how dificult is it to change the downpipe on the impreza, or is it past the handy man type skills

 

if the nuts come off the back of the turbo straight away its quite easy!

i snapped a stud and stripped the thread on another when doing mine, had to get the turbo re-studed!

use plenty WD40 on the nuts before hand and you may have an easier job than i had

good luck

 

so its the downpipe that bolts to the turbo, was unsure if it were the uppipe

 

Up-pipe does just that - it comes up from the headers under the drivers side of the engine and the exhaust inlet of the turbo (Small flange with 3 boltholes) attaches to it at this point. The down-pipe attaches to the turbo's exhaust OUTlet (Large flange with 3 bolts and 2 boltholes).
Hope this helps. Good luck and remember - loads of WD40 on the bolts whilst they are warm (NOT RED HOT as you'll suffocate as the WD40 boils up)and it will be fairly easy to remove them (I've done 5 now and have got the job down to 1 1/4 hours).

DONT FORGET THE NEW GASKET FOR THE D/P EITHER

Russell

 

ive got all three exhaust parts to change, headers uppipe and down pipe, but they have been sitting in my garage for over a month now and been told by the person who was going to fit he cant do for another month so i think if i fit the downpipe this will keep me happy till the others go on

 

The hardest part is normally removing the original heatshield..
Make sure you spray the nuts on teh DP with WD40 the night before it will help loads!!!

Rob

 

Just had my up-pipe and downpipe done by a profesional mechanic with four poster ramps all the tools etc. Car is 18mth old. Still took him four hours.The up-pipe caused most of the swearing!
When fitting smear bolt threads etc with a high temp anti sieze compound like coppaslip(no this isn't a device for evading plod!)This should make removal at mot time a bit easier.
TTFN

 

took the car into local kwik-fit and asked the lads there told them imoa i thought the whole lot would take approx 5hrs but they said they couldnt tie the ramps up for that long

 

I also fancy trying this myself(downpipe only). Is it worth having new bolts and gaskets on st/by just in case. If so, what size/cost are the bolts?

Any other hints and tips more than welcome.

 

Hmmm should i offer to do it for a small fee

I will think about it.

If you change the downpipe now, you will have to take it off again to fit the up pipe, so you might as well do it all at once IMO Steve. Done it too many times now, to know that it can be good one minute and crap the next.

To be safe make sure you have new gaskets as follows.

Downpipe to centre gasket.
Turbo to downpipe gasket.
Up pipe to turbo gasket
Manifold to up pipe gasket (unless your new headers go right up to the turbo)
Head to manifold gaskets (both sides of engine, ie 2)

Steven

 

I find PlusGas much better than WD40 for penetrating seized/locked threads.

Andrew...

 

How many bolts hold the heatshield on?
I have just snapped one on the back edge, but want to know whwre the rest are.

UK MY'99

Thanks

 

There are 10 but some of them hold the bottom part on i think, I i recall correctly as you look at it from the front of the car there are 2 on the left front down low, 2 left back down low, 2 right front high, 1 on the back middle, 2 right at the back at the bottom?(one of which you need to get under the car for)errrr that leaves one that i cant remember where it is .
When the heat shield is off undo the 2 blots at the top and remove the bracket then see how tight the 3 nuts are on the studs...remember to soak them in WD40 first.
Ater youve removed the 3 nuts on the studs youve got a bolt on the gear box to remove, ove near the end of the down pipe (i had to cut this one off) and the 2 spring loaded bolts connecting to the middle section.
I bought a 10mm and 14mm ratchet spanner which made the jod alot easier (it was still fiddly).
If you want to put the heat shield back on you will need to cut part of the back off it and i just used 4 10mm bolts to reattach it.
All in all it took me about 5 hours but alot of that was messing around with the hanger bolt at the back of the down pipe (about 1 1/2 hours messing and 2 mins cutting it off )

Andy

 

Thanks Andy.

Does the heatshield come off as one piece, or as two sections?
Thanks again.


James

 

Comes off as one piece - not too bad to do, agree with others, the heatshield is by far the worst bit to do!

 

It took me 5 hours to do mine!!!

20 mins and the heat shield was off (in two pieces - top and bottom) and 3 nuts off the turbo>downpipe flange. Another 3 hours later the other two nuts were off (but being honest I couldn't find my nut splitter, otherwise that would have been the easy option)

I used WD40 and heat to try and get them off, and virtually every Snap-On socket to get the last one off.

Well worth doing though, and I would have begrudged paying someone else to do it.


[Edited by highlander68k - 5/31/2003 10:06:44 AM]

[Edited by highlander68k - 5/31/2003 10:07:24 AM]

 

Stevebt...

Its a much easer job if you have ramps to lift the car....

Mine took just over 3 hours and all the bolts came of without to much trouble, but i was lucky. Heat shield was a bit of a pain.

I have set of gaskets if you need any.

 

BAH,

How much for the gaskets?
I need to get a set.

James.

 

I changed my d/p on MY96 and overall it took me 11hours! I even have use of a pit so under car access is less of a problem. It didn't help that the previous owner had also attempted this job and had rounded the lowest d/p to turbo manifold nut! The gasket for the t/b to d/p is was about £12 and the d/p to centre is about £18 from subaru. Make sure you give the nuts a good soaking with penetrating oil before attempting. Well worth it though!!!

 

the gasket set cost me £36.96 inc postage

 

is this still up here got me mate to change for me along with my headers and uppipe he said it was a bas****d and took him nearly 2 days to sort out

 

round a nut off, it makes it more interesting !

 

did this last weekend, 2nd time i've done it

wasnt timing the DP but to change all the following took me 3 1/4 hours:

Downpipe
Centre section
Backbox
Change all 4 wheels
Wash car

chris