Ok so removing the stock cat...

shadowchemos

Gonna try to revive this because I'm not good with the search function on the forum and I found this using google.

Got the 2 "demon bolts" off but I am wondering how to get the other ones off, my car isn't high enough off the ground to get enough leverage, do I just keep spraying pb blaster on that and keep trying? Also the bolts that are mounted towards the outsides of the car have the heads facing towards the front of the car. I have no idea how to even get at them.

Just in case anyone reads this, my car has 70,000 miles on it. Everything is rusted to **** since I daily it in Illinois lol.

Last thing is, if I break or cut the head of the bolt I am totally ****** right? Since these retarded bolts have threads they wouldn't just fall out??

I can't believe I would ever say this, but my pos RX8 was easier to work on that my Z. Really unhappy with level of engineering for what I consider to be an expensive car.

Might look for a shop nearby to do this for me but I kinda hate paying someone for the labor since the test pipes only cost me $80.

If anyone reads this and can help in any way please let me know.

Thanks!

madwi

Take the intakes off and go at it from the front of the car. Use lots of extensions mentioned in this thread. 1/2" equipment. PBblast the snot out of them.

shadowchemos

Not sure what taking the intakes off again will do because I got the bolts off that were accessible from under the intakes. Going to a friends house after work tomorrow and we are gonna get it up higher and try an impact and see what happens. Worst case, gonna cut them off. What size bolt should I get to use on the new test pipes I'm mounting? I haven't measured when the car was up and I wanna come to his house ready with the bolts in hand so if we get the cats off I can put on the test pipes and roll out.

Thanks!

OhioYJ

That's probably meant for people who have the stock intake boxes. They would be more intrusive. I have the Stillen Gen3, and everything stayed in place.

As for bolt size I don't remember, I got a hardware kit from Fast Intentions when I put my Berks HFCs in. I would just measure the holes in the test pipes and get bolts / nuts roughly that size. Get a nice flanged bolt (serrated would be nice too to lock it in place) / nut if you can, if not use a washers. The flange on the header is roughly the size that will be on the test pipe.

OhioYJ

Honestly I would hope for them to break. The cats are the threaded part, not the header. So if you break the head of the bolt off, or it breaks in the middle anywhere, it's free of header, and the cat comes down. Yes the you have a bolt stuck in the cat, but it's not stuck in the header. These aren't studs.

As already mentioned the best strategy is to get enough 1/2" extension to make it all the way out to the front of the car. I didn't have enough and only had one 3/8" extension in the mix, and it was a bear. After this project I went out and bought more 1/2" extensions.

My car only had 5000 miles on it, and it was pain, those two bolts were definitely tighter than the rest and were very rusty, where the bottom two weren't for some reason?