I did it
 

I went ahead and bought the catted tbe from crucial. Wanted to wait for more clips but they just weren't coming and I can't handle my whisper quiet stock exhaust anymore. I have a kartboy short shifter here also that is waiting to be installed but I figured I will wait until I take off the exhaust since I have to remove a pipe to do the bushings anyway. I'll put up a review and some videos when I get it all done.

edit: somebody buy my damn wheels to help me pay for this stuff :P

Nice, I look fwd to the review and hearing it in person. :)

Yeah, well I'm looking AWD to the review. :P

:|

I snickered. *shrugs*

me too

catted pipes are on backorder for a little bit :|

Sucks. Can he ship you the CBE to tide you over? I think that as long as you use a good gasket, you should be able to get it to mate to the stock rear cat.

Meh, I can wait a week. I would rather do it all at once anyway. My accessport just came in the mail too so I am giddy with anticipation.

Flash to stage 1 now?

ok you twisted my arm. Stage 1 it is.

Guess what I got! He overnight shipped it to me when the cat came in. +1 customer service. Only thing I need is exhaust hangers. Anybody have a suggestion for good ones? Click pictures for big version.
http://img47.imageshack.us/img47/7230/img4374qb6.th.jpg
http://img47.imageshack.us/img47/6262/img4378vc4.th.jpg

http://img47.imageshack.us/img47/9711/img4381mc4.th.jpg
Only thing that seemed off was the welding on the inside where the cat is welded in. Not sure if this would effect anything or is worth even trying to smooth out.

http://img391.imageshack.us/img391/7...4376pk4.th.jpg

Sweet! I look forward to hearing it in person. I was looking at the same setup but catless for my wrx.

I doubt that the welding slag (or whatever it's called) would make any difference that far down the exhaust tract. I have the long Kartboy hangers and they're perfect. Why do you need new ones? Don't most reuse the stockers?

I have heard some people use them with success. Just depends on the exhaust. Guess I will just use the stock ones and see how it goes. Can't wait to get it on though, hopefully I will have it on tomorrow or Monday.

That cat looks identical to the magnaflow cat that I welded into my exhaust. It didn't really make a difference in how loud the car was, it just took off the raspy sound that I loved.

This is the actual cat Crucial uses now.

http://vibrantperformance.com/catalo...26f627cd729667

ran into some problems :(

I'll just link my nasioc posts

http://forums.nasioc.com/forums/show....php?t=1569616
http://forums.nasioc.com/forums/show....php?t=1569624

so I have to figure out this shifter thing and find a new nut for my downpipe.

Those turbo to DP bolts come off all the time. Once they've been installed, you have to go back after a few heat cycles and re-tighten them. I think I've lost probably 4 of them over the years. 'Course, I never torque mine to spec... it's too much of a PITA to get a torque wrench on the lower two... so I just use an end-wrench and put as much elbow to 'em as possible... which is why mine fall off a lot I guess... but I probably have my DP on and off the car more in one month than most people do in 5 years.

Just pick up some new nuts from the hardware store (get the highest grade you can get of course) or gank some from somewhere else on the car (those 14mm nuts are used in lots of places) and replace the less critical part w/ some hardware store stuff.

Those nuts fall off constantly, like Scott said. I've done clutches in 2 turbo cars in the last month, and neither of them had all of the DP hardware...

If you want OE hardware, come by here. I've got a few.

Speaking of OE hardware. For some reason I am missing a bolt to my tranny mount. Would you have one of those?

Well that makes me feel a little better. I need to run out and get a wrench for my PITA O2 sensor on the midpipe so I might swing by to grab a few nuts if I can't find any suitable.

Having all your downpipe bolts is for chumps.

I thought the rear 02 sensor was in the open enough that you could just use a wrench on it. Nothing wrong with borrowing a proper O2 wrench from Autozone though.

I think you can get to both O2 sensors w/ a standard 22mm end-wrench. The only problem is when they're in there so damn tight you end up rounding it off trying to break it loose.

Back when my car was still stock-ish, I removed my front O2 sensor just one time... after that I cut the head shield so it could be removed w/o taking out the sensor, from then on I just left the sensor in the header and simply unplugged it in the engine bay every time I had to remove the headers. The rear O2 is similar, there's not really any reason to remove it just to take off the exhaust (though I realize the reason you're pulling it this time is because you're swapping exhausts).