confusatron
Senior Member
I just bolted this baby up today, with a magnaflow high flow cat as well. Some points to note if you are planning to install a magnaflow 2.25" exhaust (part no. 15645) and a magnaflow high-flow catalytic converter (part no. 22636) on your EG hatch:
1. I had to pry out a bracket under the rear bumper that was in the way of the magnaflow muffler. I used a standard pry bar, and then the claw of my framing hammer. You really gotta lift up on that fucker to get it off, but it only took a few seconds once I got the bar wedged in there. I have no idea what that bracket was for, but nothing was bolted to it.
2. When removing the old exhaust, I started at the header/cat flange, and worked my way back. This seemed to work pretty well.
3. When installing the new exhaust, I found it was easiest to bolt the cat to the resonator section before installing it, that way you can use the hangers on the resonator section to hold it up while you're fucking with the spring bolts on the header/cat flange.
4. When putting the rubber hanger mounts back in, it seemed easier to have the resonator ones already on the car, and then just pop the hangers on the resonator section into the mounts.
5. To make those rubber mounts go on and off easier during this operation, I used PB Penetrating Catalyst. It works great. Spray some in the holes before you try and pop the hangers in, and it makes it very easy. Just don't get any on the stainless exhaust and you're fine. Also this stuff evaporates quickly, so you don't have to worry about your hangers slipping off later on because of it.
6. Next, I pounded the rear S section onto the resonator section. Then the S section to the muffler before actually hanging the muffler on the rubber mounts. I tried it the other way first, and found it was damn near impossible. Getting the two sections together with the muffler already hung and the metal gasket between them was almost physically impossible. So when I unhung the muffler and bolted the two sections together first, it was all butter after that.
7. I cut away a notch in the plastic of the bumper cover that was in the way. A fine
toothed saw like a coping saw or a pull-cut saw works fine.
8. I waited till the very end to tighten all my bolts up.
Additional note: the exhaust is not a perfect fit. Some of the hangers are out of position a little bit, so you have to play with the rubber hangers to position them.
My first impression is that this exhaust is fucking awesome. It is quiet during normal driving, but has a smooth, somewhat deep tone to it. Not like my camry's 2.25" no-resonator exhaust, but deep enough to sound good. Then when you light it up and open up the throttle, this thing sounds KILLER. I don't have any dyno numbers at this time, but the seat of the pants dyno says 5-10 horsepower. You can feel it at the low end, but where I especiallly notice it is at the top end of the rpm band. With the stock DX exhaust, it always seemed to kinda struggle with the higher rpms, but not anymore. I'll be able to get more of a bead on it tomorrow when I have more time to drive, but for now this thing seems worth every penny of what I paid for it.
1. I had to pry out a bracket under the rear bumper that was in the way of the magnaflow muffler. I used a standard pry bar, and then the claw of my framing hammer. You really gotta lift up on that fucker to get it off, but it only took a few seconds once I got the bar wedged in there. I have no idea what that bracket was for, but nothing was bolted to it.
2. When removing the old exhaust, I started at the header/cat flange, and worked my way back. This seemed to work pretty well.
3. When installing the new exhaust, I found it was easiest to bolt the cat to the resonator section before installing it, that way you can use the hangers on the resonator section to hold it up while you're fucking with the spring bolts on the header/cat flange.
4. When putting the rubber hanger mounts back in, it seemed easier to have the resonator ones already on the car, and then just pop the hangers on the resonator section into the mounts.
5. To make those rubber mounts go on and off easier during this operation, I used PB Penetrating Catalyst. It works great. Spray some in the holes before you try and pop the hangers in, and it makes it very easy. Just don't get any on the stainless exhaust and you're fine. Also this stuff evaporates quickly, so you don't have to worry about your hangers slipping off later on because of it.
6. Next, I pounded the rear S section onto the resonator section. Then the S section to the muffler before actually hanging the muffler on the rubber mounts. I tried it the other way first, and found it was damn near impossible. Getting the two sections together with the muffler already hung and the metal gasket between them was almost physically impossible. So when I unhung the muffler and bolted the two sections together first, it was all butter after that.
7. I cut away a notch in the plastic of the bumper cover that was in the way. A fine
toothed saw like a coping saw or a pull-cut saw works fine.
8. I waited till the very end to tighten all my bolts up.
Additional note: the exhaust is not a perfect fit. Some of the hangers are out of position a little bit, so you have to play with the rubber hangers to position them.
My first impression is that this exhaust is fucking awesome. It is quiet during normal driving, but has a smooth, somewhat deep tone to it. Not like my camry's 2.25" no-resonator exhaust, but deep enough to sound good. Then when you light it up and open up the throttle, this thing sounds KILLER. I don't have any dyno numbers at this time, but the seat of the pants dyno says 5-10 horsepower. You can feel it at the low end, but where I especiallly notice it is at the top end of the rpm band. With the stock DX exhaust, it always seemed to kinda struggle with the higher rpms, but not anymore. I'll be able to get more of a bead on it tomorrow when I have more time to drive, but for now this thing seems worth every penny of what I paid for it.
