Courtesy B-Pipe

	I had the Courtesy Nissan Stainless Steel B-Pipe and RT Cat installed together. As I have done in the past, I enlisted the services of Joe at Unorthodox Racing in West Babylon for assistance. Unorthodox is the only place I have found that will be as careful as I would be (no air tools!) and they let me hang around in the shop, pet the ferrets and take pictures. How can you beat that? The Courtesy Pipe is a direct bolt-in replacement for the stock B-Pipe which eliminates some very restrictive bends and crimps. It is made of durable, mandrel-bent stainless steel and looks real nice. Below are a few pics of the Courtesy B-Pipe.

	The stock B-Pipe needs to be disconnected from the catalytic converter. There are 2 bolts (no nuts) that hold it in.	There are 2 nuts which hold the B-Pipe to the muffler. These must be removed.
You can see the big crimp in the stock B-Pipe. Pretty amazing, huh? The last step to freeing the B-Pipe is to unbolt the hanger and remove the support cross-member. Then the pipe slides right out very easily.
Below are some pictures of the stock piping including the catalytic converter which was replaced at the time of the B-Pipe install. At far right is the Courtesy B-Pipe side by side with the stock B-Pipe. RT Cat is pictured far right.

	Since my Maxima does not have an Oxygen Sensor behind the cat I had to purchase this Nissan extension piece from Courtesy. The hardware required to secure it does not come with the pipe. Part numbers are provided on the photograph at left.
	A new gasket should be used between the catalytic converter and the B-Pipe extension piece.
	Two crush ring gaskets are required from Nissan. One gasket goes between the B-Pipe and the muffler, and the other goes between the B-Pipe and the extension piece.
At right are pictures of the completed install. This is a nice replacement for the stock B-Pipe, and far less restrictive. Eventually I would like to have the extension piece re-fabricated in stainless steel without the O2 port or the restrictive bends. An update will be posted at that time.
I was afraid that since the Courtesy resonator was so much smaller than stock that the exhaust would be louder or drone more. Luckily this was not the case. The addition of the RT cat and Courtesy B-Pipe made the Maxima's exhaust note slightly throatier on acceleration, but it does not drone nor is it annoying. At cruise the car is still very quiet. Low end power seems slightly better but not dramatic. One thing I have noticed is that each time I have added an exhaust mod my RPMs have slowly decreased for a given speed in MPH. Evidence that the engine is having to work less and less to push the car around. This should result in a slight MPG increase in addition to the added power.