Supersprint Race Exhaust Installation (DIY)

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Supersprint Race Exhaust Installation (DIY)
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Wow! I couldn't believe it when UPS showed up with my exhaust. I was both thrilled AND concerned because the box
was proportionately smaller than I expected. I opened it quickly because I was worried I had been shipped the wrong
exhaust. When I opened the box, I was relieved to see the SSRace in all of its glory. It turns out that the only reason the box was shaped oddly (smaller than I expected) is because there is some very minor
assembly required on the exhaust before you install it. Assembly options not found in other exhausts that turn, out as
you'll see later, to be your best friend in getting PERFECT fitment!
As you can see in the picture above, the exhaust ships as two pieces that you must assemble. All of the necessary
hardware to fasten these two pieces is included (one nut and bolt). At first I just put the two pieces 'side-by-side' and
tried to slide them together. As you can see above, the 'left' hand piece slides inside of the right hand piece (connecting
mid pipe). The two pipes didn't cooperate so I wound up standing the left piece up its mounting brackets and fitting
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them together at an angle, as shown below.
This time the two pieces fit like a glove. I worked it down and then just gently 'spun' it until the alignment brackets
were 'mated' and then fastened with the provided bolt and nut. Now my finished product looked like all of the
marketing pieces I had seen. The only thing left is to tighten the 6mm allen head screws so that the pipes stay together.
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Next up, it is time to remove the existing exhaust. To do this I first backed the car up onto small ramps. Q
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It may not look like much lift but you really don't need much ground clearance to get under and do what needs to be
done. These were 12,000lb Rhino Ramps from Pepboys. I also used a Creepy Crawler to scoot around under the car
while I worked.
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Take one last look at your old exhaust, it's a sight you'll never want to look at again!
Now it's time to talk about the tools you'll need for the removal and subsequent installation you are doing. Below are all
of the tools I used. I'm sure it's VERY possible to do this with more or fewer tools. It is NOT possible however to do it
without item #6, the socket swivel. Do NOT try without the swivel, you will just get pissed and wind up breaking
something. Spend $6-7 and get the right tools (voice of experience here).
Tool Inventory:
#1
#2
#3
#4
#5
#6
#7
#8
- is a 6mm metric allen wrench
- 3/8" 6 inch extension
- 3/8" 3 inch socket extensions
- 12mm deep well socket
- 13mm deep well socket
- 3/8" socket swivel (you are NOT McGuyver, you WILL need this :) )
- 13 mm wrench
- 3/8" Craftsman Ratchet
assumptions (you already have an M3)
Now grab your 12mm socket, a 3" extension and ratchet and crawl under the car. First, you are going to to remove the
bolts from the exhaust where it connects to the mid-pipes. Unfortunately, I do not have a 'BEFORE' picture of this but it
isn't really necessary. There are 4 bolts that connect the old crappy exhaust to the pipes. Your job is to remove the
bolts. The 'nuts' are part of the exhaust bracket and will not fall free but the bolts need to come completely out. The
nuts are welded into the exhaust. You will will need to buy new nuts (8mm I think). The picture below is actually AFTER
I put my SSRace in but it serves to demonstrate which four bolts you are undoing.
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There are two bolts visible on the 'bottom' of the pipes. The other two are harder to reach on top. Once you remove
the bolts, set them aside. You will need to go purchase lock washers & nuts for them as mentioned. You have now
finished the 'easy' part of the removal. Now comes the 'hard' part. Removing the nuts from the support brackets that
hold the exhaust in place.
First let's do the easy side (passenger side). As you can see in the picture below, the support bracket is held in place by
two 12mm nuts as indicated by the fancy arrows in my picture. :)
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Loosen them all the way but do not remove them completely. You'll want to leave them to support the exhaust while
you work on the other side.
Once you have loosened those two nuts, it's time to tackle the driver's side. There are two supporting brackets on this
side, 4 nuts in total that need to be removed. The first three are almost as easy as the two you just removed on the
passenger side. It is the 4th one that requires the swivel socket. First, let's look at the placement of the nuts.
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As I said, nuts #2, 3 & 4 are in easy reach. I strongly suggest you do those AFTER you tackle #1. I took a better picture
of #1 just to demonstrate where it is.
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These are nuts #1 & #2 again, closer up. Removing #1 can be done one of two ways. The cheap way is to cut a hole in
the bottom of your body panel so you can reach it with a socket. That is actually the REDNECK way of doing things, so
don't do that. The proper way is to utilize a swivel socket so you can reach it. I built mine like so.
