Disclaimer: 350ZMotoring or the author are not responsible for any misinformation in this document or any damage that may occur to your vehicle from following this document. Consult your service manual for specific Nissan recommended instructions.
The stock exhaust consists of 3 pieces: y-pipe, mid-pipe, and muffler. Each section is bolted to the next section with 14mm nuts and bolts. Start at the top of the y-pipe where it meets the catalytic converters. Each side is connected with 2 14mm nuts. Unscrew the nuts, but leave the pieces together. Use the hammer with your wrenches if needed to break the bolts free, along with WD-40 if needed. The bolts will be very tight. Set aside the nuts and make sure to keep the gasket you'll need to reuse them.
Next, remove the two nuts holding the y-pipe to the mid-pipe, and then remove the last two nuts holding the mid-pipe to the muffler's inlet. Note the ground wire attached to the muffler inlet bolt, remove it from the muffler pipe and move it aside. Again, leave all the exhaust pieces bolted together.
Next, pull the mid-pipe away from the muffler inlet. Go back to the y-pipe, pull it away from the cats. Be careful, this section is quite heavy. Then drop the y-pipe and put it aside. The mid-pipe is now hanging free except for the one hanger holding it up. Pull the pipe off the rubber hanger, drop the mid-pipe and put it aside.
The muffler is hung with 3 rubber hangers. Two of them are at the rear of the muffler, and the 3rd is at the front passenger side of the muffler. Use your 12mm wrench, and remove the bolt holding the entire grommet to the car. Pull the grommet off the muffler and use a screwdriver to push the metal sleeve out of the grommet. Place the rubber grommet aside, you'll need it later.
Next you need to pull the muffler off the two remaining grommets. This is the hardest part of the install. Lube the posts by spraying them with WD-40. I found working the muffler front to back repeatedly until getting the mushroom edge of the muffler's post to pull through the grommet. Use a good bit of force, it will take a lot of force to get the post to pull through the grommet. Once you get one side off, be careful working on the other side, as the muffler is very heavy. I found it easier to hold the muffler up with my leg while working off the second hanger. Once the muffler is free, put it aside.
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Note each exhaust piece's bag is labeled. Start with the primaries. One side at a time, feed the rear part of the pipe up over the brace, and attach the end at cats loosely. Make sure you leave the stock gasket on the cat junction and use the stock 14mm nuts. Do not tighten fully yet.
Next, hang the mid-pipes. The mid-pipes have hangers that attach to the rubber grommet. The driver side hangs down, the passenger side post actually sits below the mid-pipe. Align the ends at the primaries, and using the included bolts, nuts, and gasket to attach the mid-pipes to the primaries. The inner bolts should have the brace supplied before you attach the nuts. Place it facing the rear for easier adjustments, and so you can see the SES Logo :). Again, do not tighten the nuts tight, just enough to hold the pipe up straight and flush.
Next, hang the muffler sections. Each muffler has a bracket that gets hung into the existing muffler rubber brackets. Do one side at a time, hang the muffler into the bracket, then align to the mid-pipe joint, and attach using the supplied nuts, bolts, and gasket. When mounting the driver side, don't forget to re-attach the grounding wire to the bolt before attaching the nut. It reaches fine to the outside bolt on the driver's side section. Again, do not tighten the nuts fully, simply enough to hold the pipes flush.
Once you have all the sections hung, you want to align it and tighten the bolts. If you simply try to make the flanges between the sections line up at their edges as close as possible, you'll get a good alignment without much effort. Start at the rear, simply align the two sections so the flange edges are flush, make sure the gasket is centered, and tighten the nuts. Do both sides from the muffler sections, then move back to the mid-pipe, primary junction. Here, try to align the flanges, center the gasket, tighten the top bolts. Try make the brace horizontal between the two pipes and then tighten the lower nuts. The upper nuts are really blocked, and crocheting wrenches make a huge difference in getting those tightened.
Once the pipes are all tightened, make sure you have plenty of clearance near the sway bars and braces. If its too close, you'll get noise as the car goes over bumps, etc. There should be no clearance issues at all. Once the middle joint is tightened, all that is left is the junction at the primaries. Simply tighten the nuts at the cats making sure the gasket are aligned.
Stand back, and admire your work. Your tips should be well
aligned, and looking good. Make one last pass on all bolts and
nuts and make sure all are tight. Pick-up all your tools under
the car, double check, and then lower your car off the jack
stands. Once down, fire her up! Start the car, then inspect the
exhaust while the car is running listening for any leaks. When
the exhaust is new, it will smoke for the first few hundred miles
and have a odd smell to it. This is normal. Also, after some
break-in, the exhaust will quiet down some.
That's it! You're done! Decide if you are going to save your
stock exhaust pieces, get them out of the way and go for a run in
the Z!
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