Wow, install day was a blast! Thanks to everyone! Mark thanks for the hotdogs and the cooking with matt . Thanks to Scott for bringing the chips and dip. And an especially big thanks to Ped for everything. Loaning us your house, tools, grill, labor, and whatever else. I really owe you one man. Sorry i couldnt stay to help clean up but i really had to get timmy home before his mom raped him. Next time we get together i'll buy you dinner or something haha. But yea, it was a blast, I think we did 3 short shifter/bushing installs, 1 springs, 1 oil change, and a catback swap? thanks again ped
Well HUGE thanks to Kris who was the only one who made it over to my place. The UP/DP install was mostly successful and I learned alot about my car. I have an exhaust leak, I think in the UP, so I will be trouble shooting that tomorrow if anyone wants to come by and help me eat the 30 hamburges and hotdogs that didn't get eaten today....
Scott, do you have any idea when you'll be troubleshooting? My wife's heading off to a baby shower around 2. So if you'd like some help, I'd be available around then.
PeD, I will probably be starting right around 2. I would welcome any help you might provide! I'll call you!
What kind of leak are you having? edit: hit me up on AIM if you have it... maybe I can help troubleshoot it edit2: PM'd you my #, should be able to come over for a bit if you want.
Scott, I am really sorry that I wasn't able to make it out to help you. I ended up going to Ped's. PeD, thanks a lot for having us all over to use your house for the install day. It was great that everyone got their installs done, and Keith, I hope that you can get your part. I had a great time and Scott, I hope that you will able to get all of your install completed. Mark
Well today was mostly a success! Ped came over and hung in like a champ even after I forgot to torque the up pipe down before reinstalling the DP... Big thanks to Ped!!! He also installed my shifter bushings in no time flat, while I uninstalled my Subaru tow hitch. It will be for sale shortly. Also got all worked up because I still have a leak, though I now believe it is in the midpipe and the car is smoking a bit, though that is most likely from the half can of PB blaster I used on the car....
ped is now labled the "bushing guy" :wavey: Yes, Ped I will be over at the house later this week with the CORRECT " Grey bushings" So hows the car feeling scott?
I only drove it about a mile to make sure I wasn't going to throw a CEL. Feels good, but I still need to flash it with the AP...
well sh$t..... Still leaking, huh? I guess it's better that it's not in the uppipe. Might want to recheck that everything else is still tight underneath (all the exhaust mani).
I can clearly feel and hear the leak coming from under my feet when seated in the car. I am almost positive that the midpipe needs to be tightened/sealed on both ends. I'll take a look at it this afternoon...thanks again Ped and Kris!!
np dude..maybe this weekend we can take another peak. the wife is off so I will be a lot more available
I think this weekend will be spent making it up to the wife as this basically sucked her whole weekend up too. I really think I can fix it tonight. I drove failry hard on the way into work this morning and had no stumbling, hesitation, whistling, etc., just the staccato of escaping exhaust. This just reenforces for me that it is a leak somewhere after the DP...
Ohhh... I thought you were saying it was in the exhaust manifold somewhere. If it's just the midpipe, that should be easy to resolve. Probably somewhere with one of those gaskets. May want to throw some gasket maker on the gaskets and seal it back up. You didn't loosen the O2 sensor in the cat did you? May want to check that.
Now I am beginning to wonder if there is a leak at all. I guess I should pose this noob question, should I hear the leak when I am not in gear? In other words, when I am not in gear and rev the engine it sounds completely normal, but when I am actually in gear driving around, it sounds to me like there is a leak. I hear what I can only describe as a motorboat like exhaust note. Could this simply be because two of the cats are now gone. I went under the car and tightened/ checked the rest of the bolts, everything seems fine. Its only under hard acceleration that it sounds "wrong" to me. Again, no CEL's, no other issues save the occasional back pressure pop. I am about to flash to stage 2 with the AP anyways, since I can't seem to find anything obviously wrong. Any thoughts from anyone?
it could just be the sound of the turbo... when i step on the gas in gear, it makes a constant whooshing sound
This is a more guttural, snarly sound, not so much a whoosh...by the way, just got back from doing the real time flash to stage 2...WOW...
i'm guessing you took the intercooler off... so i also guess you removed the BOV from the IC... i had a wierd noise once when the BOV didn't seal right... i double gasketed it and the noise was gone
Ok, after getting in the car this am the leak was quite noticeable again. I now believe that as the car heats up, the joints expand a little and the noise lessens, thus leading me to doubt my initial assessment of a leak. After playing around under the car a bit more, I also now think that maybe the DP is really an ebay special and not a stromung shorty as it was sold as. I bought the DP over a year ago and don't have any of the sellers info anymore, so won't bother worrying about it. The fitment is not right however and I think this may be causing the leak. I will try to triple gakset where the cat meets the CBE and see if this fixes the issue. I will probably also put some silicone on it. Long term however, I think I will probably replace the DP. Look for a "wanted" post in the for sale sedction!
*****Final Update!!!***** Well after tearing down the car completely again yesterday and reinstalling everything for the third time, looks like it all fits correctly and the leak seems to be gone. The DP actually fit perfectly once I installed it correctly. A quick call to Kris, "Weapon WRX", confirmed what I had suspected a little. I had been tightening things in the wrong order. What that did was make it so I wasn't able to get a good seal around the Header to UP. Anyways, Kris's advice, which I will post here was, "Tighten the parts along the flow of the exhaust." In other words, start with the drivers side header and work your way up to the turbo then start with the DP and work your way back to the catback. Doing this made everything fit much better and eliminated my leak(s). Thanks again to Kris and Ped for all their help! The car felt great this morning and the sound of the exhaust is actually a little more "deep" now! Hopefully I can save up some dough for a SS protune in the nearer future...