So i finally got them unbolted after. The driver side was actually the easy one for me. I just marked the steering knuckle and unbolted it so it would not be in the way. The worst part for me was the passenger side. They must have super man installing those bolts. I ended up stripping the top bolt and had to drill it out. Another issue i had was with the passenger side o2 sensor. It seemed to be already cross threaded. Has anyone ever experienced this? I ended up spending $200 to get a new sensor from nissan.

Okay so now onto the install. The fitment seems to be a bit off. the bolts match up fine but, either the pipes are too short or the angles are off. Does anybody have any experience with this? I think i can get them to fit but, it flexes the y pipe quite a bit. Are the pipes eventually going to crack? Also, what do you guys use for the upper gasket? can i just reuse the donut gasket and some spray copper gasket?

 

Hi,

Getting the factory bolts of is a PITA. And its very easy to damage the 02 on the way out.

For the upper gasket, use Permatex Ultra Copper hi-temp silicone gasket maker. You can pick it up at Advance or Pepboys for 5 bucks or so. Your local auto shop should also have some.

I have not heard too much with fitment issues, but it is tight. What y-pipe do you have? The y-pipe may flex a little during install. But it shouldnt flex a significant amount. If you have a problem, please give me a shout or shoot me an email. I'll make sure you are taken care of

301.330.8835
ClintonM@AlteredAtmosphere.com

 

okay! that sounds good! Thanks for the info. Another possibly dumb Question, what do I use for the upper bolts. There is still a stud on each of the headers that are still attached. Do these need to be removed or can I reuse them and get replacement bolts for the ones I destroyed?

 

happens if you take off your o2 sensor when your car has cooled down too much.

 

That must be it. The car was not run for at least a day. I wish i would have known this when I started! Oh well you live and learn.

 

make sure you are installing the correct test pipes for the correct motor. (HR or DE)

 

I am sure that they are for the HR. If it were for the DE, the bolts wouldn't even match up at the manifold.

 

make sure you have a well balance breakfast.

 

pretty sound advice there

 

This is why I didn't install them myself. I had them installed at Function Tuned awhile ago. The factory o2 sensors were left in the cats and I just bought new ones from Nissan to install in the test pipes. The wires were spliced. No issues yet.

 

Yeah, I believe Nissan screws up the o2 sensors when they put them on in the factory, maybe over torqed. I stripped the hell out of the nut using the correct o2 socket, and then resorted to a pipe wrench, which eventually got them out. The they were totally shredded by the time I got them out. One of them had maybe 5% of the thread left, completely useless. The other one had about 75% thread left, so I used the pipe wrench to carefully get it threaded onto my new cats and eventually on completely. It surely will never come off now without destroying itself and the cat. The other one I ordered a new o2 sensor for. I also broke one of the bolts getting the cats off. Major PITA!

 

I'm not to suprised to hear you had issues with the passenger sensor. Every 07+ G coupe or sedan that I saw come into the shop had that sensor screwed up. Not sure what nissan was doing but it was always the passenger side. Drivers where always fine.

 

I finally got to finishing the TP install. overall everything went smoothly after I got some questions asked. They ended up fitting pretty nicely. Its just a tight fit with the oem y pipe. As far as my thoughts on the TP, loud and raspy! I kinda like the rasp but this might be a bit much. I'm sure a new o2 sensor to plug the bung will help a long way since I can hear a leak from there. Also, now at cold startup, my car idles at 2k!!! Is this normal? I haven't driven it to warm the car up since I don't have an o2 sensor until monday.