CES Exhaust is in!

georryan · Post by **georryan** » Sat May 15, 2004 2:32 am

Ok, well I had some issues installing the exhaust. The BEP had some problems fitting, I had to dremel two points and then it fit fine. I'm having some issues with the dowpipe bumping against the crossmember of the tranny at points, but a new tranny mount will fix that. In the process of adjusting things today one of my engine mounts burst or got a hole it in and is leaking out all the silicone. With nearly 185k miles on it I guess that is ok, I just didn't expect it to leak fluid like substances. I'll be getting new engine and tranny mounts soon.

Everyone who has seen the exhaust and heard it has loved it. I still have to put on the uppipe nad crosspipe, and I just bought the gaskets for that today, so that will happen soon.

Thawa has some pictures of it all so he will probably post those soon.

I'm thinking of modifying my chimney so it will fit over the dp, because right now it won't. Other than that, I absolutely love this thing. The sound is great! Thawa also got a small video of me driving, so he may post that too, and you may get some sound from the cab.

-Ryan

THAWA · Post by **THAWA** » Sat May 15, 2004 2:41 am

http://bbs.legacycentral.org/viewtopic. ... 2994#62994

it really is sweet as shit!

evolutionmovement · Post by **evolutionmovement** » Sat May 15, 2004 6:50 am

Yeah they frequently fill motor mounts to reduce NVH. I helped rebuild a wrecked Civic the other day that the engine had been pushed back during the hit and the mounts were destroyed, leaking oil everywhere.

Steve

georryan · Post by **georryan** » Sat May 15, 2004 7:40 am

Yeah, it totally freaked me out. I was jacking up the car and suddenly saw a drip of oil, then a steady stream and I totally thought something had happened somehow that was REAL bad. After inspecting it it looked like it came from the motor mount. I didn't think that was possable but was hoping it was. I'm glad that is it, though. It sucks, but it could have been worse, and I was plannning on changing those anyway sometime soon.

-Ryan

petridish38 · Post by **petridish38** » Sat May 15, 2004 2:10 pm

georryan wrote:I was plannning on changing those anyway sometime soon.

With STi ones of course, right?

Andrew

georryan · Post by **georryan** » Sun May 16, 2004 12:33 am

oh, but of course

evolutionmovement · Post by **evolutionmovement** » Sun May 16, 2004 6:42 am

Then you can plaster it with STI stickers.

Steve

georryan · Post by **georryan** » Sun May 16, 2004 9:52 am

hmm...I may not take part in that privalege.

georryan · Post by **georryan** » Sun May 16, 2004 10:49 am

Well I thought I'd give a writeup of my experience installing the exhaust. The pictures of it and a short video can be found in the ashtray on the link that was cross posted up above.

My first big problem was getting the chimney off. I don't remember the details of how I got it off exactly, but I think I ended up pushing the a/c line back a bit after unbolting it from the firewall.

Next I pulled the bolts from the dowpipe to the turbo off. Those weren't hard at all. I then took off all the heat sheilds that connected to the chimney and the down around the downpipe. (Just the sheilds that helped hold the chimney in place)

I then started from the muffler and unbolted parts of the exhaust. I started with the muffler, the midpipe and then found a few more bolts holding the dowpipe in place, and after removing them I droped the dowpipe.

The boost enhancement plate was a little troublesome. I never would have figured it out if it wasn't for my brother. I was soo tired from just getting back from Georgia that I missed a lot of details (more on that later). He noticed both the points on the BEP that needed to be dremelled. After doing several rounds of dremelling I finally got it in place.

Next came the downpipe. I got that in place nad started putting up the rest of the exhaust. Four cotter pins came with the setup and go in the exhaust hangers to keep them from comming off the bushings, but only one had the holes predrilled.

I skipped the drilling that night and got everything bolted up. The next day, when Thawa came over, I had already driven the car and noticed that the exhaust banged around a lot. The bolt that went through the downpipe bracket into the tranny mounting bracket wasn't threaded in there all the way because the bolt had some bad threads, so I figured it was because of that. So later that day after Thawa left, I got some washers and tightened the sucker up.

My brother later told me that I needed to push the exhaust over because he saw it banging against the crossmember for the tranny. I had never noticed that so I went to check it out, and sure enough he was right. After we fixed that my brother laughed and said that I had put hte lock washers for the exhaust on the bolt side instead of the nut side. (as you can see I was really tired.) So we then took some time to take out the bolts and put hte lock washers in the preferred location. In the process my brother pulled out one too many bolts from the test pipe and dropped it on my head.

we had a block of wood on the floor jack and as I went to raise up the car from the oil pan/bracket behind the oild pan I suddenly noticed a stream of flud dropping onto the floor. I was so scarred that I had somehow punctured the oil pan. As I inspected it and found everything dry, I noticed that it seemed to come from the engine mount. Surprisingly enough, it had.

I got a drill from my uncle and succeeded in putting a hole in one of the three exhaust hangers that needed it. On the second one, I was almosta through when the drill bit broke. So I still haven't finished that.

