DIY Full-Race 3" Downpipe and Catback Exhaust System

Damn looks nice, I ordered mine but the guy at full-race (John Guerra) only sent me the cat-back. I gave him a call back and said it should be here Friday.
 
I am sticking with my stock exhaust at the moment. One for cost, and two I really don't want a loud car. The full race should be perfect, but I will make the stock exhaust work if their is not major power loss.
 
FYI - the three bolts on the heat shield near the strut towers on each side are 12mm. I also found that my large 1/2" drive O2 sensor socket was too large to get onto the top O2 sensor, so I picked up a lighter duty 3/8" drive with thinner walls from Autozone this evening, will try fitment of that tomorrow as I stopped at this point.

Last thing, regarding the cat-back portion which I installed a couple weeks ago... Full-Race have changed the flange style on the muffler/resonator flanges. The flanges are just round and flat with a clamp that forces them together. Sort of hard to describe if you haven't seen it before, but I'll try to take a picture of this though I already have it mounted up. The new style is honestly a PITA to get lined up as it allows complete freedom of rotation and I had a lot of trouble with it, but maybe they'll have some tips for us. For the life of me I wasn't able to get the exhaust tip to come out centered in the bumper cutout, but I'll give it another go after I finish the downpipe install.
 
FYI - the three bolts on the heat shield near the strut towers on each side are 12mm. I also found that my large 1/2" drive O2 sensor socket was too large to get onto the top O2 sensor, so I picked up a lighter duty 3/8" drive with thinner walls from Autozone this evening, will try fitment of that tomorrow as I stopped at this point.

Last thing, regarding the cat-back portion which I installed a couple weeks ago... Full-Race have changed the flange style on the muffler/resonator flanges. The flanges are just round and flat with a clamp that forces them together. Sort of hard to describe if you haven't seen it before, but I'll try to take a picture of this though I already have it mounted up. The new style is honestly a PITA to get lined up as it allows complete freedom of rotation and I had a lot of trouble with it, but maybe they'll have some tips for us. For the life of me I wasn't able to get the exhaust tip to come out centered in the bumper cutout, but I'll give it another go after I finish the downpipe install.

I couldn't quite get it centered either and I have the old flange style.
 
@squiggy First of all i wanna say thank you for your detailed DIY-saved me about $400 on install costs. I have just one question. Is the DP supposed to hit the lower support frame? is there a way to fix it? did I not align it right? or am I gonna need to install a motor mount?
 

Yes, exactly that. When I first installed it, I had a heck of a time getting things aligned well enough by myself to get the nut on the v-band. Finally I managed to get it on there, but it really gave a false sense of how much adjustment you have to twist the pipe around, or would end up causing fitment issues when it looked like everything was lined up well, tighten the clamp, then realize that it had pulled the pipes into a position where there was no longer adequate clearance somewhere. I'm sure there's a "trick", but I fiddled with it a lot a week or so after install to try to get my tailpipe in a better spot. In the end, I made it worse and should have just left it! But I'll give things another go after I finish my DP install and see if the positioning/clearance on anything changes at that point.

I couldn't quite get it centered either and I have the old flange style.

That's good to know! Once I'm all done with the DP install and try to realign things one last time I will likely call Full-Race if I can't get things to line up better. I figure they may have some suggestions. I'm also pretty sure these things wouldn't be quite so difficult if I weren't on my back in the driveway, so I may see if I can find someone with a lift that would put it up for me so I could get better access...
 
Awesome in depth stuff man!!!!!!!!! Maybe someone can help me with this popping /backfire noise when i start and rev my 2012 civic si from a cold start bad catalytic ?????? Is this normal?????? Just replaced midpipe/oem catalytic with tsudo testpipe and sound popping still persists!!!!!!!!!!! Lol damn u honda work with me!!!! Lol

View: http://youtu.be/FkdwbcyluUo

A video i took the other day so youll can hear it for yourselfs thanks again


Thanks for the compliments and happy to help those who are willing to take a stab at it themselves.

Otherwise, :hijacked: please start a new thread with your question.
 
@squiggy First of all i wanna say thank you for your detailed DIY-saved me about $400 on install costs. I have just one question. Is the DP supposed to hit the lower support frame? is there a way to fix it? did I not align it right? or am I gonna need to install a motor mount?

There should be just enough clearance if I recall. If you could take a picture of the problem, I would be happy to take a look.
 
This is the pic where it hits i can hear it loud rattling on start-ups and when turning.
I think i'm going to take the car to a muffler shop and see if they can make the holes in the DP a little longer to see if that will give it a little wiggle so it can be raised a little to make it fit...i just wish full-race would redesign their exhaust to better fit.
 

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This is the pic where it hits i can hear it loud rattling on start-ups and when turning.
I think i'm going to take the car to a muffler shop and see if they can make the holes in the DP a little longer to see if that will give it a little wiggle so it can be raised a little to make it fit...i just wish full-race would redesign their exhaust to better fit.

The DP should not be hitting that brace if it is seated on the engine properly. Maybe @Full-Race Geoff can take a look and offer some insight.
 
Fixed it, no rattles. Was about to take it off and sell.
 

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There was two things I did. First I readjusted the pipe after the DP I installed upsides down that was pushing the DP down against the frame. I also straightened the the piece of metal on he DP (pic belo)
 

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