Aaron@JSC
07-24-2008, 01:24 PM
I have been getting a lot of requests for an install guide (and in all fairness I promised I would write one a while ago) for the TXS DP/RP install.
So here you go- I don't have photos of every step so you will have to bare with me. If anyone out there does have photos of individual steps, I will gladly host them and post them up.
Disclaimer: this is a guide I am writing based on how I installed these parts on my own car and should not be taken as official installation instructions at any time. If at any time during an attempt to install these parts you feel unsure or uncomfortable with anything I highly suggest you take the car to a professional.
Tools needed:
1. varying metric sockets (10mm,12mm,14mm most common)
2. varything metric open-end wrenches
3. Channel lock pliers
2. socket wrench
3. Flathead/philips screwdrivers
3. Breaker bars of varying sizes
4. PB blaster, liquid wrench or equivalent
5. jack/jackstands
6. Permatec anti-sieze lubricant or equivalent
1. Jack up the front of the car and safely get it on stands.
2. Remove intercooler cover (2 bolts) and intercooler/bpv assembly (3 intercooler nuts, two philips hose clamps and bpv recirculation hose clamp and manifold hose clamp on BPV). Intercooler/bpv assembly should lift right off of the car.
3. Put tape or sandwitch bags over the open intercooler hoses to prevent any debris/hardware etc from falling in.
4. Take off the heat shielding covering the exhaust manifold, turbo and downpipe-- IIRC these are small 8 or 10mm bolts that may be rusted.
5. Get under the car and locate both 02 sensors that are in the downpipe- one is up near the turbo the other is near the downpipe/catpipe connection. Follow both 02 sensor wires to their plug harness and disconnect them. This is very tricky to do as the plugs are quite hard to reach. After the plugs are off, disconnect all zip ties etc that may hold the wiring to the undercarriage/chassis.
6. Generously spray the top 02 sensor (the one near the turbo) with PB Blaster and go have a beer/smoke/sandwitch, whatever while the blaster does its thing.
7. Using the 02 sensor wrench carefully break loose the 02 sensor from its bung in the downpipe. Depending on your mileage, this may be very easy or very hard, there have been reports of 02 sensors being fully siezed in the downpipe with only a few thousand miles on the car. Once the sensor is loose you want to work the sensor back and forth unscrewing a turn and then screwing it back in, all the while continuing to spray PB blaster on the threads. 'work' the sensor back and forth patiently until you can fully release it from the bung. Once it is free be sure to wipe of any PB blaster that may have gotten near the actual sensor and set the sensor aside in a clean place. When I did this install on my car it had 15,xxx miles on it and it was not siezed, though the threads did get a little messed up on the sensor itself, it was no bad enough that it could not be re-used.
8. Now you can begin to work on the 5 downpipe to turbo nuts. Start off with a generous spraying of BP blaster to each nut. Now, removing these nuts was possibly the trickiest part of this whole install. It requires a coutless combination of extensions, deep set and standard stockets, swivel adapters, and breaker bars to access the nuts you need to remove, especially the ones nearest to the manifold and engine. It is very tight in this area of the car and the largest challenge is getting leverage clearance on the socket wrench in those tight quarters. It is a very painstaking process so take lots of breaks and be patient. Getting to these downpipe nuts is not easy but I know from personal experience it is possible with a decent set of tools and basic shade-tree mechanic know how. Be sure to not put any pressure on the nuts/studs until you have a good grip on the nut- stripping a nut or breaking a stud in this location will ruin your weekend. Keep these 5 nuts in a safe place-- you will be reusing these.
9. Once the downpipe is loose from the turbo, disconnect the two spring bolts that hold the cat pipe to the catback exhaust. You may have to remove the center chassis brace to gain sufficient access. At this point you should also be able to disconnect the downpipe/catpipe connection, pull off the two rubber hangers and remove the cat pipe from the car.
10. At this point there is only a two bolt support bracket holding the downpipe to the car. IIRC, getting to the bolts on this braket was a major pain, but it needs to be done from undernieth the car. After this bracket is free, the downpipe should be free-- but you are only half out of the woods at this point.
11. So now you have a loose downpipe with an 02 sensor hanging out of it on one side and a steel bracket welded to it on the other. You need to somehow get this thing out of the car from below, though it may seem impossible and this point and you are probably thinking of selling the MS3 and settling down with a nice Camry. To remove the downpipe you need to first remove the front factory chassis brace, which I beleive is (4) 17mm bolts and a single 12mm bolt. Once the chassis brace is off, it takes a bit of manuvering, but you should be able to pull the downpipe free with the rear 02 sensor still installed. Be careful not to damage the 02 sensor or the wiring as you are twisting the downpipe it to get it out of the car.
