How To: Install Protosport Downpipe

[richelesro]

Okay. I installed my Protosport downpipe yesterday and here's the steps I went through. The process took about 1.5 hours, not counting the time to take pictures, etc.

First, I went ahead with the check engine light fix which I got from the following URL:
http://www.apexr1.com/mamilelcfi.html

My review of the downpipe:
http://mazdamp3.com/vbb230/showthrea...threadid=33996

Now, getting to the nitty gritty. You'll need a socket set in both metric and standard measurements along with a can of Liquid Wrench or WD40. A rubber mallot could be of use, and something to remove the O2 sensor (I used a cresent wrench).

Word to the wise:
Use Liquid Wrench / WD40 liberally. Those of you with older cars are going to need to let it sit and soak in. Do not force any of the bolts, especially the ones attached to the turbo. The last thing you want is a broken stud anywhere. Take it slow, take it in one piece.

1. Get the car up. I don't have a lift, so jackstands for me.


(Doesn't my car look lovely on jackstands with only 4300 miles on it?)

Here's what you're going to see underneath. Notice the cross-member between the cats because we're going to have to work around it.



Let's get it on!

[richelesro]

2. The front of the cats are covered with a heat / debris shield. Use a 10mm socket to remove these.



3. Once the shield is gone, we want to remove the bolts shown. The mount to the transmission is going to be removed completely. That mount is held by 12mm bolts, and the cat is held to the turbo with 14mm nuts. Be careful here! Now, the large bolt needs a 17mm socket, but doesn't need to be removed if you don't want to. Read on to see what the deal is there.



4. Notice the location of the O2 sensor. This is going to be a pain later. Disconnect it from behind the intake manifold.



5. The rear connects to the exhaust with two 14mm nuts.



6. Once all the bolts are removed we have to get the cats off of the rubber mountings.

7. Now you've got the cats free from the car, except that cross-member. The best I can say is to finagle it out from the rear. The flange keeps it from being pulled from the front, and the tunnel doesn't give enough space to work.

[richelesro]

8. Once the cats are out, it should look like the following:



From the rear, you'll see the rubber mounts. Pull those completely from the car.



The cats off the car, but with the O2 sensor still connected:



Here's another hard part: Get the O2 sensor off. I used a cresent wrench because I didn't have the right size wrench. Use what you can. However, be careful. Even with so few miles on my car this thing was a f***ing bitch to get off. Soak it in Liquid Wrench / WD40. Work it slow and try not to strip it. Good luck!

[richelesro]

9. Put the rubber mountings we removed on the DP. You'll notice that you have to get them around the bend on the downpipe (which is why we took them off the car).

10. Slide the pipe into place. (I did this from the rear.)

11. I attached things back up in the following order: rubber mounts, turbo, exhaust.

Let me be very clear here:
Do not, under any circumstances, over-torque the nuts to the turbo. That is the #1 cause of having to replace a stud, and you do not want to do that. Trust me.

When bolting back to the turbo, don't forget to use the factory gasket. My car had 4,300 miles on it, so I could reuse mine. That may not be the case for you, so I'd suggest having one handy if your car has over 15,000 miles.

When connecting the rear, leave this O-ring in place. The ring will mold to the downpipe's shape and prevent an exhaust leak.



When I bolted this up I noticed a gap there, but no leaks were felt. Without the ring it looked flush, but I had a huge leak.

[richelesro]

Here's the underside with it installed:



Here you see the DP attached to the turbo. The highlighted bolt is the one that we removed before.



Here's the story on that bolt. The idea is to install the O2 sensor there. Now, if you install the factory one you'll have a check engine light on forever. I put the bolt in place to keep the hole plugged while I ran the engine to check for leaks. The ultimate goal is to put the O2 sensor back, but I'm going to modify it with the MIL eliminator I mentioned in my first post.

[richelesro]

12. Here's the whole O2 sensor. Use scissors to remove the highlighted shielding.



13. If you remove the piece of shielding highlighted in the previous photo, you'll see the following wires. I also included a pic of the MIL in the shot.



I'll be honest. My soldering skills suck. As such, I didn't take pictures of the next few steps.

14. Cut the blue and white wires. You've past the point of no return.

15. With the MIL you'll receive instructions on how to slice in the MIL. Note: the shielding on the O2 sensor is heat resistant so you can't burn it off.

16. For the splicing, I soldering everything together, wrapped each splice with electrical tape, and then wrapped the whole thing in more tape to get the following:



17. Finished product:

[richelesro]

18. Here's the O2 sensor connection. The thin red line notes not it's routed.



19. Try to free up the wire as much as possible. (Someone has a picture of me trying to fit my hands through those tiny spaces trying to do this.)

20. It's difficult to see in this pic exactly how I reran the wire, but I turned it back and sent it down between the two intake lines to the front of the transaxle.



This picture shows the connection from under the driver's side front of the tranny.



21. Put the O2 sensor in the allocated spot. As you can see, there's a severe bend in the wiring, and it's really close to the pipe. I'm going to try and move it a little more, but it hasn't had any signs of heat problems yet.



22. Now, with the MIL eliminator in place I started the car. Check engine light. Damn it. It eventually turned off after 4 or 5 runs with the car. Once the CEL is off, the car will run better.

[richelesro]

These are the parts you should have extra (besides the cats):

[Geoffsurfs]

dang man. looks good! Can you tell me what kinda of difference you have noticed since you did that?

[richelesro]

Originally posted by Geoffsurfs
dang man. looks good! Can you tell me what kinda of difference you have noticed since you did that?

Check my review at the link from the top.

[Jethro_TDot]

Awesome HOWTO man
Great Job Well Detailed.....

[richelesro]

Thankee vewy much.

[krillin]

good job, james! now install mine! har har!

[richelesro]

Install what? You have bought one yet!

[SpicyMSP]

this is my cue...

"wanna buy a downpipe?"