Trust garage/home mechanic for up-pipe install? Opinions please!

[Monk_Knight]

So I want to replace the up-pipe in my 03 wrx, for obvious reasons. Problem is that none of the shops that I normally would take my car to will do it, due to to emissions laws.

I would try to do it myself, except that I have absolutely no experience with this sort of thing, very little mechanical aptitude, and I'm really not very good at learning how to do things from written directions (I really need to have someone show it to me). Put that with the fact that this is my only car... I just really don't want to mess anything up.

There is a guy around town who has a lot of flyers and such up advertising that he is a start-up mechanic with experience on many different makes of cars, including Subarus. I called him up and he said that he has never worked on this part before, but if it is just a bolt on part he shouldn't have any trouble with it...

Is this the sort of thing I can trust someone like that to do? Are there any other options? I don't know anyone who knows this sort of stuff and being that I'm in a pretty small town in the mountains of Colorado, there really aren't any performance shops or anything around.

[SD_GR]

Colorado seems to have avid Subaru guys around though. Look around for local meets. Go to one and see who shows up and ask around. It's just an exhaust part, yes, but it's now an 8 year old exhaust part with seized bolts and studs that will give you trouble and all sorts of things that could go wrong. A shop would be good and a second car to drive around would also be a terrific idea.

[MainFrame]

I would think anyone that's mechanically inclined would not have a problem with an uppipe install. I really had no experience working on cars back in 2002 when I bought my first WRX. The first thing I did when I got the car was pull the uppipe and gut it.


I didn't really have any problems, it was an easy job, just time consuming.

[HOTSUBI]

Ya anyone with mechanical ability can do it they just wont know the tricks to make it easy. I just did mine it was a pain for me cause everything is small and cramped and I am a big mofo. But I got it done in about 6.5 hours fighting it.

[Monk_Knight]

Colorado seems to have avid Subaru guys around though. Look around for local meets. Go to one and see who shows up and ask around. It's just an exhaust part, yes, but it's now an 8 year old exhaust part with seized bolts and studs that will give you trouble and all sorts of things that could go wrong. A shop would be good and a second car to drive around would also be a terrific idea.

All good points. Problem is that I'm around 7 hrs away from Denver, which is where all the meets seem to happen. As for the shops... well no one will do it. And being a 22 year old college kid, I can't really afford a second car to drive around, nice as it would be.

[yamaha_rider619]

I am a Colorado Subaru guy I did my up-pipe about a year ago, I have also replaced my turbo about 3 months ago. There are very good diy writeups out there, and since I am a nice guy here is two :
http://www.scoobymods.com/best-damn-...ipe-t6649.html
http://www.scoobymods.com/perrin-upp...=&threadid=194

Where at in Colorado are you, I could maybe help depending on where you are located, and for the cost of some beers.

[Monk_Knight]

Sweet, thanks for the links!

I'm down in Durango... if you happen to be anywhere close and would be willing to help I'd be more than happy to provide you with your fill of pizzas and beers

[yamaha_rider619]

Oh wow that's far from me lol. That would be a day trip just to get there and back. The install is not hard, just time consuming. Give yourself a full day and you will be golden.

[HOTSUBI]

Maybe 2 if your slow..

[yamaha_rider619]

It took me a while to do mine, I had never done anything with a turbo before. Pulling everything is rather easy, they are just time consuming when bolts are stuck. PB blaster will become your new best friend.

[2002SubieWRX]

It took me a while to do mine, I had never done anything with a turbo before. Pulling everything is rather easy, they are just time consuming when bolts are stuck. PB blaster will become your new best friend.

I did mine a couple months ago and yes, PB Blaster is your best friend.

Maybe 2 if your slow..

I agree. I started on mine Friday night, worked on it Saturday and finished Sunday. I doused all the exhaust nuts and bolts that need to come off in PB Blaster Friday night. Some needed a little more persuasion the next day but none of them gave me too trouble.

If you do end up doing it yourself, I was told after doing mine that the uppipe can be removed from behind the turbo with the downpipe out of the way. This saves the trouble of trying to weasel it out the bottom or what I had to do, remove the passenger side motor mount nut and jacking up the motor.

***If you do end up jacking up one side of the motor, be careful not to break anything on the top of the motor and check everything when you're done before starting up the car. After jacking up mine, the intake piping had come undone after the MAF. That could have thrown things off a bit!***

[yamaha_rider619]

You do not have to jack the motor up, if you can move the turbo around. When i put in my vf39, there was room to pull the uppipe. But if the turbo is in the way, then you would have to finagle it to get it out.

[Monk_Knight]

If you do end up doing it yourself, I was told after doing mine that the uppipe can be removed from behind the turbo with the downpipe out of the way. This saves the trouble of trying to weasel it out the bottom or what I had to do, remove the passenger side motor mount nut and jacking up the motor.

***If you do end up jacking up one side of the motor, be careful not to break anything on the top of the motor and check everything when you're done before starting up the car. After jacking up mine, the intake piping had come undone after the MAF. That could have thrown things off a bit!***

Haha, see this is my problem. Absolutely none of that made any sense to me whatsoever. No idea where the motor mounts are, no idea how to jack the motor up or even what would be required tool-wise to do so, hell... I cleaned my MAF this morning and it took me 15 minutes even to find the silly thing.

I'm not even really sure where the turbo is or what to look for with any of that.

I'd love to learn all this stuff... I just really have almost NO mechanical inclination and absolutely no experience whatsoever... I'm just worried that I'd break something or not put it together right or miss something or whatever since I'd be doing this all by myself with really no experience at all, I've never even changed my own oil before.

Oh wow that's far from me lol. That would be a day trip just to get there and back. The install is not hard, just time consuming. Give yourself a full day and you will be golden.

No worries, I'm pretty far out there. Thanks for the offer though!

[yamaha_rider619]

Yeah sounds like it would be better for you to take it to someone. Unfortunately for you, your closest shop is Colorado springs, but that is a lot closer than Denver. There is a good shop called revolutions performance there, might not hurt to check them out.

[2002SubieWRX]

Yeah, it sounds like your best bet is to take it to a reputable shop or find a local Subie guy (or girl) to help you. There are some things that could go wrong if you screw up the removal or installation. It would really suck if you tried to do the work yourself and broke your car.

Nevertheless I give you a link to my Uppipe install thread. What is the best catless uppipe for a 2002 WRX? There is a lot of good info here so read through it.

Good Luck!