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I have 99 C5 6M/T. The flange on the Midpipe going to the driver's side rear exhaust broke around the bolts. I have a purchased a borla x-pipe and new rears as well. I just have to re-use the stock cats. How hard should it be to remove the stock midsection from the stock cats? Will I need a lift or can I do it on jacks in the garage? Also they didn't come with instructions, will I need to drop the rear sway to remove and install in the new rear pipes? Thanks for the help, sorry for the 20 questions.
Can it be done on jack stands? Well probably,,but it is going to be a real pain in the behind!! If you can get access to a lift by any means,,,do it !! The job will be WAYYY easier!!! For a M6 you will be MUCH better off dropping the rear sway ber,,,and it is very easy to do that! Just 1 bolt and 1 nut and bolt on each side of the rear trans cradle and the bar just drops down. Makes the cat back(over axle) section MUCH easier to drop out!!! A lift will make it MUCH easier and MUCH quicker!!! You need to get the rear pretty high for stands!
I did it on jack stands several times before getting my lift. It is harder without a lift but not too bad. It's easier with two people for sure.
I would just cut the rear cat back section right near the muffler inlets with a Sawzall to make it easy to remove the rear section. The stock exhaust is pretty much worthless anyway. You'd find it near impossible to even give it away.
How difficult is going to be to separate the cats from the stock H-pipe? And thanks for the advice, my friend at firestone might be able to let me use his lift other wise I am stuck using jack stands.
You will need to position the x-pipe against the stock h-pipe and mark where it needs to be cut before removing anything so you cut the h-pipe behind the cats in the proper locations. Here's a shot of where the cuts were made to install my Magnaflow x-pipe. Notice the rear O2 sensors are intact.