After pushing the exhaust over so that it is pulled as far as it can be pulled away from the crossmember things are a lot smoother, but it still bangs if I let off the gas too fast without putting in the clutch or if I'm not too contientious about going in reverse real smooth and slow. Once I put in new mounts it shouldn't bang around as much. I want to do that soon, because I hate hearing the sound of my new exhaust bang around. At least it doesn't happen often. The other thing that might help is new hanger bushings.

The exhaust is definately larger, it is now the lowest point of my car's undercarrage

The lowest point used to be my rear diff, but now the resonator is a bit lower than that. I think the rest of the pipe hangs below as well. Its too bad, but I guess it comes with the territory.

BAC5.2 · Post by **BAC5.2** » Sun May 16, 2004 7:47 pm

Yea, that's what I am concerned about (scraping my exhaust). It can't really be avoided though I guess.

georryan · Post by **georryan** » Sun May 16, 2004 7:59 pm

I think new mounts will help out a LOT. There is a lot of play between the tranny and the exhaust bushings. I had no idea.

legacy92ej22t · Post by **legacy92ej22t** » Mon May 17, 2004 1:54 am

Ya. I have absolutely no issues with the exhaust bumping the tranny at all. The exhaust is the low point on mine too though.

BAC5.2 · Post by **BAC5.2** » Mon May 17, 2004 4:46 am

Matt - is yours installed yet?

legacy92ej22t · Post by **legacy92ej22t** » Mon May 17, 2004 5:54 am

I'm talking about my old one but the DP's are identicle excepy for the O2 bung, I think. The new ones going in very soon though.

Georryan-Am I gettin' this right though? Is it rubbing on the DP or the test pipe?

georryan · Post by **georryan** » Mon May 17, 2004 10:51 pm

Do you know where the bracket is that connects the downpipe to the tranny Matt? Right about that spot on the downpipe there is a crossmember for the tranny that goes over the downpipe and angles down a bit once it is over the exhaust so that it can bolt to the frame of the car (I'm pretty sure it is the frame of the car). My downpipe bangs against that whenever the tranny moves too much. That should tell you how much my tranny is able to move around because of bad bushings. I had no idea it could move that much. Even when I moved the dp over as far as I could towards the tranny it will still bang when I go in reverse (if I'm not extreamly careful about doing it super smoothly) or if I hit some real rough road, or even at times if I let off the gas too fast and the car jerks a bit.

One thing about this exhaust..... I love the sound in the upper rpms. I REALLY wish I had more rpms now. After having this exhaust I really think that shooting to be able to rev to 8 grand is a worthy goal.

rsstiboy · Post by **rsstiboy** » Mon May 17, 2004 11:39 pm

I had the same issues when I changed motors and engine mounts, it seems there are a few different engine mounts. just lifts the motor that little bit higher, enough to make the exhaust knock.

georryan · Post by **georryan** » Tue May 18, 2004 12:03 am

Oh really? I haven't put in any mounts yet. This is all because of bad mounts. ;(

legacy92ej22t · Post by **legacy92ej22t** » Tue May 25, 2004 4:46 am

I got my TBE in over the weekend and have no issues with the tranny. I have about a half an inch of clearence and no banging.

Now, if I can just get this damn O2 sensor working right....

georryan · Post by **georryan** » Sat May 29, 2004 7:50 am

Hey Matt, since you have the uppipe and the crosspipe installed, do you notice a difference in spool up or anything?

legacy92ej22t · Post by **legacy92ej22t** » Sat May 29, 2004 2:29 pm

I don't have the up-pipe and cross-pipe in yet. I only got the turbo-back in so far. Hopefully I'll have the pre-turbo pipes in soon though.

My turbo-back went in like butter baby, butter. It fit perfect. It's wierd but I think this system is actually a little quieter then my "street" system. It has really good sleeper value.

I got some pictures and I'm going to try and do a write up soon.

georryan · Post by **georryan** » Sun May 30, 2004 12:04 am

Do you have a cat in your system at all?

legacy92ej22t · Post by **legacy92ej22t** » Sun May 30, 2004 4:57 am

Ya, I have my 3" high flow cat in from my "street" system until I pass emissions, then the test-pipe is going in.

J-MoNeY · Post by **J-MoNeY** » Thu Jul 22, 2004 6:02 am

Hows the boost levels and power feel?

georryan · Post by **georryan** » Thu Jul 22, 2004 7:55 am

when I had the vrg3 scan tool hooked up I noticed boost up to 9 and 10 psi. After putting in the boost gauge it looks like it will spike up to 10 and then settle down again. At least in 2nd and I think 3rd. I haven't paid too much attention.

It sounds tons better. It feels better too. It feels like it has more torgue and power, but I didn't run as fast in the quarter mile as I thought I should. I still get bits of hesitation problems here and there, so it could be that my car wasn't pulling to its full potential, or it could be that the 3" hurts me a little. I"m not sure yet. I know a guy who also has pretty much the same system, only it is from BPM and he said he'd take his car out sometime when he gets his 2.2 back in teh car and we could go to the drag and compare the two. We'll see how it goes. I know I need a new battery, so that may actually help.

Overall, though, it does feel like an improvement over the stock setup. You also can't get past how good you feel when you floor it and hear that wonderful sound.

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CES Exhaust is in!

CES Exhaust is in!