Removing the crossmember and letting the piping drop all the way down is an easy way to get to that top bolt.

 

Pretty close or just like stock at idle and just driving around as far as I can tell. I had a car full of kids earlier so I didn't get the chance to air it out.

 

I had thought about that but my jack doesn't go that high and I wasn't sure if that much wood stacked up would be a good thing.

 

Sounds like you need to drop off the kids and take that thing for a real drive!

 

Not much of a difference anywhere as far as sound or power. But I wouldn't expect to really feel 10-20hp in a 5600 pound vehicle, either. If it's any louder I'm not sure I can tell. The dragstrip will tell me what it's doing in January.

 

Just installed fabspeed cat bypass on my 05 ctt a week a go and i am loving it. got rid of the lag and now it really comes on strong around 3k rpm. more throaty exhaust , inside and out. and especially on cold start and when you rev it up. i can feel the power increase in the midrange. going to take a video soon

 

there are some other great threads on the sound of the by pass pipes. no one disliked them if i remember correctly.

i am going to do it next year when it warms up? although i do have a service in 1,200 km coming up som maybe i will bug Fabspeed sooner?

 

I had to revive this thread since the original poster seems to from the NWA region. I'm curious how the installation ended up going? Did you guys find a shop here in Eastside/Seattle that does it for you? How much did it cost you?

I definitely want to install this thing myself as a fun experience, but it's sounding like something I need more courage/time and skill.

Also, how would removing that cross member help, it does not change the positioning of the pipes does it?

 

No special skills needed, just a little patience- I was trying to dig up my instructions for install but cant seem to find them. You drop that cross member so that you can loosen the rear clamps and then drop the pipes down, then you just loosen the 3 bolts at the primary cats -which is the most time consuming frustrating part of the job. A set of rotating wrenches will come I handy for this- be forewarned though it is a HUGE pain to remove these bolts, especially the top one. My suggestion is to use some penetrating oil and spray the 3 bolts for a few days and let it soak as it might help loosening them.

Only tools needed are a floor jack(I used a scissor jack out of another vehicle) a couple of wrenches and a little patience. I ordered mine from Leistung Motorsports and they actually include the U-joint wrench you need to get at the top bolt that I and other have mentioned.

I will say I could probably do the job 50 percent faster after you've done it once.

 

installing the secondary cat-delete pipes is super easy...