Corsa Performance 3-Inch Catted Downpipe (15-23 Mustang EcoBoost)

Video Review & Installation

The Corsa Catted 3-Inch Downpipe that we have here today is a premium option for all 2015 and newer EcoBoost owners who are looking to free up the flow of exhaust and, in turn, achieve a slight increase in both power and sound. Now, the Corsa is going to deliver that quality 304-grade stainless steel throughout, including your 3-inch mandrel-bent tubing and high flow cat, and does need to be used with a corresponding 3-inch cat-back for proper fitment. This will not fit a factory-style cat-back connection. Price point for the made in the USA system will hover right around the $600 price point. And the install, at least according to the site, is going to get a strong one out of three wrenches on the difficulty meter here, take you a couple of hours to complete from start to finish, as I'll demonstrate later in the video.So, if you, guys, have been in the Mustang game for any period of time, then chances are you've probably heard the name Corsa thrown around and if not, well, what you need to know is that they do produce some of the highest quality exhaust components currently available in the aftermarket, all made right here, of course, in the good old U.S. of A. But what do you say we get to what you guys want to talk about more, and that, of course, is power and sound. Now, first up, let's talk sound. And as you heard with our sound clips at the very top of this video, you're really not gaining a whole lot in regards to volume with the factory cat-back in place. So, whipping out my highly scientific wake the neighbor scale, I'm going to go soft two out of five here, guys, out of my one to five or one to wake the neighbor scale. Now, will this thing get a little bit louder once you put a free-flowing exhaust behind it? Absolutely. But for an apples-to-apples comparison, there really isn't a whole lot to talk about here as far as volume gained and maybe a little bit more turbo noise.Now, as far as your power is concerned, well, despite this thing being catted, Corsa is going to claim a 36% increase in flow, which on a turbo application like the EcoBoost is huge, right? Anytime you can eliminate restriction after the turbo, that will typically equate to a little bit more power. Now, a portion of that increase can be attributed to stepping up to a mandrel-bent 3-inch tube, which certainly is a healthy increase over the stocker you are replacing. But the second part of that equation can be attributed to replacing that really restrictive factory cat with a high flow unit such as this. Now, as the name implies, this will help keep the flow up while keeping those emissions in check, especially when compared to some of your off-road options. Now, as far as your construction and build is concerned here, guys, all on point as is the case normally with Corsa. Materials, again, will be that premium 304-grade stainless steel, which is nearly impervious to rust or corrosion. Welds obviously look great, they do include a little flex pipe here in addition to your upstream and downstream O2 bungs have been pre-welded for you. Now, there's no extra bungs welded into this downpipe like some of your other options on the site, but that is just one thing I did want to quickly point out.Finally, guys, I do want to remind you that the Corsa downpipe, and this is important, does not feature a factory-style neck down connection, but instead, a full 3-inch connection to be used with a corresponding 3-inch exhaust, such as an MBRP, for instance. So, again, just keep that in mind, if you still have the factory cat-back installed or maybe you have an aftermarket cat-back that utilizes that smaller factory neckdown, this is not going to be the option for you and you will need to get something made in order for everything to connect. Finally, guys, I do want to point out that the site is going to strongly recommend running a custom tune along with the Corsa downpipe here. So, just keep that in mind. Now, there will certainly be owners out there in the customer review section specifically who have installed this and not ran a custom tune, and you can always read up on those back on the site in the customer review section if you haven't done so already. But enough yapping, what do you say we take this thing out to our 2018 EcoBoost and I show you how to get things bolted up? Tools I use for this installation include a cordless impact, 3/8 ratchet, 15-millimeter socket, 13-millimeter socket, 7/8 wrench or an O2 sensor wrench.All right, guys, getting started here with our downpipe install on our EcoBoost Mustang, first and most important tip, you don't want to work on a hot car. So, just make sure that the car has been shut off for a little bit and that your downpipe is going to be cool to the touch. Once you've established that, go ahead and pop your hood. And our first step is actually going to be underneath the hood here. You're going to want to go ahead and unplug your upstream O2 sensor