bellowed uppies is the easy way to do things.... all i did is spray down all the bolts and v-band clamps with schaeffers lube and let it set while i was taking the spider and ic tubes out of the truck and then started to get the bolts loosened that hold the turbo down. after that i took the vbands off and took the turbo out and removed the down pipe also. way simpler with all the room.. that actually took me the longest cuz i ended up dropping out my entire exhaust just to get the dp out... after that there is a ton of room and you don't have to try to take the old uppies apart, you can leave the entire thing in place and just take the bolts out where the uppies meet the manifolds on each side.. then wiggle the uppies so that the passenger side drops down and you can rotate the entire assembly a little then pull it right out... if he is going to go with bellowed uppies then you can put them together on the bench and tighten them right down but i don't know what the tq specs are. what i did was anti-seized the crap out of them, like clay at riffraff recommends on all the bolts and nuts, and used a 1/4'' drive shorty ratchet and tightened them as much as i could with one hand then put a breaker bar on them and took them another 1/4 turn. then slid them down fully assembled in the opposite manor as i took the old ones out. put the lower 4 bolts on just barely finger tight then installed the rest of the top end of the motor. after everything else was tq'd down and done, i tighten the crap out of the bottom bolts. make sure you take those down evenly on both bolts. i tightened them till the bolts just started to bend. yes i know i prolly over done all the bolts but i did't want to have to drop the dp out of it agian. after its all tight then reinstall the dp but dont tighten down the exhaust just slip it together so it wont fall off or come undone and go drive the truck for a while get it good and hot then bring it back and let it cool down and if there is any black around the connections if so then it needs tightened again. or can just check them for the hell of it.. so far mine has been fine and i haven't touched it since i put them in a few months ago and a few thousand hard miles on them...
now if your going back with regular donut gaskets and new up pipes witch i went threw two sets of gaskets before i finally said f-it and ordered a set of bellowed uppies from clay at riffraff, who has the best price hands down for the bellowed kit, you will have to put them in a piece at a time because you wont be able to tq down the donut gaskets on the bench and will have to do that once you get the bottom 4 bolts on the manifolds sorta snug, then put the donuts and collector on up top... i am not sure if you can tq those 4 bolts down without the turbo on or not. then put the rest on...
if just replacing gaskets then you wont have to mess with the bottom manifold bolts other than maybe to loosen them up a hair to get the collector off. then slip on new donuts put turbo on and tighten everything down... drive it then recheck for tightness.
imo, i would recommend just going to bellowed uppies. way less hassle if for some reason it leaks again, like mine did, there just a better set up...
the riffraff uppies with the pyro probe hole drilled in it and a set of turbo pedestal orings shipped to my door for just a hair over $450... most everyone else is close to 5hundy just for the pipes...
