Continuing with the replacement of the downpipe in the 1996 STi, today I got to the removal.
To get this rusty piece off…
…was not high on the “Let’s make this easy!” list for the Subaru engineers in 1996.
Like any pipe, it is connected in two places. The start, and the end. The end was easy - as you saw in the last post, it had already decided to free itself from its neighbour pipe.
The other end of the pipe was troublesome. As you recall, that’s the end with the turbocharger. The turbocharger is under the “no touchy!” piece of metal in the engine bay:
So, obviously, no-touchy must come off so that the downpipe can be disconnected from the turbo. HOWEVER!!!!1 no-touchy is connected to the turbo with no less than TEN of the hardest-to-access bolts I’ve ever come across. I was under the car with every 10mm socket and socket extension I own, plus 10mm wrenches too, and in the engine bay, and on a stepladder beside the engine bay… all to get this little piece of heat shielding off. But over an hour later it was off.
…not exactly. Though you can see that the piece is technically off the turbocharger (just peeking its snaily little head out from under no-touchy), it is still on the car. You see, it’s blocked by the intercooler, which is the radiator-looking thingy in the top right of the picture. Off it comes.
…and so does no-touchy, exposing the turbocharger and the connecting nuts and bolts for the downpipe. The oxygen sensor is disconnected, and out comes the old downpipe!
Next up, we’ll be modifying the new downpipe with parts from the old one.
To get this rusty piece off…
…was not high on the “Let’s make this easy!” list for the Subaru engineers in 1996.
Like any pipe, it is connected in two places. The start, and the end. The end was easy - as you saw in the last post, it had already decided to free itself from its neighbour pipe.
The other end of the pipe was troublesome. As you recall, that’s the end with the turbocharger. The turbocharger is under the “no touchy!” piece of metal in the engine bay:
So, obviously, no-touchy must come off so that the downpipe can be disconnected from the turbo. HOWEVER!!!!1 no-touchy is connected to the turbo with no less than TEN of the hardest-to-access bolts I’ve ever come across. I was under the car with every 10mm socket and socket extension I own, plus 10mm wrenches too, and in the engine bay, and on a stepladder beside the engine bay… all to get this little piece of heat shielding off. But over an hour later it was off.
…not exactly. Though you can see that the piece is technically off the turbocharger (just peeking its snaily little head out from under no-touchy), it is still on the car. You see, it’s blocked by the intercooler, which is the radiator-looking thingy in the top right of the picture. Off it comes.
…and so does no-touchy, exposing the turbocharger and the connecting nuts and bolts for the downpipe. The oxygen sensor is disconnected, and out comes the old downpipe!
Next up, we’ll be modifying the new downpipe with parts from the old one.
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