New exhaust to be fitted

[Rustinho]

Hi there folks.

Due to the fact that I've got limited funds at the mo and the 'zorst really needs sorting I've gone for the cheapest option I could find and bought the front pipe and flexi pipe (plus gaskets, etc) from Milners. I figured that it shouldn't be too much hassle to fit it myself, despite having never fitted an exhaust to a 4 wheeled vehicle before. How different from a motorbike can it be?!

Just thought I'd pop a post up here in case anyone has any particular hints/tips/difficulties I ought to be aware of before starting the job.

Thanks in advance for any contributions!

[bullet513]

as long as the bolts aren't rusty then it should take about 30 mins. was underneath mine the other day deciding which bits i need to order and all looks very straight forward

[Rustinho]

I was thinking that it ought to be fairly straightforward too but you never know if there is a fiddly bit that people tend to encounter but hasn't been posted about.

[tatts]

On my old hilux pick'up I had lift it off the ground by 2ft on all 4s with concreat blocks cos it needed a ramp 2 fit the down pipe. Now I hav only do mid 2 rear on my surf but gon make 1 from scratch with a mod or 2 but looks easy'r 2 replace on a surf shouldn't b 2 hard

[Overland Tonka]

I got a cheap middle part and had probs fitting it...needed cutting and hammer hitting... (sorry Tony...)

I find car exhausts the easiest thing to fix on a car..you will be fine I'm sure.

[spacast]

Well mine was very rusty, the tail pipe acually came off and there was a huge hole in the silencer, but IMHO it wasn't noisy - anyway, I WD40'd the flange bolts every day for 2 weeks, and they came out OK. They wouldn't tighten back up tho', cause the threads had worn too much, so make sure you either have some new ones or some nuts and bolts that will go through.
Had a few probs lining up the tailpipe bolt holes, so dont tighten up till the end - expect you know that anyway.
It would be much easier if a friendly garage would let you use their hydraulic lift.

Don't know what all the fuss is about - I can't tell any difference in noise or performance with the new exhaust.

[GRASSMAN]

I was thinking that it ought to be fairly straightforward too but you never know if there is a fiddly bit that people tend to encounter but hasn't been posted about.

Hi Rusty,

Plenty of WD40 first.

When I changed mine, the clip on the side of the bell housing
was really tight and hard to get to. Has your new part got the
heat sheilds fitted? If so, I found it easier to remove the brake
pipe shields on the chassis rails, it makes for an easier remove
and refit.

Hope this helps.

Gman.

[Rustinho]

Plenty of WD40 first.

You're not wrong there. Some of the nuts/bolts just wouldn't budge so I've given up for the day. I'm not too keen lying in the road working underneath the truck for any great length of time either so I'll give the nuts/bolts a daily soak in WD40 until I've got another free day with decent weather (hopefully either Monday or sometime over the weekend) and give it another try then.

I seem to be lacking a few sockets from my tool collection that would make life a wee bit easier too (my 17mm deep socket is a smaller size fitting than my breaker bar which doesn't help).

If the things still won't budge I'll probably just take it into a local garage and cough up the £30 or £40 it'll probably cost to get them to do it!

EDIT: Weather forecast for Monday is dreadful but that doesn't matter cos I couldn't possibly do that anyway cos I'm back at Uni that day. D'oh!

[Overland Tonka]

Hacksaw and a few mins should sort it?

[Rustinho]

Just to complete the story I finally finished fitting the new exhaust (well, new front pipe & flexi pipe) today. The manifold studs around the top of the front pipe are fiddly little buggers (especially for someone like me who has sausage fingers and very little sensation in my fingertips!).

Tip for anyone finding this on a search - don't bother ordering replacement manifold studs from Milners. The ones they supply are crap! The genuine Toyota ones have an "E10" star shaped fitting which makes getting them on & off a doddle (relatively speaking). The Milners ones are just a threaded stud and a bit of a pain to work with.

I decided to get my tap & die kit out and cleaned up the threads on the old studs so I could easily re-use them. Coated everything in copper grease prior to reassembling nuts/bolts to aid future maintenance too (as I habitually do when I'm working on a car/bike).

I would also recommend taking off the drivers side front wheel to aid ease of access and there is a little guard/shield thingy just behind the side step/under the drivers footwell that comes out (2 x 10mm nuts) and this makes it a lot easier getting the new front pipe in place.

Also worth noting that with the lifts & 1 inch diff drop the Milners front pipe just about fits together without catching anything. It's a pretty small gap between the front pipe & the drive shaft but a gap none-the-less.

Finally, I had the whole truck jacked up and on axle stands to make it easier to get underneath while I was working. Not strictly necessary (2 inch body, 2 inch suspension lift) but it did make life a fair bit easier.

Total time taken was probably about a day, plus a fair bit more time allowing WD40 to soak into the various nuts & bolts.

I'll admit thats pretty slow going compared to some of the experts on here but its the first time I've worked on a car/truck exhaust so I'm fairly happy with that. In my "old age" I've developed the ability to just walk away when things are winding me up (dropped bolts, washers, seized nuts/bolts, can't quite see exactly what to do/how to do it, etc) rather than just shouting & swearing!

Needless to say, plenty of tea has been drunk at my house this weekend!