Sup fellas? My friend just bought a set of Crawford HFC's. He took the Z to the shop to have them installed and the mechanic was having trouble removing the top bolts. They tried from the top removing the intake tubes and strut bar but the bolts seem to be hard as ***** to remove. Not even with the air tools the bolts wont budge!!! The guy working on the car said if he continued the factory bolts would break. When I had my cats installed they didnt run into this problem. Is there anyone that has had this problem with there HFC or Testpipe installation or is there any feedback that someone may provide? My partner doesnt have a home computer but I told him I would ask you guys.

Thanks
Vincent

 

Sounds like your friend needs to take it to another shop.

Why would they remove the intake and strut bar?

 

I think the way the bolts on the top flange are angled on the HR.The rest of the bolts could be removed from the bottom of the car.But bolts on the top can only be removed from the top. This same mechanic installed my HFC's the same way. The mechanic said that the only way to remove bolts that hard is with a stronger impact gun, but with a regular impact gun the wont budge.

 

get a breaker bar on those bolts, just make sure you got it straight when you are breaking the bolts, don't want to slip off and round off the heads. Me and my friend did the HFCs on my 07.

 

How long did it take you guys to install yours? Did you run into any problems for your install? Any CEL go off on you? So far I havent had any CEL problems.

 

about 2 hours, had to move the steering shaft over, wasn't a big deal but the 07s are def a bit of a b*tch for TPs/HFCs when compared to 03-06. I have a p0420 (bank 1 efficiency). Just need to get a non-fouler for that side

 

Probably to try to make some room in the engine bay to get to the bolts from the top of the motor.

 

your right thats the only way to get to the top bolts.

 

removing the intake does make the driver side bolts more accessible. Just sounds like they have never worked on a Z before and it is kicking their ***. I would switch shops unless no one else is around.

Took me about 3 hours to do mine, but it kicked my *** the whole way. Good luck with things.

 

Those bolts can be a b----! I broke the head off of the passenger side bolt using a breaker bar. I can;t imagine how much more difficult it would have been if the car had any mileage on it, I think they would have been almost impossible to get off. Fortunately the threaded section goes into the cat only, and I didnt have to wrestle any threads out of the manifold side flange (whew). Anti-sieze on the the new bolts in case I ever have to change them out! The driver side one required some playing with the socket size and extensions, but I did it without moving the steering rack.

ncdoc

 

I broke the exact same bolt!! I was pissed, I thought I was going to have to get another manifold!!