Ive read all over on these boards that installing hfc's on these cars are a pain in the ***, am I just hearing from the negative experiences or are they really that bad?

 

Any exhaust work is challenging as it can be very difficult to loosen rusty nuts/bolts. Good quality tools and patience are required.

Other than that, it doesn't look difficult at all:

 

Demon bolts are a pain. Make sure to spray some pb blaster/wd40 on all the bolts the day before, and you'll need a good amount of extensions to reach the demon bolts.

 

Extensions, 6 point socket, and a good size breaker bar and you'll be fine. It really isn't that bad.

 

I'll second what the others have already said. Soak the bolts liberally the night before with pb blaster. The rest is having the right selection of tools: extensions, swivels, and a good breaker bar. I did mine in a couple hours on a Saturday afternoon. On a scale of 1 - 10 I would give it a 5 or 6 only because I had trouble breaking one of the bolts loose.

 

For most people, yes it is. There's a lot that can and often does go wrong. Access is difficult, there's a bolt that's notoriously stubborn and sometimes breaks, and the job often takes more time than you'd imagine. Depending on your mechanical skill level and the tools you have and are skilled with, it's not a job that everyone should undertake. I wouldn't recommend trying to break the bolts loose without air tools.

WD-40 is useless, use 50/50 acetone and ATF as a penetrating lubricant and allow it to soak at least overnight.

 

In two words. ... hell yes. Can be very time consuming and as others have noted, alot can go wrong with the existing bolts.

Ether spend $200-300 for someone else to do it or spend 6-10 hours, the choice is yours.

 

I broke 2 extensions and 1 socket trying to get that "demon" bolt off.

You need 2 feet worth of extensions to reach it. I had several snap-on extensions and had to use a friend's craftsman extension to make it 2 feet.

His 1st craftsman extension broke off into my snap-on extension.

Than i resorted to using a combination of snap-on, pittsburgh and another 1 of his craftsman extension. Same problem. His 2nd craftsman broke off into my pittsburgh extension.

Lastly i ended up using a combination of 1/2" and 3/8" extensions coupled together using a snap-on 1/2" to 3/8" reducer adapter.

It did the job.

I stupidly used a 14mm deep well snap-on socket to remove the demon bolt and ended up breaking it. I put a regular 14mm snap-on socket afterwards and got the bolt off without a problem. I'm not sure why the hell I decided to use a deep socket when it wasn't even needed. Not sure what i was thinking.

On a scale 1 to 5 i would rate it a good 4 because of the demon bolt. It sucks doing it laying on the floor. Hard to position yourself for leverage for the 4 bolts underneath.

Oh yeah both studs for the demon bolts broke when removing it from under the hood. My car is a 2011 with only 32k miles at the time of removal.

 

As much as I love working on my car some things I would rather pay someone to do...like my headers and HFC..

 

My mechanic did the install for me two years ago. I've been going to him for mods and repairs for almost a decade now, and I've a huge amount of respect for his skills in all things automotive, welding, etc. Point is, he got as frustrated as I've ever seen him get. Eventually, he got out the torch and cut the corner off the flange at the "demon" bolt. It was all very surgical.

Not everyone's exerpience is the same. But if you're hesitant about pursuing this on your own, instead of excited by the challenge (because experience), then this is one of those modifications best left to someone with a lift, proper tools, patience and skills.

 

Man, this thread is scaring me away from getting RHFCs. Living in CA, I'd have to swap back the stock cats for smog every 2 years. That seems like a daunting proposition.

 

I did mine in the garage. If you have the right tools, it isn't that bad at all. As a warning, the worst case scenario is if any of the cat to header bolts strip. This happened when removing the OEM exhaust at ~25k miles on a car only I had owned. I had to cut them at that point. Hopefully they just unscrew or break since you should be using new hardware when reassembling. Don't skip out on soaking them with PB Blaster the day before you begin work.

 

I did it with my buddies in my garage. None of us are strong but it took 3 of us to get enough torque on the demon bolts; one to hold the extension in place and two to pull on the 22" breaker bar I bought specifically for this application. My 350ft-lb impact wrench didn't do crap, even after I soaked the bolts in PB Blaster for a couple of days beforehand. Somehow we didn't break any extensions or sockets, even though I only used a 3/8 u-joint and 3/8 craftsman extensions. I should also mention that my car doesn't see snow or salt, so no rust issues really.

Changing them afterwards for SMOG is 1/10th the difficulty of the initial install. I installed new gaskets myself in 3-4hrs. The bolts no longer need to be accessed from the engine bay if you put your own in, which you will need to do as only one stud can be re-used from the header flange. It's not a struggle at all, just very tight under a car on jack stands.

 

extensions are deff key for this install and an impact / air compressor....you end up going thru the engine compartment (remove your air intakes), atleast I did!

 

I have not installed them personally but I take them to a friends shop to have them installed and I've seen the process a couple of times already. If you don't have the proper tools it can be a pain in the ***. if there is a lot of rust it can be a pain in the ***. sometimes you will need a blow torch to loosen rusty bolts.