Has anyone gone the bolt-on route for these SFC? If so, How hard was it to drill the holes? What about exhaust removal..Is it necessary for the install? Directions say:
Remove bolts from head pipes and on cat. Support convertor with block of wood or bottle jack. Disconnect hanger from cat and remove front head pipes, cat tube hanger and heat shield.

When they talk head pipes are they referring to my headers? Seems pretty extreme to have to pull the headers to install these.

Looking to tackle these this week and would love some tips.

Thanks

 

I put them on a couple of winters ago, no big problems - minor manipulation in area of cat convertor heat shield, I unbolted rear 4 bolts on cat convertor just to get a little more working room but probably not necessary - would have been a bit easier drilling the holes if I had had a right angle drill with short bits. do it, makes a good difference.

 

Look at it this way, the uniframe is a piece of tubing, if you drill a hole in the tubing and put a bolt thru and tighten it up, all you will do is squash the tubing, you would have to have a sleeve inside so it would tighten.

Bottom line...have them welded in.
If they are not welded, they would be almost useless. (still flex)

 

I agree, I would also add that the areas you are drilling in aren't very thick so I would expect the holes to elongate or crack over time.

 

i bolted mine in.some of the holes were hard to drill because of stuff in the way.i later had them also welded.

 

Had mine done yesterday... welded...
I have a 3" Hooker 2055's 3" y pipe, Magnaflow 3" cat, and Flow master 3" exhaust, did not have to do anything to it, it cleared fine... Removed fuel line bracket to give them some space from the welding, took the guy about 3 hours from driving on the ramp to off... they don't' do tons of welding, so if you don't know one, check craigs list...
Car must be on it's suspension to weld it properly, so a drive on lift, not post...

I also had Spohn SFC's previously done... While they made a difference, after adding the Alston's, i went up the curb at my home (it's big), no squeaks!

Raf

 

it seems to me a good place to get them welded would be a muffler shop.btw i had to pry up my passinger floor to stop rattling.