UPDATE: 4/16/2011
After a long busy morning of excitement, frustration, wishful thinking, more frustration, and finally, satisfaction.... My installation is finally complete.
The procedure was pretty straight forward... but removing the bolts was a PITA. One nut/bolt in particular, connecting the y pipe to the mid section stripped on me... so we had to cut it off using my dremel tool and cutting disks. So after about 40 minutes of swearing, sparks in my face (I had safety glasses on), and numerous cuts and bruises from banging fingers and elbows underneath the car, I got that sucker off.
Many thanks to my buddy Mike for the help today... I really appreciate it. Would have taken me all day had you not helped
As far as the Invidia install itself... THAT was a breeze... I stand by my earlier statement that the pieces themselves were very well manufactured, and the fitment was SUPERB. It took us 40 minutes from start to finish of actuall CBE installation (vs over 3 hours for the stupid stock exhaust removal). We nary had to move the alignment at all. It was all lined up.
Post-install and first start up, I was grinning ear to ear to ear to ear. It sounded sooooooooooooo good. I had my buddy start it up too and myself listen and video record it and it sounded so much more aggressive. This was how our Z's were supposed to sound from the factory. It was cloudy and just rained this morning, but I still took her out for a drive... with the windows down. Pure satisfaction. No drone. No rasp. Just a pure authoritative "sporty" sounding exhaust... esp when past 3k rpm. The burnt titanium tips look awesome on white too... I am very pleased with the results overall.
Thank you to Jomer at FBNissan for the purchase and to wheee!, Red_Zed, and djpathfinder for all your help. I am now a member of the Invidia club
I will update this thread with what I think of the exhaust after few days/weeks of driving... once I get off my Z "high" right now
Some pics and vids for comparison (see above for comparison to stock).
Thanks for looking!
now, I'm off for a drive!!!