first closest to the engine block. We'll show you where to do that. And there's also one bolt on the downpipe that you're gonna want to tackle from the engine bay as well. So, let's go.All right. So, first things first, again, here is your O2 harness or wire basically up until this brown or red clip here. You want to unplug that first. Once you have that unplugged, just to make sure it doesn't hung up on anything because that's going to be dropping out. Now, before we get underneath the car, I found it's much easier to tackle this right side or passenger side turbo flange bolt basically where the downpipe meets your factory turbo. So, I'm gonna tackle that right now with my 15-millimeter socket, and then we'll get the car up in the air and tackle the other bolt next. Our second 15-millimeter nut is way up there, you guys can see. I find it a lot easier to tackle from underneath the car. Basically, 15-millimeter socket, a long ratchet if you have one, if not, use what you got, get it on there. I like to throw a little PB Blaster on too before starting work and then just give it a turn.Don't worry about the downpipe falling on you. There is a bracket holding it to the engine and transmission. Make sure you don't drop the bolt. With our two nuts at the downpipe turbo connection removed, now we can come back here to our downpipe exhaust connection. We're going to stick with our 15-millimeter socket and remove these two nuts next. You just wanna loosen these two, you don't need to fully remove them because we just want to loosen up this clamp. And we're just kind of loosening the bolts here or the nuts, we're not fully removing them because basically, we want to loosen this clamp and be able to slide that back. All right. With our two exhaust clamp bolts loosened at this point, now we need to get the downpipe out of our rubber hanger here. A hanger tool is going to be your best friend. If not, you can get creative with a screwdriver or something like that. I always like giving this little shot of either, you know, lithium grease, WD-40, anything that just kind of lube that up a little bit just make the removal easier.We're just about ready to remove the two final bolts holding our stock downpipe in place. But before we do, we want to go ahead and remove our downstream O2 harness, which is this plug right here, unplug that. There is a metal clip that secures it to the transmission. You can just give it a little tug and let that kind of swing. Last but not least, again, these two 13-millimeter bolts right here, guys, that's securing this bracket to your factory downpipe, of course, to the transmission. So, make sure when you're moving these that you have a good hand on the downpipe because it will come down. All right. If you haven't already done, so go ahead and try to pull the downpipe out of the factory clamp there. And with that out, you can go ahead and remove your factory downpipe.With our stock downpipe removed from our EcoBoost, we figure it'd be a great opportunity to throw it on the table next to the Corsa and compare the two a little bit and show you the differences. So, first things first, starting from the top down, the big eye-catcher no doubt is the difference between the cats. Stock cat, super big, super restrictive, of course. Corsa still has a cat in place. However, it's certainly more of a performance-oriented cat, so should help outflow in that regard. Moving down, you'll notice the piping, it's pretty similar in size. However, the Corsa is a full 3-inch system, stocker's kind of between the 2.5 to 2-3/4-inch system. Corsa's all mandrel bent, and maybe most importantly, that material is all 304-grade stainless steel. This is the cream of the crop when we're talking exhaust stuff certainly going to be the best at reducing or resisting corrosion over the years and should just look good for years to come.Flex pipe is still in place as is the stocker over here. As you can see, this kind of squishes down almost a crush bend towards the end. And the biggest difference, while I have this in my hand, is going to be the exit. Corsa's a full 3-inch system. Again, there is no neck down with that system, and as such, you do have to use it with a 3-inch cat-back. As I pointed out earlier, the factory exhaust connection is puny. It almost is about 2-1/4 inches altogether. So, that's a big choke point for the stock downpipe, especially when we're talking about going into a stock cat-back with the restrictive resonator and so forth. So, basically, the word of the day here is free-flowing I would say with the Corsa. There is between the cat and the mandrel-bent design, 3-inch tubing, it should be a lot better flowing compared to your uber-restrictive factory downpipe.So, now that you know some of the differences between the two, let's show you a few things you have to transfer over and then get the Corsa installed. Now, we need to work on transferring over a couple of very important things to our new Corsa downpipe starting with our O2 sensors. Very