I'm installing a VAP exhaust, including down pipes on my 2017 F-Type R and figured I'd document the process. Maybe someone in the future will find it useful/informative and those who have done it before can chuckle wryly as I learn the same lessons they did. An intro to my car can be found here: https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/f...-type-r-293572.

Shipment from VAP arrives today, so yesterday was getting the car in and up on the lift.

I'm lucky enough to have a three car garage. Even better, I have a three car garage that you can actually put three cars in (some people will get that). I can put one of our cars in sideways to work on it and we can still park one of the other cars in the double bay.



I have a QuickJack lift and you need to use the cross beam because of the staggered lift points. The cross beam adds enough height that you need the car up on ramps to get everything in place. The eagle eyed will note that the hood is off in the pictures. I'm also doing the cooling system upgrade and VAP lower and upper pulleys but those will be other threads.




Up on the lift.

 

I have a Quickjack and have no need to use cross beams, but it could be because I have the long wheelbase TLX one with the 2 to 3 extra inches in lift height. Not sure. Many on the forum use quickjacks with these cars with no need for a crossbeam approach. Just thought I mentioned this.

Interested in your thread for sure, as I too have recently purchased a VelocityAP exhaust. In my case it is only their axel back solution.

What exactly have you purchased? Are you replacing everything front to back?

 

A few pictures of the original exhaust.

Looking back...


Looking forward



For those who wonder about the occasional black spots on the floor, under the back of the car. Let me introduce you to the probable culprits. These are the joints between the rear of the X-pipe and the muffler assembly.



I make fun of phones with bunches of cameras on the back, but this is one time where a wide angle camera would be nice. Muffler assembly...



And finally, a couple shots of the original tips. I ordered the slash cut black for the new exhaust.

 

I'm replacing everything front to back. 200 cell down pipes with resonators and the valvetronic muffler.

I'll take a look at the lift points again this evening. Front, I'm using the marked point on the plate. Rear, I'm using the inner end of the piece the rear suspension mounts to, right under the mount, rather than the outer which lines up with the front points. The lift blocks to fit particularly well on the outer point. I do have some smaller pucks, for use with the floor jack, that do fit. I'll got stare at it a bit tonight as the cross piece is going to make getting the down pipes out a royal pain.

 

@GerbilEngineer I agree with DMeister, I too have the 5000TLX and no need for the crossbeams. 2016 Jaguar F-Type R, which has seen many times up on the QJ. Thanks for documenting your install and please let me know if there are any questions that come up. I have done this install from front to back. Hardest part of the entire install is getting the top bolts off the OEM downpipes, either need a set of crowfeet sockets or this 3/8 15mm torque wrench (which is what I used). Carlyle 3/8 in drive 15 mm Torque Adapter CHT CTA38115M | Buy Online - NAPA Auto Parts

Make sure to disconnect battery to avoid shocking yourself on the passenger side as you will be next to the starter/battery cable.

Have fun, the rear exhaust back should take about 30 minutes. I would suggest just unbolting the exhaust hangers and then remove the rubber exhaust hangers while off the car. Some lubricant helps to slide off and on the hangers. Put some painters tape around the end of the rear valence to avoid scratching. You do not need to take the bumper or valence off.

Here is a pic of the factor exhaust off with the hangers still attached as well as with the new exhaust installed and the car on the QJ without the cross beams.

 

That’s what I mean man, and why I mentioned it…That cross bar would be butt pain for sure depending on the type of maintenance you are doing. There are several threads on here where you will see people not doing that, even with the non-TLX versions of the Quickjack.

On my 2024 R the front and back jack points are clearly marked with explicit arrows on both sides of the car, and they are not that much out of line where things don’t fall in the width footprint of my quickjack front to back on a given side of the car.

In fact, you could search, but I believe one thread around here talks about a mistake in the documentation that inaccurately makes the mount points looks far more out of line than they actually are or something. My memory is that the points given in the docs for the car are incorrect or something.

 

If you do disconnect the battery make sure you prevent the trunk from shutting or you'll enter a world of pain getting it open again!

 

That is one pretty F-Type R!

I had some problems getting the nuts and studs removed on my XJ (Different Car). Jaguar installs the exhaust flanges with one stud facing one way and the other stud facing the opposite way. Not sure why as all the other cars I have worked on just have the standard threaded portion of the stud facing the exhaust system. This complicates the removal of the nuts as posted above.

