Everything there was slip fits. There are a lot of clamps there, the cats are welded to a pipe that slip fits with a clamp into the x pipe, and there's a small section of pipe on the other end of the x pipe that goes into the muffler, I think I spot welded that pipe with exhaust gasket maker on the pipes.

I suppose I could replace those clamps with welds, but having them as slip fits ade life a lot easier with test fitting.

 

Although Im in the camp of weld over clamped, using the clamps for testing makes a lot of sense. I was hoping that was your plan but its your car

 

There's a couple of places that I'll probably consider going back and welding over the slip fits, but I wanted the ability to switch out to a longer muffler if I decided that this was too loud.

That said, welding pipes together with my flux core mig is a pain in the ***. It burns a hole in it real quick. Maybe it's me not knowing what I'm doing really, but it's a pain lol. I've had to fill holes with weld many times in this project lol.

 

I'm in the same boat. Flux core MIG is difficult to weld pipe with, but once you get the heat right, it's not bad at all. I'm going to have to weld most of mine because of the custom cuts I plan to make. It's going to be a challenge cutting the pipe to make my muffler fit, but it will be worth it if it all works as I hope.

 

Better late than never. I got them basically all finished up, still need to weld around the mufflers, they're just tacked up, and I need to trim the hangers and clean up those welds.... But it's holding itself up and so it's basically done, lol.

Final positioning, using Jack stands to hold everything up


As it sits now, tacked up, not needing jacks to support it anymore!


And a little sound clip

Just the revs clip

 

Those tips look correct and very cool on your car!

 

Thanks! It turned out a lot better than I was worried it would. It's loud, but not like, totally insane I can't drive this loud. That clip where I revved to like 3k (I didn't get the cold start on video) maxed out at 99.3 DB at ~20" away. Nobody will ever be confused about if the exhaust is stock I think, but it's not gonna be like "I need earplugs to drive this car".

 

Nice work

 

Thanks! Get your headers in yet?

 

Not yet. I haven't really touched the CE since late February. Life has been hectic. And on my free time, I was working on the zr-1. Then, the jcw needed my attention. But yes, I plan to get back on the CE today, if possible.

 

Well after a long road to get here, I finally got a chance to road test the car.

First thoughts... I have an exhaust leak. Sounds like right at the header, driver side. I'm thinking the front bolts aren't tightened enough (under the alternator and hard to reach). Also possibly the bolts with all the bracing, I was pretty sure that one was making contact and threading in, but maybe not? Either way, not a huge huge issue.

Listening past the exhaust leak, this thing sounds good. It's got a very unique tone, it sounds... Smoother. It's also really nowhere near as loud as I expected.

The high heat ceramic paint I used on the headers and such... Let's say I'm unimpressed. It's already discolored. Which like, ok whatever fine, I really only put it on for rust proofing on the exhaust and to hide my shitty welds, but it's no cerakote. To be fair, I used black, and had I used the "aluminum" color one, maybe it'd have aged a little better? I dunno.

Another product that didn't really live up to my expectations was this:
Wire Heat Shield for Hose Lines &... Maybe I expected too much from it, but I wrapped my coolant temperature sensor.wiring in it (which runs right by the headers), and it didn't work worth a damn. The plastic sleeving I put around it melted and the Velcro it uses to attach itself melted. The fiberglass inside the sleeve discolored and whatnot. I replaced it with a sleeve made out of that speak plug/header wrap material, I think that will work out better.

 

Thanks for the update! Hopefully that exhaust leak will be easy to sort. As for me, I might have to pony up the money for some ARH. I have done ram clutch conversion, crank seal etc. This is way more difficult