First of all XS-Power do 2 pip[es - a kit for £80 which includes gaskets and bracket and a "Motoria" one for (in my case) £135 incl delivery. I chose the more expensive one after hearing the stories about cheaper ones cracking. Quality looked ok..
Anyway, on with the fitting :-)
Your going to need to get access to under the car for this so first thing is to get it raised up sufficiently whereby you can slide underneath it far enough to get at the downpipe - I bought a couple of breeze blockjs especially for the purpose :-)
Since you going to be working mostly on the driver's side I used a block of wood to chock up the engine lid on the passenger side so the engine lid saty doesnt get in your way. I also used a spare wheel to stand on to save my back leaning over :-(
From underneath loosen off the rear back box support bolts to give a bit more flex but keep exhaust connected:
Use a socket with an extension bar on so ratchet head doesnt catch exhaust and remove the 3 nuts holding front flexi to existing downpipe:
Using a tyre lever seperate the downpipe from the front flexi:
Theres a post cat temp sensor that runs up into engine bay - trace the wire through then disconnet:
From underneath it should look something like:
Back up top! Remove ethe 4 bolts holding cross brace then reove cross brace followed by the intercooler hard pipe, hard pipe bracket and the 2 intercooler pipes (all in the name of good access!) You will have to disconnect a couple of rubber pipes too to remove the hard pipe right out of the way.
Any exposed pipes can be covered with a latex glove to prevent any jubk going down them:
Undo the bolt securing the oil dipstick holder so it can be swung out the way when accessing the bolts holding the elbow to turbo.
Remove the 2 nuts/studs holding the O2 sensor in along with the gasket:
Remove the 3 bolts holding the heatshield on:
Now this is where job took a serious turn for the worse for me :-( First bolt came out easily but the heads rounded on the other 2. It was late on a Fiiday and I was tired and for some dafr teason I thought I could lever and hacksaw off the shield - dumb idea! LOL Anyway early Sat morning I got myself down to Machine Mart and bought an Irwin 5 piece Bolt grip set for £23 which would prove invaluable! Using this the other 2 bolts came out easily so on with the show!
Now before removing the cat you have to remove 2 bolts holding it to the stays - one either side of the cat and this is done from underneath. Make sure you have a good fitting spanner for these so you dont round them!!!!!
With those 2 removed you want to remove the driver's side stay completely so you can get the cat and elbow out as one piece - its held on with 2 bolts (IIRC correctly I did one from the top and one from the bottom):
All that is left now is to remove the 7 nuts holding the elbow to turbo....and this is where your ingunity with a socket set is tested! LOL
Hers a pic after removal so you can see where to look for them - I managed to remove all of them with a socket set except for the one left most in the pic which you need a 14mm swan neck ring spanner which I 'tapped' with a 5lb lump hammer. They are on very tight so any tricks to get leverage such as Lukes tip to put a socket and wrench extender over the end of your ratchet for leverage are the key. Lots of wd40 is handy too as on all the nuts in this job! Deep reach sockets are good round the bottom alomg with the use of a flexi joing sometimes. Its all about finding combinations of sockets (and spanner) along with extensions/long levered wrenches that do it.
When all done it should seperate easily - be careful it is heavy - I levered it and it fell off down onto the floor - doh! Should be left with this:
Since I'm not putting the old elbow back I bought a new gasket (Rev3+):
Popped gasket on and tried the downpipe....problem - the unused stud was fouling on the downpipe stopping it going on all the way - grrrr!!!!
Had enough by now so got my Irwin bolt extractor soocket and gently tapped it onto the end of the stud then used a wrench to bring it off - seemed to go on forever! :-(
Take 2 with offending stud now removed:
Now for the reversal of disassembly! Put the 6 (not 7) nuts back on and tighten to 60NM. Had to use an open ended spanner from underneath for one of them which I'm not to happy about TBH - the pipe is just so close to nut I didnt have any other choice but I bet a jam sandwich that that nut is not tight enough :-(
Cleaned up the face of O2 sensor with soift wire brush:
New gasket for O2 sensor:
New studs too but kept old nuts (hey big spender....LOL)
Tighten up to 20NM
Re-connect your your front flexi to downpipe with new gasket and then re-tighten up back box supporting bolts. I had a bit of a struggle with mine as the lay of the exhaust was now slightly different from original but got there in end.
Up top, its just a case of putting back the intercooler pipes and X-brace.
So whats the verdict?....
Well its certainly noisier - I'd say the difference in noise is the same as the difference from going to a stock exhaust to a mongoose and its noiser even at idle too.
Performance wise theres a definite improvement - spoolup seems to be quicker. Just for refernce my car also has an apexi induction, mongoose exhaust, XS-Power intercooler, HKS Blowoff valve and unknown make MBC.
Quality wise - yeah its ok - my only real complaint is that you cant tighten the rear lower bolt because pipe is so close which is a pain. Other than that it looks well made and seems substantial. In their advert it says categoricly it "will never crack" so if it does its going back for a refund! LOL
Do I reccomend it? YES!
Is job easy to do? ......mmmm....its not difficult really but I think it makes a big difference whether the parts have ever been apart before or not - definitely wouldnt attempt it unless you have something lik ethe Irwin bolt grip sockets as just one stuck bolt can stop you dead in your tracks. Having a selection of 14mm sockets and extension bars/flexible joints etc is a must too.
I bought ramps and used small steps to get access to the top 