Here are the stud and nut part numbers if you need to replace them. I don't live in a salt area but I mangled the stud a bit getting it apart. I had to use my torch to get the old stud out of the exhaust pipe flange and it took plenty of heat to get it out! Lucky for me it was the stud that is attached to the exhaust pipe and NOT the stud that screws into the engines exhaust manifold. But that one is in the conventional position and I had no problems getting the nut off since it's accessible and you have room to get at it.




In fact as cheap as these are if I did it again I would have a pair in stock "Just in Case" BEFORE I started the project.
Please use 6 point sockets on these if at all possible!
.
.
.

 

I learned this the hard way already in the past... MacGyvering a tool to pull the trunk release was not fun.

 

Thanks for this. I had already been looking at things and was wondering whether unbolting the hangers was the right was to go. I was waiting to see what instructions came with the kit, but I was already leaning towards unbolting. Glad to hear I was heading in the right direction.

I've got a set of crowsfeet in the tool box, I can see the torque adapter being a bit easier due to the longer length.

 

I am pretty sure there are no instructions with the exhaust. Having had my rear exhaust off multiple times I would recommend unbolting the hangers & wiggling off the rear muffler. Another tip is to put rags on the top of the tail pipes to eliminate the possibility of scratching the bumper. This allowed me to remove it without any help. A couple of other tips I would strongly recommend replacing the clamp that connects the down pipes to the center pipe. It is really a one time use. The other thing is I found this type of socket to be very helpful as a crowfoot can slip off. Best of luck you will love the sound.
https://shop.snapon.com/product/Stan...daptor/FRDHM17

 

I dropped the car down and reset the lift points last night.






I know the rear point is designed for a scissor jack to mate with the lip. Opted for the smaller puck on the plate rather the the larger QuickJack round lifting block half on the plate and half on... don't think there is anything under the plastic splash guard.

No cross bar to deal with now.

I have two very large boxes sitting in my front entry way. Hopefully I can get them unpacked today -- life outside of car projects has been rather busy of late.

 

Noted on the clamps. That makes sense. I'll be putting in a parts order as I have to do, at least, the rear tie rods, since I'll have all the belts off doing the pulleys and cooling upgrades, I'll replace the accessory drive belt as well, etc. I'll add the clamps.

I have the flare nut version of crowsfoot wrench -- like this: https://www.harborfreight.com/38-in-...ece-68999.html It's a bit more positive grip than your standard open end crowsfoot. However, the torque coversion adapters are a bit longer which may, or may not, help. I'll find out soon enough.

 

Life's busy at the end of the year, so car time is limited. I got an hour last night and got to unpack to big boxes of goodies from VAP.

Behold beautifully crafted metal...




...And a bench full of goodies to go along.



A nice SWAG pack as well. Hat fits well. I don't put stuff on the car, but I'll find an appropriate place/use for the badge and sticker.



Unfortunately, not everything was rosy. Never underestimate the ability of freight carriers to abuse shipments. The box with the muffler rattled around enough that one of the exhaust tips worked its way through the padding and rubbed against the box -- enough to rub off a bit of the coating.







Reached out to the team at VelocityAP last night and @scott@VelocityAP got back to me within minutes, despite being nearly 10PM Central Time. They are getting me taken care of -- sending a replacement tip. Annoying? Yep. Big deal? Nope. After the shipping fiasco with the spoiler on the car, this is nothing. I'd be more annoyed if I had planned to do the install this weekend and have the car off the lift. I'm traveling for work all next week and the cars gonna be on the lift at least till Christmas, if not New Years, so... eh, its now just another part of the story.

Now I'm going to get off the internet and go take the car apart!

 

Looks great. You’ll love it once it’s on!

 

Glad to help, sorry this happened, but we will get it sorted for you! The best part will be the grin on your face, once everything is on the car and you can hear and feel what is totally indescribable. Owning this car and getting to drive it all the time, I know how exciting it is to get new car parts. Excited for you.

 

First, for those that want a baseline for what the car sounded like before I started: .

Now, a note for anyone else doing this -- the black ceramic coating is thin. Wrap the tips in the thin foam they ship with and leave it on till you have it in the car. I found a place that I'm pretty sure I scuffed one, moving it around.

This evening, I got another hour and pulled out the exhaust.