12. Once the downpipe is free, apply PB blaster to the rear 02 sensor and have another beer/smoke/sandwitch. Remove the 02 sensor the same way as the first, going slow and being very careful not to mess up any of the threads.
13. When you have both 02 sensors out of the stock downpipe, apply a thin coating of anti-seize to the threads and reinstall them into the TurboXS downpipe. Be carefull not to get any anti-sieze on the actual sensors, just the threads. If you are planning on doing the spark plug anti-fouler CEL fix, now would be the time to do it-- the anti-fouler(s) would need to be installed on the rear 02 sensor.
14. Once the 02 sensors are secure, I bolted the TurboXS downpipe to the racepipe while it was out of the car using the supplied copper gasket and hardware.
15. You should now be able to slide the whole dp/rp assembly back into the car and rest the downpipe on the turbo studs. There is a factory gasket that was between the stock downpipe and the turbo exhaust housing-- be sure you find this and reuse it. You may want to find something to rest the racepipe on until you bolt it in as to not add too much stress to the turbo studs. The TurboXS pipes should slide in much easier as they are significantly less bulky than the stock pipes.
16. Making sure that the stock turbo gasket is still in position, bolt the downpipe nuts back to the turbo studs and torque them in a star pattern to ensure a leak-free seal. You will notice that the bellmouth downpipe is specially designed to give you perfect access to the turbo studs (thank you TurboXS).
17. Use the 2nd copper gasket and the adapter flange included in the kit along with the stock donut gasket and stock spring bolts to mate the racepipe up with the stock catback exhaust.
18. Plug in both 02 sensor plugs into their respective harnesses and secure all wiring with zip ties to keep them away from potentially hot engine components.
19. Reinstall all frame brace pieces that were removed during the install.
20. Reinstall manifold heashields, intercooler/bpv and intercooler cover in reverse order that they were removed.
21. Reset the ECU, fire if the car and check for any exhaust leaks.
22. Go for a drive and enjoy your much more efficient exhaust system!
NOTE: The TurboXS downpipe will most likely trigger a CEL for a rear catalyst below efficiency if you are not using some sort of CEL fix or engine management.
please post up any questions you might have, I am going to try and upload some photos for this install in the mean time.
So here you go- I don't have photos of every step so you will have to bare with me. If anyone out there does have photos of individual steps, I will gladly host them and post them up.
Disclaimer: this is a guide I am writing based on how I installed these parts on my own car and should not be taken as official installation instructions at any time. If at any time during an attempt to install these parts you feel unsure or uncomfortable with anything I highly suggest you take the car to a professional.
Tools needed:
1. varying metric sockets (10mm,12mm,14mm most common)
2. varything metric open-end wrenches
3. Channel lock pliers
2. socket wrench
3. Flathead/philips screwdrivers
3. Breaker bars of varying sizes
4. PB blaster, liquid wrench or equivalent
5. jack/jackstands
6. Permatec anti-sieze lubricant or equivalent
1. Jack up the front of the car and safely get it on stands.
2. Remove intercooler cover (2 bolts) and intercooler/bpv assembly (3 intercooler nuts, two philips hose clamps and bpv recirculation hose clamp and manifold hose clamp on BPV). Intercooler/bpv assembly should lift right off of the car.
3. Put tape or sandwitch bags over the open intercooler hoses to prevent any debris/hardware etc from falling in.
4. Take off the heat shielding covering the exhaust manifold, turbo and downpipe-- IIRC these are small 8 or 10mm bolts that may be rusted.
5. Get under the car and locate both 02 sensors that are in the downpipe- one is up near the turbo the other is near the downpipe/catpipe connection. Follow both 02 sensor wires to their plug harness and disconnect them. This is very tricky to do as the plugs are quite hard to reach. After the plugs are off, disconnect all zip ties etc that may hold the wiring to the undercarriage/chassis.
6. Generously spray the top 02 sensor (the one near the turbo) with PB Blaster and go have a beer/smoke/sandwitch, whatever while the blaster does its thing.
7. Using the 02 sensor wrench carefully break loose the 02 sensor from its bung in the downpipe. Depending on your mileage, this may be very easy or very hard, there have been reports of 02 sensors being fully siezed in the downpipe with only a few thousand miles on the car. Once the sensor is loose you want to work the sensor back and forth unscrewing a turn and then screwing it back in, all the while continuing to spray PB blaster on the threads. 'work' the sensor back and forth patiently until you can fully release it from the bung. Once it is free be sure to wipe of any PB blaster that may have gotten near the actual sensor and set the sensor aside in a clean place. When I did this install on my car it had 15,xxx miles on it and it was not siezed, though the threads did get a little messed up on the sensor itself, it was no bad enough that it could not be re-used.
