Okay guys, i just installed the popcharhger last night in about an hour with my friend. I have the intense motorsports race pipes in my garage waiting for installation. First off i highly reccomend the popcharger. IT sounds so nice and around 5 thousand rpms the engine screams so loud and I love it. Anyway i was curious about the installation of the testpipes. My friends and I are goin to put it on in his garage because he has some airtools and stuff, but i was just curious on how hard it is to put the test pipes on and how long it would prob take. Iv been told that on the 03 Z the cel will not go on. Is this true? thanks

 

test pipes are pretty straightforward to install. I'd like to give you a huge warning about the driver's side o2 sensor though, it feels like its was welded on there. My friend and I projected that it would take us no longer than 2-3 hours but we ended up spending 9 hours, most of which was because of the o2 sensor. You probebly will get a CEL but theres a number of ways to fix that

 

03 np.
about an hour/pipe. get at header bolts from top of engine bay with socket extension.

 

just did mine this weekend. shouldnt take more than 3 hrs.

your going to have to buy new bolts(size of 10mmx20mm with 17mm head worked well for me, all ss). a total of 10(4 per pipe and 1 per pipe for the brace(not all pipes use the brace). you get to reuse two of the studs/nuts simply because you cant remove them.

the passengar side bolts are alot tighter than the driver side. shouldnt be a problem for the air tools tho. getting the header bolts from the topside was easy, but youll need about 36 inches of extentions.

dont forget about washers, lock washers and maybe locktight.

i dont know how others removed their o2 sensors, but i had to take the hammer to the outer case to get my crescent wrench on it.(22 mm nuts)

good luck with it.

 

yeah we took a hammer to the cat too. As you can see its basically stripped. We got it down from a 22 to a 21.

 

you went crazy on that thing!

 

Yeah that was the 5th hour or so into the installation so we were both very very pissed.

 

Okay that's scary. How has everyone else remove the O2 sensor with hammering it down and taking 9 hours? Also I was thinking of getting the APS TP's any suggesttions/comments?

 

Tell us how the APS's sound, maybe a sound clip if you can. i want to get those but i was told you should not think about them unless your thinking of FI

 

Why should you consider those only if you are FI?

 

Ouch!!!!!

 

You can go to ANY autoparts store and buy an O2 sensor socket, which has a cut out on it so the wire fits through. Then it is a matter of just unbolting it like anything else. took me about 30 seconds.

Took about an hour to switch out the cats with the test pipes. I used a lift and hand tools.

 

or you can go to Autozone and borrow one of there O2 sensor socket.

 

im sorry if i goto a shop to do this job... it wouldnt take that long right?
or its gonna cost more than the damn pipes...

 

^ Most shops would refuse the job due to emission laws. They will probably charge you another $100. Do the job yourself!

 

+1 on the 02 sensor socket.. just go buy one... pep boys -12bucks

 

how do you like the intense test pipes? didyou get the resonated or the non resonated?

 

i put on my test pipes and i have a question for everyone with them what have yall done about the service engine soon light