Turbo Tony downpipe installed. Very nice!
 

Well, I got the downpipe from Tony probably over a month ago and I ordered a high flow cat from him as well because I have no idea how many miles were on the cat on the car, but the car has 194k so I figured it was a good bet that the cat was toast.

Install went pretty easily overall. Didn't have to take off the turbo. I have the FM heat shield and I did have to notch that as people had indicated. I did take a ball peen hammer to one section of the pipe that was rubbing up against the transmission, but once that was done everything slipped into place just fine. A friend of mine was helping me with the install and it was nice to have two hands for a few parts.

After the install the car runs terrific. Boost is coming on much closer to 3000rpm whereas before it was hitting positive pressure around 4000rpm. Power delivery is much smoother and overall the car just seems to run a lot better. I'm sure some of that can be attributed to replacing the cat as well. The car was definitely choked off before this.

The only thing I noticed after some hot runs is that the paint on the pipe started flaking off pretty much immediately up near the turbo. I really don't care overall though as you can't see much of the pipe anyway and my car is far from a show car.

I wanted to take some pics of the finished product, but my wife is off with the camera somewhere. I'll get them later.

Highly recommended upgrade if you have a Greddy install.

nice. You should of posted this when you got the camera becuase we need pics.

How much, and how can my friend get one?

I'll get you some pics, but it looks pretty much the same as every other Tony downpipe install that others have posted on here, except that my engine bay is dirty and none of my underhood items are flashy at all.

Email Turbo Tony, he is on this forum. I got the downpipe with flex section for $265 from him.

turbotony2k (at) yahoo

stupid question:
Can you replace the greddy DP with Tony's without having to remove the turbo?

yeah, i know, ignore this. i just read you post like I should have before and I see it now. :)
Sorry, i just focused to much on the "how great this is" part. :)

Was the cat Tony sent you any shorter than your stock cat? Mine's about three inches too short, and I tried adjusting where the two pieces of the DP join.

That's the great thing about opening up the exhaust, it seriously widens your useable powerband! Makes it faster without increasing boost.

mk1 up to 94 the cat is 370mm.
mk1 post 94 up to 96 cat is 440mm
70mm = 3inches.

u have the wrong cat for your model i believe...

Weird. The cat looks stock (and almost failed smog this time, so i know it's old), and the catback looks stock too. Isn't the catback the same for 1.6 and 1.8 cars? The old cat fits Tony's DP perfectly, and Tony says he doesn't know what's wrong. I'll get good measurements tonight.

Anyway the rest of the installation was really easy, the welds look great, and I love the new position for the stock o2 sensor. He shipped fast too.

You'll need to get gaskets if you buy a cat though, since it's 2.5 in/out and they're not included.

I have a turbo tony dp as well. I have to say it is the best mod I have done so far. I couldn't put mine in without pulling the turbo and manifold, how did you manage to do it?

If there is anyone even remotely thinking about replacing the Greddy DP, DO IT. You will not regret it.

pretty sure the measures for the cat's changed when the 1.8 was introduced.
its a bigger cat with 440mm, while the old one for the 1.6 is 370mm which pretty much sums up to 7 inches as you said. the flanges are the same yes.
by the way, is it too much to ask for a pic with the new O2 bung location? do you have two, and kept the stock or just the wideband?

Depending on where you measure it... the stock looks like 370mm (maybe 380) and the one he shipped is about 25mm shorter.

He asked me to ask here, lol. He didn't specifically say to threadjack, though, so sorry. :giggle:

there's something wrong with the cat he sent ya.
never mind dude, just to to a exhaust shop and have them add the missing 35 of tube on the flat flange side, and you'll be ok!

dont forget them pics. :)

I was all good with the cat that he sent, but I'm also using a different catback exhaust than stock. I did have to hit the local PepBoys to find some gaskets to put in there as there was no possibly way I was reusing the old ones.

Sorry I haven't put pics up yet guys. I will get some this weekend. This week has just been busy and at times rainy and I keep forgetting to ask my wife to leave the camera for me as she takes it with her in her purse (I dunno why). I'd use my old camera but I can't find the cable to connect it to the computer and I don't have a CF card reader.

It just fit in there once we removed the old downpipe. I was able to angle it through and down. It was a bit of a tight fit and like I said I did have to bang the pipe in one section a bit because it was rubbing against the transmission and preventing it from sliding into place exactly, but after that we had no issues.

I really should have taken some pics when it was all apart, but oh well.

http://www.ihatethissite.com/images/...der-hood-1.jpg

http://www.ihatethissite.com/images/...der-hood-2.jpg

http://www.ihatethissite.com/images/...wheel-well.jpg

http://www.ihatethissite.com/images/...e/flex-cat.jpg

Best I could do without putting the car up in the air. You can see in the first pics how I had to cut the heat shield a bit to fit the new pipe through and how the paint is flaking off the pipe, which I don't overall really care about. In the pic through the wheel well the pipe is scraped up from us getting it in and out. Not the best angle.

Then the last is just a shot of the new cat and flex section.