[cmkde]

So with being pointed in the right direction with the help of fellow member Justin, I made contact with Christine over at Evolution Racewerks which has a down pipe for our car available (Possibly sold out) as of right now. Now I apologize for some gaps of photos and quality, we were using Rhino Ramps and the space below the car is pretty compact to say the least.

Let us begin, shall we?

---------------- PREP -----------------

Tools/abilities required:

- Rhino Ramps(or equiv) or special jacks/adapters that fit into the side holders of the car, no real safe place to jack the car up traditionally.
- Metric driver set
- E10/E12 EXTERNAL torx bits (if you don't have these, usually your local auto store/sears etc has them)
- O2 socket removal tool.
- Screwdriver hook tool.
- Some patience.

Optional:

- Anti-Seize
- A friend
- Captain Morgan (The 3rd friend)

Difficulty of install out of 10: 3 Time required with lift: 45 minutes / Without Lift: 1 1/2 hours.

--------------- Removal ------------------------------

1. Let the car cool, burning yourself isn't fun. This seems obvious but still, the transmission and the brackets surrounding and oil pan will be piping hot long after the exhaust cools down as well, be careful. While waiting for the car to cool down, pull off the top of the engine cover and near the back left you will find a Black and Grey O2 sensor wire, remove both of these wire connectors by pressing in and having them completely unattached for the work ahead. It is much easier this way and they snap right back in when ready. Sorry for no pics on this at the moment.

2. Remove the underbelly protector from the car which is about 22 small bolts, this is relatively easy and fast. There are 4 bolts facing the front of the car that hold some sort of protector flaps that you will not have to remove for the underbelly cover to come off. Pics of this below with the cover off.

3. There is a small exhaust hanger (not pictured) behind the flex pipe on the 6th picture down, it literally says exhaust on the bracket. It has 2 torx bolts that you should remove to gain some play in the mid pipe back to the exhaust for removal. The instructions state to drop the exhaust fully. I have the M Performance exhaust already installed here which is essentially one piece all the way back, by loosening this hanger you can let the mid pipe safely rest on a cross support brace on the car to gain play to remove the stock DP. Full removal is really not required here.

4. Next there are two main bolts for the stock DP that need to be removed that flare off on a brace of the stock DP that you can see on both the old and new one that are attached to a transmission bracket take these out and save them for later. There are also 2 additional bolts attached to where these bolts go that you can remove for the installation portion.

5. The V-Band clamps have 1 bolt/nut combo that are on the lower end attached to the mid pipe and the upper attached to the turbo charger itself, these bolts are very easily removed and BMW seemed to use good quality bolts. The V-Band clamps are TIGHT, we used a screwdriver hook to separate the clamps, they take some effort and then snap free with some extra pressure. Once both are removed the Down Pipe itself will fall.

------------ Installation --------------

1. Swap the O2 sensors to the new DP, Black wire is UPPER on the DP, and Grey wire is LOWER on the DP. These need to go back in their same place if not unicorns may burn your house down, or your car will run shitty. Neither of which you want to deal with after everything is done.

1. This is pretty much everything in reverse, with a few tips that will literally save you probably 30 minutes, Place the Downpipe up and LINE IT UP, DO NOT PUT ANY BOLTS IN OR ANYTHING. Hold it in place and get a visual representation of the upper and lower portions of the DP, the upper will line up easily but if you start putting bolts in you will not close the gap to the lower portion with the V-Band at all and you get to start all over again like we had to.

2. Now that you see how it should line up, place the V-Band upper clamp in place first on the turbo charger and tighten this about 1/2 way to where the clamp is closing the gap but not removing play in the new DP.

3. Do not put the brackets back on the new DP yet, you can line them up but keep the actual bracket off the transmission until you place the lower V-Band on the DP and meet it up with the mid pipe. This is the most difficult part, if you tighten all those bolts and brackets first your V-Band will have a gap to the mid pipe. If you do the V-Bands first and give the bottom portion a good tighten first you will be in great shape. After you tighten the bottom V-Band, then do the upper portion. Take your finger nail and try and poke it in the small opening in the V-Band (or something small and thin) if it fits in, you may have an exhaust leak back it out a little and have a friend push to make sure there is a proper seal. I'm super anal about taking your time on this portion I would highly recommend it.

4. After your V-Bands are tight and clean bolt up the exhaust hanger torx bolts then the 2 bolts on the new DP to the transmission bracket and the supporting bracket.

5. Rewire your O2 sensors in the engine bay. Don't worry about swapping the O2's in the wrong place here, they can only go in certain plugs, meaning if you didn't suck at Legos as a kid you'll probably surive this step.

6. Replace all 9 thousand bolts on the underbelly cover and make sure you have nothing left over, double and triple check your work. All factory bolts and nuts are used in this installation so nothing OEM has to be replaced other than the DP itself of course.

7. Cold start that mofo and listen to how mean she is, a fire breathing dragon is an understatement.


------------------------------- Small initial review ----------------------------------

The Good -

The overall quality for the DP is outrageously good, the welds and quality of the metal and the O2 bungs are just top notch, honestly if you're planning on doing a down pipe stop looking and buy the ER DP, it has a true 4" pipe. the Super Sprint is priced much more and doesn't look nearly as high quality. If anyone needs help getting in contact with them I'll give you their direct number if you have any questions, great customer service and fast shipping and packaging. Couldn't be happier in this aspect.

The sound is absolutely fucking amazing, it sounds like a really angry exotic car with the M Performance exhaust, it has a loud pop and nice gargle, when getting on it the sound is smooth and aggressive but not overtly loud to be loud. The sound has a purpose and it isn't annoying or droning. If you're in Sport+ and moderately accelerating the car garners a lot of street presence with the sound it emits with the DP just like any other video you have to hear it in person, even though I may post a video on this later.

One of the absolute best things about this car and the DP is, light cruising has a fantastic tone to it, but if you want to make this car super quiet with a similar exhaust note that Infiniti cars seem to have, you can actually throw the car in ECO mode and you wouldn't know you're driving relatively on straight pipes.


The Bad -

CEL after 25mi (duh) cleared with JB4 or deal with it
Internal housing has a rough patch near the ER logo weld, overall cleaned up but a minor gripe.

---------- DYNO NUMBERS TO COME ------------------