The brief sequence on the procedure:
1)jack up rear of car
2)remove taillights
3)remove license plate, rear bumper
4)remove rear inner fender liners
5)remove intercoolers
6)remove rear heat shield and bend side heat shields
7)carefully remove nuts from turbo turbine housing studs
8)remove O2 sensors
9)loosen rear muffler clamps and disengage from brackets
10)remove exhaust as a whole
installation is sort of reverse, but with some tricks
1)pre-tighten muffler clamps onto the AWE exhaust (bolts barely are long enough and clamps need to be "shaped" thru tensioning to fit correctly
2)then remove clamps and engage them on the exhaust brackets without the exhaust
3)install 1 cat (I chose drivers) and then loosely fit the (drivers) muffler to that
4)loosely fit the other cat and muffler into place - since everything is a slip-fit, you have to leave some wiggle room to get the next cat and muffler to engage both the turbo studs and the opposite muffer at the same time.
Impressions:
1)at idle, much deeper and a slight growl. Very reminscent of a 993 with motorsound
2)throttle response is sharpened tremendously, especially in non-sport mode. The motor responsiveness now is closer to the sport level
3)MORE BOOST!!!! I saw at least a couple more # of boost in non-sport, perhaps another # peak in sport mode. Difference is also that the boost hits earlier (2-300 rpm) and the peak is wider than before. Imagine it as "Sport II"
4)very little to no resonance at cruising speeds
If I had to summarize the nature of the AWE exhaust, I would say it is the way the car should have come. It is not a whole lot louder than stock, and it has more of a menacing tone than the "Dyson". You would not be embarrassed at all driving this into a church parking lot. It truly adds some much needed character to the powertrain. It still won't enthrall the way a Gallardo does but the disappointment is surely gone. It takes the tt from a 3/10 to about a 7.5/10 in terms of exhaust.
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let me give you a "must have" tool list
1)22mm crow foot angled wrench - for O2 sensor removal. Get a good one and you might not have to remove the intercoolers
2)13mm ratcheting combination wrench, Craftsman - this will help tremedously in removing the nuts holding the cat/exhaust to the turbine. Otherwise you will get carpal tunnel turning the nuts 1/16 of a turn at a time, flipping a combo wrench over and over
3)male and female torx bits - all body fasteners are torx
4)M8x1.25 tap and die - needed to chase and clean the exhaust studs
5)anti-seize lube - coat the exhaust studs prior to reinstall
6)propane torch - for stubborn exhaust nuts that don't loosen with Liquid Wrench
7)allen head socket bits - muffler clamps are 6mm IIRC
8)10 & 13mm socket - almost everything is 13mm save for the 10mm head shield speed nuts and bolts
9)11mm deep socket - AWE uses band clamps with 11mm heads
Installation photos:
components
straight thru design
cat mesh
jack points
exhaust tip removal
light removal
wheel well shroud removal
intercooler assembly
more photos:
intercooler removed, O2 sensors accessible and disconnected
muffler removed, looking at turbine outlet
broken stud at lower left of flange
turbo removed
turbo water and oil passages visible
EGT probe at turbine inlet pipe
heat shields back on
job done
