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1. Place the entire vehicle on a lift or jackstands. Be sure that the car is firmly supported before going ANY further with this installation! 2. Nuts and fasteners for exhausts (and other underbody parts) are notorious for being corroded and seized. You should consider spraying the relevant fasteners in advance with penetrating lubricant before you attempt to loosen them. 3. Loosen the 13mm nut at the bottom of the stock muffler strap. Allow the muffler to hang. 4. Using a cutting wheel or hacksaw, cut the stock muffler from the pipe. (Tip: Try to leave between 1 and 1.5 inches of straight pipe at the inlet. This will allow the muffler to be reused more easily if necessary at some point in the future. 5. Loosen the 10mm fastener at the top of the muffler strap that secures the upper cross-member to the muffler strap. Pull on the vertical section of the cross member to remove the cross-member from the strap and the exhaust mounting block. Keep the cross-member – you will reuse it. (Tip: If you lose or damage the cross member, replace it with Saturn part number 21013041.) 6. Loosen the three 13mm nuts that connect the stock exhaust piping to the catalytic converter. 7. Pull the stock exhaust piping from the studs at the catalytic converter and carefully maneuver the system out and away from the rear suspension cross member. 8. Discard the old gasket and replace with a new gasket. (This is Saturn part number 21012835.) Clean gasket residue from the flange surface as necessary. 9. Slide the flange from the front half of the new SPS exhaust onto the studs at the catalytic converter. Start - but do not tighten – the 13mm nuts. (This will allow the front pipe to rotate in a clockwise or counterclockwise direction relative to the catalytic converter.) 10. Insert the mounting arm at the rear of the front section into the stock rubber exhaust hanger. 11. Slide one of the stainless steel band-style exhaust clamps onto the end of the front section. 12. Maneuver the rear section of the SPS exhaust into place within the rear suspension area so that the sharp bend is toward the front of the vehicle. Slide the expanded rear section onto the front section. Be sure that these pipes are completely slid together. You can position the clamp and lightly tighten it now, but do not tighten the clamp completely! (You need it to be loose so that you can make position adjustments to fine-tune the fit.) 13. Slip the stock muffler hanger upper cross-member (Saturn part number 21013041) into the slit within the stock rubber undercarriage mount so that the tab faces the rear of the car and the bend faces the front of the car. 14. Using the enclosed 10mm fasteners, install the EXMST01 into place and fasten to the stock upper cross-member. The adjustable slots should be toward the rear of the vehicle. Insert and tighten the 10mm fastener at this time. Remove the 11mm nut at the bottom of the strap. (Tip: The tab of the upper cross member can be inserted into any of the slots within the EXMST01 strap. Using the higher slots will lower the muffler tip relative to the bumper cover, and using the lower slots will raise the muffler tip relative to the bumper cover. Adjust this connection as necessary to fine-tune the fit of your muffler onto your particular vehicle.) 15. Slip the remaining stainless steel band-style clamp onto the rear of the exhaust pipe. 16. Slip the muffler into place so that the muffler inlet slips over the exhaust pipe. You can lightly tighten the stainless muffler clamp onto the muffler inlet at this point, but do not tighten completely at this time. (You need it to be loose so that you can make position adjustments to fine-tune the fit.) 17. Slide the lower strap from the EXMST01 around the muffler and insert the bolt from the lower strap through the receptacle at the other end of the strap. Loosely start the 11mm nut, but do not tighten completely at this time. (You need it to be loose so that you can make position adjustments to fine-tune the fit.) 18. Adjust the fore and aft positioning of the band from the EXMST01 strap relative to the muffler so that it will hold the muffler properly once tightened. (Some experimentation may be necessary at this step. If you are using one of the lower adjustable strap slots, you will have extra bracket sticking up above the cross member. This may cause interference with the exhaust heat shield. If this happens, slide the entire strap rearward on the muffler until the bracket is beyond the end of the heat shielding so as to avoid contact.) 19. Adjust the vertical position of the EXMST01 so that the muffler tip is properly positioned relative to the rear bumper cover. 20. Several tweaks and adjustments should be made at this point prior to tightening the clamps and fasteners. These include: A. Check and adjust clearances between the rear pipe section and the rear suspension cross-member. If you need additional clearance at the rear side of the cross-member, rotate the front pipe in a counterclockwise direction relative to the catalytic converter. If you need additional clearance on the front side of the cross-member, rotate the front pipe in a clockwise direction relative to the catalytic converter.
B. Check and adjust clearances relative to the heat shield. Believe it or not, this is best accomplished by literally just ‘pulling’ and ‘tugging’ on the as-yet-not-tightened system until the fit and positioning is optimized.
C. Make sure that the muffler is straight. 21. Tighten all remaining fasteners at this time. (Tip: it works best to have an assistant hold the system in its optimized position while all remaining fasteners are tightened.) These fasteners will include: both stainless band-style clamps (one at the muffler and one at the pipe connection,) the band of the muffler strap, and the flange at the catalytic converter. 22. Start the vehicle and carefully inspect the muffler and adapter for exhaust leaks. 23. Retighten clamps and fasteners as necessary. |
