I hate to say it but I spent most of my day with projects. I listened to much coverage pertaining to Memorial Day but I admit my mind was on the tasks at hand. I do appreciate the sacrifices many a soldier has made for my country. It's just not that obvious.
After yesterday's 5 hour marathon of mowing, I thought I'd spend some quality time with my vehicles today.
The Scorpion has a Too Damn Loud exhaust, and on saturday I met one of the previous owners of my car up north in Bellevue and bought a stock exhaust from him.
I thought I'd be clever and swap just the mufflers. Turns out I should have checked the indexing of the 180º turns at the inlets of the two mufflers, they are at different points on the compass and cannot swap. Damn! :wall:
Now I have to decide if I want to install the entire stock exhaust. Part of me wants to, the part of me that enjoys hearing and talking and the stereo, and the stock system has heat shields for the manifold and for the CV joint. The other part of me is afraid to lose a little of the shocking
performance this car has.
The other issue is the CAT which is leaking pellets and seems like it would be difficult to gut. I have an extra J pipe that I should be able to make a "test pipe" from. Just a lot more hassle than I anticipated. And the necessity of a new manifold-head gasket.
On to project 2...
My trusty Vanagon has an exhaust leak where the front and rear manifolds join the cast iron 2-1 manifold. I tried to separate the parts with a grinder etc. but one side is inaccessible without removing cooling parts, more than I want to deal with at 5pm on a holiday. The parts are surprisingly rusty, seems like we've started salting our roads. The copper plated nuts I installed a year or two ago are unrecognizable, and the older nuts and bolts holding together the joint I was working on, as well as the flanges, were nearly gone. So, back together as well as possible and figure out how to place a $350 order for new components from Van Cafe. :cry:
Not how I wanted to end this weekend!
After yesterday's 5 hour marathon of mowing, I thought I'd spend some quality time with my vehicles today.
The Scorpion has a Too Damn Loud exhaust, and on saturday I met one of the previous owners of my car up north in Bellevue and bought a stock exhaust from him.
I thought I'd be clever and swap just the mufflers. Turns out I should have checked the indexing of the 180º turns at the inlets of the two mufflers, they are at different points on the compass and cannot swap. Damn! :wall:
Now I have to decide if I want to install the entire stock exhaust. Part of me wants to, the part of me that enjoys hearing and talking and the stereo, and the stock system has heat shields for the manifold and for the CV joint. The other part of me is afraid to lose a little of the shocking
performance this car has. The other issue is the CAT which is leaking pellets and seems like it would be difficult to gut. I have an extra J pipe that I should be able to make a "test pipe" from. Just a lot more hassle than I anticipated. And the necessity of a new manifold-head gasket.
On to project 2...
My trusty Vanagon has an exhaust leak where the front and rear manifolds join the cast iron 2-1 manifold. I tried to separate the parts with a grinder etc. but one side is inaccessible without removing cooling parts, more than I want to deal with at 5pm on a holiday. The parts are surprisingly rusty, seems like we've started salting our roads. The copper plated nuts I installed a year or two ago are unrecognizable, and the older nuts and bolts holding together the joint I was working on, as well as the flanges, were nearly gone. So, back together as well as possible and figure out how to place a $350 order for new components from Van Cafe. :cry:
Not how I wanted to end this weekend!
