God I hope these pictures work. I feel so stupid when they don't...



Ok, first, here's the engine bay, minus all the intake hoses and y-pipe:













Then, here's the top view of the new dp, showing the spacers I used to allow the bolt head to clear the dp:









...and a close-up













...and from the bottom, showing the Allen-head bolts and spacers on the front one (sorry, this one wouldn't focus):













Finally, the dp-cat coupling:







I forgot to mention before that I couldn't use the stock studs in the cat - the clearance was simply too tight. I had to get them out (what fun) and replace them with a bolt-nut combination whose thread diameter was a little smaller than the stock studs. This gave me enough play to get the dp connected to the cat. There may still be a leak here.



By the way, sorry for kinda highjacking your thread sinful7... I figure this is probably useful info for many people, so I took the liberty...

 

Thanks for the reassurance r_xplicit. For the record, I don't think there is any fitment problem with the flange. It fits very well against the manifold. My possible problem is that when seated on the manifold correctly, the dp doesn't want to line up with the stock cat. If there are any leaks then that would be the cause. Hopefully there are no leaks.

 

btw guys be careful with what bolts you buy, exhaust bolts go through hell and getting shitty grade metric hex socket bolts from the local hardware store might bite you in the *** a year from now after they've seen some snow/rain and alot of heat cycling. Take the extra time and order some high quality treated bolts online, you'll be glad you did in the long run. Also, putting some anti-sieze on the bolt threads before screwing them in will help when you have to remove it.

 

also, rememer, as far as the lining up of the cat and the new dp, take into consideration the sagging effect of the hangers and the oem exhaust parts if there are any still intact.....



glad that everything worked out.....

 

I thought about using the new bolts instead of the studs, but what a pain in the ***! I said **** it and tightened the cat studs with a breaker bar.

 

That was my worry as well.. I don't want to die while I'm sitting in traffic this summer, with carbon Monoxide leaking from the loose flange.

 

Grade 8 "Hex Socket" (allen head) bolts should be sufficient.. That's what my hardware store had.

 

Yes, good point.. I wondered that about mine till I remembered that my car has less than 60k and has never, ever seen bad weather. Still, a good point. Those hangers are a bitch to wrestle with, too.

 

yeah, just do not thin about the mileage, think about the age...