I can't stand it.....Magnaflow is in!
 

Looking at the Magnaflow cat back sitting in a box and not on my car. Tomorrow I'm going to install it. Weather forcast is for high 30's but I'm ready to weather the cold for the sake of performance. :mrgreen:

Start putting penetrating oil on the bolts now :D

I hope it comes apart easy. I see there is a band clamp where the I pipe connects to the cat instead of the traditional U bolt. Hopefully, that will come apart easy. Then the rest will be a snap.

:rofl::rofl: Riiiightttt.


Well good luck Mark!

You gonna polish the new catback up? :mrgreen:

i have been spoiled by lifts i cant work on my back any more

I dont think its spoiled, I think it just gets to a point where you just need a lift! We have had ours for 3 or 4 years now, its was the best money we spent as car owners.

Mmmmm, rusty flange bolts and cold weather......

knuckle bustin fun

I know your pain. I have a header back exhaust system waiting patiently in a box in my living room and my car is still in pieces. I have to wait until spring break though :( . Good luck tomorrow...well today

Famous last words.

Yeah, 12 year old bolts on a New Jersey car. Maybe you'll have better luck than I did. We broke 1 wrench and also managed to strip one of the I-pipe bolts; finally just cut the damn thing off and called it a day.

what part nj u from mark ?

Cracked 2 sockets, and twisted a ratchet. Ended up just cutting and welding.

Oh, now I know you guys are full of it! :mrgreen:

Jacked up the car, took a 15 mm to the I pipe connector, and it came right off. Went to back, unbolted the two metal hanger brackets from the frame, and exhaust is down and ready to cut in two to remove from under the car. Took all of 20 minutes.

I Knew you were making this out to be harder than it was just to bust my chops.

Have to get the kids ready to go to a Birthday party, but when I get back, I should be able to finish and have some pics to show.

You guys kill me.....

It's in. Got to hand it to Magnaflow for making a good system. Bolts right in.

Took it for a drive. Sound is awesome. A little loud for me, but I've had louder, and I'll get used to it.

I didn't like the U bolt pipe clamp that they give for behind the cat. Those tend to crush the pipes and make removing difficult. So I removed the band clamp that was spot welded to the factory I pipe and re-used it.

The other thing is the kit expects you to reuse two rubber hangers. The problem there is the old hanger are stretched out, and the two new ones they give are not. So what happens is the old hangers get reused at the back of the system, and that gives the tail pipes a sligh downward tilt. Going to go pick up two new rubber hangers so the system sits level.

All in all, it's a good exhaust with nice sound. After a week or two of driving, the muffler should have the stainless sound packing compressed a little and it will have it's true sound.

From start to finish, about 2 hours.

oh man.haha. your makin me jelous mark!!haha

Glad to hear the install went well! I wasn't joking about the penetrating oil. I've attacked way too many rusty fasteners that I use it on anything that is even mildly orange. Even if something isn't frozen you can still gall threads.

And in case you didn't do this- a dab of anti-sieze on the bolt threads of your system may help you down the road. If you didn't do it you may want to, just in case.

Magnaflow is in!
 

Here are a few photos:

Before:

http://shareaproject.com/slideImages/9534.jpg

During:

http://shareaproject.com/slideImages/9539.jpg

After:

http://shareaproject.com/slideImages/9548.jpg

What a great system! Goes in easy, parts fit right, and when its fired up, oh boy, it sounds great! Put about half hour run time on it today, it still sounds nice. It is louder than I expected when accelerating, but I'll get used to that. Quiets out nice when cruising, but you can still hear it.

More details and hi-res photos of the install are here:

Magnaflow Install

One thing I don't like about it is the length of the tail pipes. They just stick out too far, and don't look like something Pontiac would have done. Will probably end up cutting 2" off the ends of the tail pipes to bring them in a bit, and get shorter rubber hangers for the rear to raise the tail pipes about 1.5 ".

Nice work Mark!

Thanks! That was a lot easier than I thought. Even with swapping the OEM band clamp onto the Magnaflow I pipe only took a few minutes.

It does sound great. Makes the V6 growl instead of scream.

Looks awesome! Magnaflow was a good choice :nod:

nice work.....will look great tucked up to the bumper a little higher too...

ever think of investing in a higher quality jack? you seem to be getting into some decent projects and might want to upgrade some of your equipment as well

Congrats on the install, I hope mine goes as well next week. I already cut the old exhaust off months ago though and have new headers to hook everything on to. Im sure I'll still hit some glitch ha

no, they weren't busting your chops really. A lot of times pre soaking everything like Bill said makes removal a lot easier.

I used oil, heat, impacts, breaker bars, until i snap bolts get fed up and cut it.

:werd:

Congrats. Magnaflow was about the easiest catback I ever delt with. Doesn't take much effort to install them anymore.