EC Cross Pipe Installation

To start, here is why you want to upgrade the factory cross pipe.

For what-ever reason the factory decided to put this huge restrictive notch into the pipe. There are more useless notches, this is just the most egregious.
It is not for clearance because there is nothing to clear near this indentation. It just strangles the exhaust and hampers turbo spool up.

There are several posts describing some of the difficulties you may experience in swapping out the cross pipe. I found there is really only one and that is the studs that connect the catalytic converter to the cross pipe are tiny and prone to rust. You can soak them in oil or thread release or whatever, I did all the above and they can still crack like a pretzel. If it happens, it happens. Just be prepared with an electric drill and some cobalt drill bits designed for steel just in case.

When one of my studs cracked, I cut them both flush with a dremel rotary tool and a cutting disc.

Used a center punch to mark a starting point, then drilled them out and enlarged the hole so I could run an M10 1.5 bolt. Here is the broken piece of factory crap and its replacement with a penny for size reference.

The other difficulties I read about had to do with fitting the cross pipe and getting everything to line up.
Here is the thing. The cross pipe is a rigid piece once installed and is not designed to move around. Everything past the cross pipe is flexible and can be re-positioned.
So why try and stuff the pipe into place with all the rest of the exhaust bolted down?
Here is what I did:

Started at the rear of the car and disconnected the mid pipe from the muffler/tailpipes.

Next, unhooked the exhaust hanger from the mid-pipe.

Disconnected the mid-pipe from the cross-pipe. (crummy pic, I know)

Then the last step before removing the cross pipe was disconnecting this hanger from the cross-pipe (just above and behind the flange that connects it to the mid-pipe

Finally remove the two nuts between the cat and the crosspipe and it drops out.
If your studs don't break, you are lucky, go buy a lottery ticket.
Then remove the above bracket.

The installation of the cross-pipe starts with getting it up into place and tightening the connectors that hold the cross pipe to the bottom of the cat.
I did the installation by my self but at this point it would have been nice to have a second set of hands to hold the cross -pipe in place while i got the bolts in.
Next, connect the above bracket to the cross-pipe and bolt it back in place. Finally, work your way to the back of the car, reconnect the rest of the system.
This way, rather than trying to make a part that doesn't flex fit, you put it in first, then re-install all the flexible parts where they fit best.

Here is the installed cross-pipe

Note the pipe sits perfectly between the transmission and the oil sump and nothing rubs. As for the frayed insulation wrap, I purchased the pipe second hand and that was the way it arrived. Seeing the wrap costs $70 to replace it would have been nice to know. As it isn't visible once the under body panels are back on I'm going to leave it as is.