8. Now you can begin to work on the 5 downpipe to turbo nuts. Start off with a generous spraying of BP blaster to each nut. Now, removing these nuts was possibly the trickiest part of this whole install. It requires a coutless combination of extensions, deep set and standard stockets, swivel adapters, and breaker bars to access the nuts you need to remove, especially the ones nearest to the manifold and engine. It is very tight in this area of the car and the largest challenge is getting leverage clearance on the socket wrench in those tight quarters. It is a very painstaking process so take lots of breaks and be patient. Getting to these downpipe nuts is not easy but I know from personal experience it is possible with a decent set of tools and basic shade-tree mechanic know how. Be sure to not put any pressure on the nuts/studs until you have a good grip on the nut- stripping a nut or breaking a stud in this location will ruin your weekend. Keep these 5 nuts in a safe place-- you will be reusing these.
9. Once the downpipe is loose from the turbo, disconnect the two spring bolts that hold the cat pipe to the catback exhaust. You may have to remove the center chassis brace to gain sufficient access. At this point you should also be able to disconnect the downpipe/catpipe connection, pull off the two rubber hangers and remove the cat pipe from the car.
10. At this point there is only a two bolt support bracket holding the downpipe to the car. IIRC, getting to the bolts on this braket was a major pain, but it needs to be done from undernieth the car. After this bracket is free, the downpipe should be free-- but you are only half out of the woods at this point.
11. So now you have a loose downpipe with an 02 sensor hanging out of it on one side and a steel bracket welded to it on the other. You need to somehow get this thing out of the car from below, though it may seem impossible and this point and you are probably thinking of selling the MS3 and settling down with a nice Camry. To remove the downpipe you need to first remove the front factory chassis brace, which I beleive is (4) 17mm bolts and a single 12mm bolt. Once the chassis brace is off, it takes a bit of manuvering, but you should be able to pull the downpipe free with the rear 02 sensor still installed. Be careful not to damage the 02 sensor or the wiring as you are twisting the downpipe it to get it out of the car.
12. Once the downpipe is free, apply PB blaster to the rear 02 sensor and have another beer/smoke/sandwitch. Remove the 02 sensor the same way as the first, going slow and being very careful not to mess up any of the threads.
13. When you have both 02 sensors out of the stock downpipe, apply a thin coating of anti-seize to the threads and reinstall them into the TurboXS downpipe. Be carefull not to get any anti-sieze on the actual sensors, just the threads. If you are planning on doing the spark plug anti-fouler CEL fix, now would be the time to do it-- the anti-fouler(s) would need to be installed on the rear 02 sensor.
14. Once the 02 sensors are secure, I bolted the TurboXS downpipe to the racepipe while it was out of the car using the supplied copper gasket and hardware.
15. You should now be able to slide the whole dp/rp assembly back into the car and rest the downpipe on the turbo studs. There is a factory gasket that was between the stock downpipe and the turbo exhaust housing-- be sure you find this and reuse it. You may want to find something to rest the racepipe on until you bolt it in as to not add too much stress to the turbo studs. The TurboXS pipes should slide in much easier as they are significantly less bulky than the stock pipes.
16. Making sure that the stock turbo gasket is still in position, bolt the downpipe nuts back to the turbo studs and torque them in a star pattern to ensure a leak-free seal. You will notice that the bellmouth downpipe is specially designed to give you perfect access to the turbo studs (thank you TurboXS).
17. Use the 2nd copper gasket and the adapter flange included in the kit along with the stock donut gasket and stock spring bolts to mate the racepipe up with the stock catback exhaust.
18. Plug in both 02 sensor plugs into their respective harnesses and secure all wiring with zip ties to keep them away from potentially hot engine components.
19. Reinstall all frame brace pieces that were removed during the install.
20. Reinstall manifold heashields, intercooler/bpv and intercooler cover in reverse order that they were removed.
21. Reset the ECU, fire if the car and check for any exhaust leaks.
22. Go for a drive and enjoy your much more efficient exhaust system!
NOTE: The TurboXS downpipe will most likely trigger a CEL for a rear catalyst below efficiency if you are not using some sort of CEL fix or engine management.
please post up any questions you might have, I am going to try and upload some photos for this install in the mean time.