Quote:
Originally Posted by Okie Boy
I had mine installed Monday June 16. The installer had the top bolt in the flange won't come out problem but that is a smartville issue. I like the exhaust system a lot, I like the way it sounds and just by the exhaust note I can tell a lot about how the engine is performing.
The Doug Thorley cat-back exhaust is a great product.
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Thanks to all the DIY posters and a great tutorial by Stuart Berman on SmartUSAinsider, the job went pretty smoothly
This is definitely a job you want to do when the car hasn't been run and the exhaust is cold. I followed the lead of others and did not remove the top bolts on the heat shield. While it did make it a tighter squeeze to get out the others, it avoided the potential problems that have been reported with over-torqued factory bolts on the heat shield that break off when you try to remove them.
Leaving the heat shield in place, I found that there wasn't enough room to get my e-sockets in there but was able to break free the bolt with the 5/16" ratchet wrench for the heat shield bolt attached to the stock muffler and the 3/8" ratchet for one of the cat/muffler bolts. For the other one cat/muffler bolt, I had to put on the box end wrench and grab the open end with my needle nose vise-grips to get enough leverage to finish breaking it loose. A switch to the regular box end wrench completed the loosening of the first one, because there wasn't room to get my particular ratchet (craftsman) to click to a new ratchet position.
The tip about using channel locks to squeeze the muffler hangers through the hanger rubbers made that a simple task after the liberal application of WD-40. (Sorry I don't remember who suggested this, they deserve a hand.)
I did use the bolts supplied by DT, liberally coated with locktight, and the 12mm socket with 1/4" drive for the new installation. (The larger drive wouldn't have fit in the space.)
I'd say it sounds a bit louder than the Mini but not offensively so and most posters say it quiets down a bit after it's broken in. The sound is definite improvement, but I can't say I really saw any performance difference on the first test drive.