3/8" ratchet + 3 inch extension + 3/8" swivel + 3 inch extension + 12mm socket =
It may look awkward and I'm sure others may do it differently but this WILL work. Get that socket over the nut and just
take it slow. NOTE: If you have large hands, it will be difficult to guide the socket over the nut while turning the ratchet. Fortunately
I have tiny chick hands so it was easy for me. Keep working on this nut until it is removed. It WILL come off, trust me. If it is any consolation, you will NOT have to do
this when you put the SSRace in. Your new exhaust is much smaller and provides easy access to this nut for
reinstallation. Once you have this nut completely removed, loosen the remaining 3 and let the exhaust drop as it comes to rest on all of
the nuts that have been completely loosened.
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Now you need a friend. Before you remove the nuts and let the exhaust drop, let's talk about what is going to happen. After you remove the nuts the exhaust is going to want to drop. You need to prevent this by holding it up. It is heavy,
so have help (or a floor jack in place jacked up). Also (and very important to know), there is about 3 inches of one of
the mid-pipes INSIDE of the exhaust connecting pipe. Not only do you have to let the exhaust drop slowly to the ground,
but you also have to 'pull' it away from the car so that this can come apart. Lastly, when the two of you are letting the
exhaust drop and pulling it away from the car at the same time, you will hear a clanging sound as a strange piece of
metal falls to the floor. Don't panic. This is a good thing and we'll talk about that noise and what fell in a minute.
Now get your friend. Each of you needs to hold a 'side' of the exhaust and reach up and hand loosen and remove the the
nuts. This exhaust is heavy, it will drop if you don't have a good hold on it. Once it begins to 'drop' towards the back
slowly pull it away from the car (towards the back). It will be stubborn and you may have to encourage it.
Once the exhaust is free, look underneath and you'll find a metal O-ring. I don't know its actual BMW part # or name so I
just named it O-ring. This piece will be re-used.
Now, you need to remove the support brackets from the old exhaust and put them onto your Supersprint Race exhaust. You'll need that 13mm socket and wrench for this. Your finished product should look something like this.
The picture above is of the left (driver's) side. Notice that the bolt is completely at the 'top' of the hole on the bracket.
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The picture above is of the passenger side. Now comes the fun part, installing this beast of an exhaust in your M3. First,
remember that O-ring? We're going to need that now. It will ultimately go between the mid-pipe and the exhaust
flange. You (or the smaller person) should lay on the ground on their back, top of head facing the engine. Person #2
should bring the exhaust towards the car from the bottom up at an angle (opposite of how the old one was removed). You will need to feed the same 3 inches of the mid-pipe into the corresponding end of the SSRace. In fact, if we look at
the picture below, you can see that the right side has a female coupler look to it.
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That right side will receive the 2-3 inches of the mid pipe. The metal O-ring will be positioned between the flanges of
your new exhaust and the mid-pipe as shown below. NOTE: I've seen mention on some car sites of TWO O-rings. My car only had one so I put the ONE back. If your has two as
shown in M3 service manuals, I'd put both back. As I see it, I shaved another .05 grams :)
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Now before you can install the bolts, you better have gone to ACE or similar store and purchased the appropriate lock
washers and nuts. In my case, I bought all new hardware.
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I think I spent $3.00 total on the pieces. They are metric and have 8.8 stamped on top (tensile strength) The specs on
the bolts themselves were as follows: Bolt Size M8, length 50mm, screw pitch 1.25.. Keep in mind that your friends arms
are probably killing him because he's been holding this exhaust up while you were fitting the pipes together. Scoot
forward now and line up the body bolts with the mounting brackets on the exhaust and hand tighten a few of the nuts to
keep the exhaust in place.
Now re-install the O-ring (if it fell out) and install all 4 of those bolts and tighten them completely. Now install all of the
remaining mounting bracket nuts (you did save them, right?) and tighten them. You'll notice that the exhaust is 'rising'
as you tighten each one.
Resist the urge to jump in and start the car right now. You are SO close to being finished but there is one final step. Once you have installed the exhaust, odds are extremely high that the gap between the tips and the bumper it isn't
exactly the same on both sides as in my example.
Notice how the right side was actually touching the car and the left side was at the proper drop. This is where that 6mm
allen wrench comes in. Slide back underneath the car and loosen the allen heads you had tightened down early on when
you assembled the exhaust.
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After you loosen them, you can actually grab the pipes (by the tips if necessary) and gently twist the two pieces apart
until the spacing is perfect on both sides.
Now just climb back under the car and re-tighten the 6mm allen screws. You may NOW start the car and grin from earto-ear when you first hear the rumble of the Supersprint Race Exhaust.
Views as of 1/4/2005
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