pay someone else to do it. If that won't do here's what I did on my STi. 1a) Disconnect the battery (-) terminal. 1b) Remove the intercooler. There is little black bracket on the right, it will need to come off to get it reinstalled so take it off now. Loosen 2 intercooler hoses. Detach 3 black hoses (which are on brackets on the intercooler). Lifting the top right 1st will help get it out. Muscle will be needed. 2) Remove a bunch of heat shield bolts. When you think you have them all , remove a few more. Some can only be removed from below, they can wait. 3) Now lift the car up. A good 12" under the tires minimum. Make sure to use jacks for safety. I used 4 jacks cause I don't want to get squished. 4) Remove the exhaust system starting from the back. The bolts were extremely difficult to remove. Then I used WD-40 and they were only very difficult. 5) Before loosening the mid section unlock the O2 sensor zip tie and unscrew the O2 sensor. Careful this is an expensive part. I set it on the brace. 6) When you get to the down pipe remove the lower bolt that attaches to a bracket on the trans. Then finish removing the heat shield then turbo bolts. WD-40 was used here also. 7) The turbo studs will hold up the top. Go back underneath and twist & drop. Should be out now. 8) New parts! Put in the new down pipe first. This required 2 people, wife on top & me below... You might be able to do it yourself, but that's not recommended. Now stop thinking dirty and keep working. It was a real pain to get my downpipe back into the trans-bracket. Once it was in I tightened it up (turbo & bracket bolt). Fabber time! uh-oh... uh-oh. Sorry, had to do that. 9) The heat shield will require some cutting & pounding. Look at my pics for an idea, but it may vary for different downpipes. I only used 3 bolts to hold the "new" heat shield in. Which means I had 10+ left over. 10) Install the midpipe loosely. 11) Install the axle-back loosely. 12) Tighten up. 13) Connect the battery. 14) Start up you newly awesome sounding car. Listen for exhaust leaks. If you don't know what they sound like, it sounds "unmuffled"? Some people may not agree with this, but here goes. 15) Drive around a few minutes and then park it. I wanted to do a small heat cycle on the new metal. There was a good amount of smoke coming out the back from sealants/metal coatings/whatever pouring out the exhaust when I parked. After it cooled down I went thru the "computer learning" procedure of driving flat out for 5 minutes. Kidding, but do give it the boot. Notes: WD-40 the exhaust hangars to ease popping things in & out. Use new gaskets when reinstalling. The B&B downpipe hangs a bit low. 8( From the turbo back is all 3"+. 8) $531 HKS Hi-Power stainless steel exhaust $480 B&B downpipe I have each piece, original and replacement, weighed. I'll post those tonight. Net savings was 13 lbs I think.
The pics are at http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/atlsportrider/album?.dir=/5617 can someone else confirm they can get to them?