So i got my hands on a set of fast intentions resonated test pipes for my 07, and i started working under my car to get the factory cats out. Just FYI, its incredilby difficult to loosen up those bolts holding the cats onto the headers. To make things even worse, theres almost no room to move the tools around...

After an hour and a half of cursing and grunting, i managed to get only one of the bolts off. Then when i was working on my second, it SNAPPED in half.



HOW THE HELL DOES THAT EVEN HAPPEN!?

So....after lying on my back in disbelief for five minutes, i put everything back together and gave up.

Im going to take it to the fast inentions shop tomorrow to sort it all out...

 

Oh my god....
That is all

 

hes workin with a stripped bolt

 

did you soak the sucker with WD-40 or anything before trying to get it off?

 

so you've never worked on a car be4 eh?

 

u need a breaker bar...

 

lol looks like you were using the wrong size tools, the nut is stripped lol

 

^what he said

 

I was using the right size. Thats the part that just pisses me off. The bolt was on so tight, that the right size one was slightly rounding the edges. I was using a breaker bar as well.

Its not the first time ive worked on my car. Ive done my spring and exhaust install myself with no issues....until this.

If it was stripping the bolt, it woudl have rounded out the whole top, not broken the thing in half.

 

why didnt you use wd40?

 

PB BLAST its the shiznit!lol

 

I didnt think it would have snapped in half. It was about 2 cm out, and it was backing out with the breaker bar.

I seemed like it would just be a matter of time before i would get it out cause it was working. but yeah...

 

Installing test pipes on the 07-08 is much more difficult than any of the prior year 350Z's.

 

hey Alex, thanks for failing to mention that I too sat under your damn car for an hour and a half trying do install these stupid things.... we should have definitely used Liquid Wrench on everything.

for those of you with Z's thinking of doing this install yourself, there is absolutely no room to work... this job needs a lift to really be done right IMO.

 

And with a lift, it will still be difficult. There is no room under there.

 

next time soak it in PB blaster. WD40 isn't as good. Even on a newer car, bolts can be on there good.

 

is there any easy way to do it? getting the wrenches in there was pretty tough too...

 

Unfortunatly no. There is only one way to do it. The hard way.

 

Yeah. im just gonna have the shop fix up that one bolt, and i'll get a can of pb blaster and attempt it again. I know i could have done the install if i didnt run into this minor snag...

 

I used a 20" extension to get the ones connected to the headers, it actually was somewhat simple.