important that these stay in the same orientation so you're upstream and downstream. You don't want to flip-flop these two because then your car will simply not run right. To do so, we have our O2 wrench as you can see right here. Next up, we're just gonna remove these two sensors and then this bracket, which will get transferred over next. Next up, our upstream. Last part we need to transfer over is this bracket which will secure our new Corsa downpipe to the transmission just like it did for our factory downpipe. So, 13-millimeter nuts, grab your socket, and remove these next.All right. Now we have our new Corsa downpipe on the table, guys. We're going to start transferring over the stuff we just removed, starting with our O2 sensors. Now, Corsa does include some anti-seize with their kit. If for whatever reason you didn't get any, just grab a little because it's very important you do throw some on the threads of your O2 sensors in the event you do need to eventually remove them. A little bit goes a long way, guys, so trust me, you don't need a lot. Just again, a little dab on the threads, and you'll be good to go. I like throwing a little bit on either side. And then we can go ahead and thread this into place. Next up, we have our downstream O2 sensor. Just a little bit is really all you need here. With both of our O2 sensors in place, now grab your wrench and tighten them up. With our O2s in place, now we're going to grab the support bracket here and get that installed onto our new Corsa downpipe and secure it with the 13-millimeter nuts we removed earlier. Kind of like to leave these a little loose because it gives you some play on the bracket and it'll help us get the new one in there a little easier.All right, guys, now that we have our O2 sensors transferred over, we have our support bracket in place, now it's actually time to get the Corsa up and in. Before we do, a big thing I want to point out, the factory donut gasket, you need to make sure that's still in place, either up on the turbo side or on your new Corsa downpipe. I actually used a little dab of superglue to kind of hold it up there and in place because it tends to fall out pretty easily. So, a little hack that I use seems to work well for me. And once that is in place, we can go ahead, fish the Corsa downpipe up onto the studs and stud our nuts. I like to get these two nuts started finger-tight, and before we tighten these down, we'll come back to our support bracket and get those bolts in place as well. With our two nuts finger-tight up top there, we're going to go ahead and install our two 13-millimeter bolts down here at the bracket. I like getting these in and snug, but not overly tight yet. If you leave them a little loose, it does give you some flexibility with the system. So, just get them started and we'll tighten them up later.All right. With those in place, now go back and tighten up your 15-millimeter nuts at the turbo. With the two nuts tightened up at the turbo, go ahead back to your two 13-millimeter bolts right here, and finally snug those guys up as well. With our downpipe secured, now we can go ahead and start adding our elbows, getting them in place. We're going to start here with the flange then obviously over the downpipe, make sure you have a clamp in place and grab your 15-millimeter socket and wrench and get ready to just snug this up. I'm leaving that a little loose, so again we have some play here in the piping when we hook up our final piece.All right, guys, at this point, if you are installing the Corsa downpipe with your full 3-inch exhaust system, you would use the included 3-inch adapter. But again, since we are hooking this up to our factory exhaust, we do have the additional conversion pipe here or adapter that we're going to use to connect to our factory cat-back. So, let's get that in place now. Once you get everything connected, go ahead and get it in the hanger here. You can do this step first if you'd rather. With everything in place, go ahead and tighten up your clamps with your 15-millimeter socket and wrench. With everything tight, now we can go ahead and connect our O2 sensors here starting with our downstream or secondary O2 sensor. I got it out of the Christmas tree clip here so we can plug it in. Once it's plugged in, go ahead and resecure the Christmas tree clip. Our final step here today is to plug back in our primary O2 sensor.All right. With that connected, that's going to wrap up the install here, guys. After you get everything done, never a bad idea to fire the car up, listen for any exhaust leaks, make sure there's no issues. And after a few hundred miles, it's also not a bad idea to get back underneath the car, check your clamps, make sure everything is still nice and tight. Hey, we hope you enjoyed this review and install of Corsa's 3-Inch Stainless Steel Downpipe, available for your 2015 and newer EcoBoost Mustang at home. And keep in mind, for more cool products and videos like this, keep it right here at americanmuscle.com.