The length of the cobb dowpipe made it a little harder. Putting the new downpipe in was a little easier since it didnt have a giant heat shield and little fucking wires sticking out of it. This is where I wanted to call it quits, shove the thing back up, bolt it back on and turn my new downpipe into a bong.Īfter mangling some of the foam/foil heat padding attached to the exhaust channel on the body, I got the old downpipe out. The factory downpipe has tons of heat shielding, a bracket welded on for 2 extra bolts, and wire hangers for the O2 sensor cable. Its like trying to shit out a pumpkin with spikes on it. install guide from cobb and corksport says 'You may have to twist and maneuver the downpipe to get it past everything'. Started removing the downpipe and almost called it quits. Got to all of the bolts on the original downpipe no problem from the top, was so excited things were going smooth again. Pneumatic chisel, stripped head extractor, and vice grips got the job done - fuck this screw. It took me well over an hour for this one fucking screw. The heat shield on the original downpipe has a screw facing the firewall. Thankfully I only ran into 2 of these issues myself.

Break a bolt to turbo flange and have to remove turbo to extract the bolt.

Remove or torque down 5 bolts from downpipe to turbo flange.

Heat shield bolts strip threads or heads.

Ruin one or both o2 sensors by crossthreading, or using too much penetrating oil.

Kept reading about all the things to worry about and that could go wrong. I read the shit out of every thread I could find before I even planned the install, and pretty much regretted buying the downpipe before it was even installed. This was done on a 2010 speed that had 38000 new england miles on it.

Not a fun experience, ran into some typical problems and have a few leftover questions/issues. Cobb downpipe install took me around 10 hours.

Mazdaspeed6 downpipe removal