snags that any of you have run into while doing this. I can't count the amount of times that I've done this on Mustangs but never on a Lightning. I'd just like to know ahead of time about any headaches or problems I may run into or if this is fairly easy. Thanks.

 

Have a shop or a bud tackweld the midpipes to the catback.

You might consider sh1tcanning the band clamps and get some regular exhaust clamps. Hate for you to blow the catback off the midpipes and ruin your system, truck, et. al. Saw that first hand. Luckily the JLP/PSP style driveshaft loop caught and saved the catback from certain doom.

As for the intall, should be straight forward. An impact wrench would be highly adviseable.

The setup sounds awesome.

Bob

 

When I did the Magnaflow low restriction cats on my truck, I had a very tough time getting the factory cat pipes out of the muffler because the clamps had crimped the muffler tube onto the cat pipe. That was with 1000 miles on the truck. Disconnect all of the O-2 sensors first and remove the nuts holding the fuel line bracket to the left frame rail. The right side pipe comes in and out easily. The left side is a genuine b***h to get out.

As you're wrestling with the pipes, keep convincing yourself that they are actually going to add something like horsepower rather than just noise. So far, no one has documented a before/after horspower or ET improvement from them. Everyone does agree, however, that they are loud.

I wound up using a "come-a-long" tied to the rear axle to pull the muffler rearward while I beat on the front of the muffler with a large hammer and a block of wood. I would suggest that you not loosen the head pipes from the manifold until the muffler assembly is completely free of the cat pipes.

Once I had them installed, I drilled a 5/64 hole through the muffler flange pipe and cat pipe and the screwed a #10 sheet metal screw into the hole to keep them together and aligned while I drove it for two days. I then put the truck back up on the jackstands and took 'em off. I simply could not stand the L sounding like a split manifold 1954 chevy lowrider on deceleration. I hope you have better luck.

 

Thanks guys. Luckily, I won't need to mess with separating the stock muffler from the cats because the previous owner of my truck had the muffler WELDED directly to the convertors. So my sawzall will remedy that situation quickly. Do you think I'll have a problem keeping the cat back connected to the cats with the supllied clamps even if I tighten the ***** out of them? From what you're saying it sounds like the cat back takes a nose dive right into the street when this happens. That would suck. The left pipe is a pain as you say but is it something I'll need to jack the motor up for or is it just a matter of patience? Thanks again guys.

 

No, you don't have to loosen the motor at all. You may have to loosen the rear bolt on the left converter heat shield, but the engine and trans stays in place. Pay close attention to how the rear O-2 sensors unplug. The fronts work exactly the same way, but there is just about no room for your hand.

The rear O-2 sensors compare what went into the cats with what is coming out, so they serve as cat condition monitors. Many of the aftermarket programs let you trun off those sensors so they don't try to make up for the smaller cats by leaning out the mixture. That also translates to getting the truck re-tuned once the mid pipes are on.

 

Damn, my hands are pretty friggin wide too. Oh well, I'll make it happen. I usually do, just sometimes before I get a job done I've thrown a few ratchets and wrenches through windows . Thanks again.

 

If you want to use the band clamps here is what I would do. First put antisieze on the bolts and nuts. Position the clamps and snug them up but don't get carried away - even if the muffler is still loose. Then back the clamp off - turn it 90 deg - and tighten it again. Back it off- turn it 180 deg and tighten it down. It shoud be tight after this. The clamp bands don't deform well to the pipe in one tightening. It's kind of like seating in flared tubing connections. Sometimes it takes 2 or 3 cycles before they conform and seal well. Also moving the clamp around the pipe distributes the pressure and pulls the outer pipe down more uniformally to the inner pipe. I did this on mine and have had no problems. I did however, take a section of clothes hanger, wrap one end around the screw and nut part of one clamp and then run it forward and wrapped the other end around the mid-pipe alighnment bracket (stock converters), for safety. If it were to move it would be between the pipes and the clamp on the outer one is going to stay tight. No need for this so far as mine are good, rigid and tight.

 

What i did was drop the trans cross member, support the trans with a jack, remove crossmember. The made it much easier to remove everything. After the mid pipe is loose, start to lower it down and it will make the clips for the O2s more accessible. Unclip and then unscrew the O2s and put them in the new mid pipe, and start over again.

 

My magnaflow catback fell off the other day while I was pulling out of the parking lot at work. I had the clamps tightened till they were bottomed out. I ended up pulling the welder out and tacking them on.