Got the Lethal Performance OTA pipes installed. My timing was perfect: record heat here along with a steamy heat index. Regardless, the fit is perfect and the sound/tone is fantastic (deeper, a little louder). Removing the OEM OTA pipes is a lot of work and not much fun but I got them out (pushed out towards the front). The LP 2-piece design is brilliant and makes getting the new pipes in dead easy.
If anybody is curious about the work method:
Use Race Ramps for the front and then jackstands on the subframes near the back.
Remove both mufflers.
Loosen the sway bar endlink bolts and lower the sway bar. Remove the panhard brace, drop the lower end of the panhard rod, remove the lower shock bolts. Loosen the PH rod locking nuts before dropping the end. Why? Because the rod may need to be lengthened during reassembly to get the bolt back in.
Suggest working on one side at a time. Jacking up the side frees up the spring so I took it out as it gives a lot of room for OEM OTA pipe removal. A little fiddling (rotating the pipe, moving the far end of the pipe to the opposite side, rinse/repeat) to get the inverted u-shaped portion of the pipe over the axle and then pushed it forward.
Do the same for the other side. The passenger side to a little more work than the driver side but this might just me getting tuckered out by that time.
New pipes go in very easily (due to the 2-piece design). I used a 2 x 12 on the floor jack to raise the new pipes and mid-pipe so that the piping was tucked up where it should be. Install the mufflers but leave the pipe-to-muffler joints loose for a bit.
Need to move from back of the car (OTA joint, muffler/OTA joint) to the side (mid-pipe clamps) numerous times to get things lined up just right.
Once the new OTA pipes are installed, reassemble (lower shock bolt, panhard brack, panhard rod). Torque every fastener to spec:
PH rod bolt @ 129 lb-ft; lower shock bolt @ 52 lb-ft; sway bar end-link bracket bolt @ 85 lb-ft; panhard brace (at frame) @ 35 lb-ft (my guess as I couldn't find info on the little bolts); panhard brace bracket bolt @ 85 lb-ft (another guess until better info is available).
Adjust the muffler tips and snug up the clamps (spec is 35 lb-ft). Recheck the midpipe-to-OTA bracket bolts (35 lb-ft - no other info available). Remove the floor jack.
After a week (several cold-to-warm cycles), recheck exhaust clamps and snug up, if required.
That's it!
Chris
p.s.--I should have bought a QuickJack. It would have made this job much easier. Or, a shop could do it with the car on a lift - much faster than the home garage method, lol.