I started with the vacuum lines to the valves.


A gentle tug on the elbow with a pair of pliers and a bit of a wiggle and the elbow came out. Be gentle so you don't break the elbow.


To protect the rear valence, I wrapped the tips in bubble wrap and taped them. Since my original tips are nice and smooth and rounded, I probably didn't need too, but better safe than sorry. Plus, I had plenty of bubble wrap handy from unwrapping.



Next up, I loosened all the connections, starting with the clamps on the exhaust tube, then the front and rear hangers. The nuts on the clamps are 14mm and all the rest are 13mm. I didn't bother to fight with any of them and just started out with the impact on low power. None of them were particularly hard to get loose.




Once everything was loose, I can back and completely remove the front hangars. I wiggled them off the bolts and rotated them around, out of the way.



After that, I remove the bolts from the rear hanger. At that point, the pipes in the front, and the bubble wrapped tips, resting on the rear valance, support the whole rear exhaust. Getting the pipes separated was the hardest part. I tapped a flat blade screwdriver in, at various points around the joint, to open up the outer flange a bit and break the crud a bit. It still took a significant amount of percussive persuasion with a 3lb sledge to get them to separate.

We are now, "without muffler".



As an aside, the fact that I'm not immediately putting the exhaust back together isn't a bad thing. One of the other things I need to do is replace the rear tie rods and it will be much easier to get to the inner end nut with the exhaust out. That's another thread though.

 

Yesterday afternoon I spent some time arguing with the down pipes. The clamps on the downpipe to midpipe were no problem. @JgaXkr Noted replacing them as a "one time use" item. Interestingly, mine have a strap tack welded to them, holding them together. I'm assuming this is just to help with assembly in the factory as it would keep the clamps from rotating as they were tightened. If anyone has insight, please share.




Also, for anyone ordering parts ahead of time, the front and rear clamps are different. Above are the front, below are the rear.




Since I'm also doing the supercharger pulley, and the cooling system upgrade, I pulled all the splash guards off. Looks like, at some point, someone hit something pretty substantial. It broke the lip on the air scoop then took a chunk out of the transmission support bracket. Didn't happen on my watch... There's no damage further back under the car, at least none I have found yet.





With the splash guards off, I spent a good amount of time just looking around to make sure nothing was amiss. All the bushings and boots are still in good shape (rear tie rods excluded). The rubber is still flexible and no signs of cracking. I will, however, need to play a round of "where did the fluid come from?"




When I'm working on the front, I'll get it all cleaned up. Where ever it is coming from, it's not sufficient to leave drips on the garage floor. I'll clean it up and if the source isn't apparent, I'll go drive it and see it shows then.

Back to the downpipes. The rear facing nuts on the brackets weren't a problem. An extension and wobble adapter on the impact and the came right off. Below is a shot of the passenger side, for those that haven't done this.




Don't forget to disconnect the O2 sensors before you take off both nuts.

The front facing nut, on the drivers side, I was able to get with a crowsfoot and long extension on the ratchet. A good dose of penetrating spray helped too. Having the splash shield off made it much easier, both to hit it with the penetrating spray, as well a get the crowsfoot on. I could get my hand up there and make sure it stayed seated.


The passenger side front facing nut won the day yesterday. A crowsfoot simply isn't long enough to get proper purchase on the nut. I even tried coming in front the front. With a long extension and a u-joint, you can get a regular socket on the nut from the front. Feed the extension in beside the alternator. I'll get a picture next time I'm under there. Even with penetrating spray and breaking out the induction heater, it wouldn't budge. I ordered a set of torque adapters, similar to the one @JgaXkr posted. They will arrive while I am traveling. I gave it another good soaking in penetrating spray and left it to soak and will take it up next weekend. My plan it to break the nut loose with the torque adapter and the take it off off the stud, coming in from the front.

And yes, I did disconnect the battery, and yes the trunk is open and blocked from closing.

 

I can tell you for sure, the passenger side needed that small 15mm torque wrench I linked earlier when I did mine, there would have been no way for me to remove the bolt otherwise. As for the welded midpipe, mine looks the same and I reused the existing clamps.

 

Wow that was a hit that broke off that piece of Al.!

The oil might be from those crimped connections to the rubber hoses. Yours is only a 2017 but on older Jags this is a very common "seep".
Clean the connections up and see what comes back.
.
.
.