Ranchero - You do great work and your write-ups are superb, thank you and please keep it up.

 

Thanks for the compliments. I write this stuff up so others will have the willpower to tackle there problems as well or at least be informed about what could be wrong. So far with the help of this forum and some Google searches things have went pretty well. The list of 'must do' is pretty set and the 'would like to do' list keep getting updated. The only unexpected bump in the road and mildly frustrating point is the cat related CEL. The TPMS fault I'm OK with because I think new sensors will resolve it. The cats I'm not sure if it's tune related or just too little of a converter.

Money wise I really haven't needed to spend a lot because most of the problems have been nickle and dime stuff. The $70 hose was unexpected. $100 for the water pump was expected. The $250 wheel resolution was a God send and can offset a lot of pain. Basically free fixes of the fan and AFS module were where my troubleshooting ability pays dividends. 95% of what I'll be doing from now on will be labor intensive. Finishing the lamps, finishing the exhaust, etc is just stuff that keeps me out of trouble and actually fun. That I get to enjoy the car and can just lie in the hammock this summer and look at it is a big plus.

 

I have millwork envy if that's a thing. Also impressed with the exhaust work. The workmanship there is top flight. Neither is in my wheelhouse and I lack the equipment and space but most of what you've done is in my wheelhouse.

It's nice to see repairing parts too vs, replacing.

I've been most impressed with the speed at which you get some of this work done.

Hammock or not though, I think she needs a respray:-)

 

Armpit deep where my elbow got caught between the oil cooler and the front bumper but the damn emblem is bolted in place.



Spent the rest of the evening popping the rear driver light out to replace the bulbs. The turn one was giving me a fit and one of the little guys was burnt out so both little ones and the 2 element one were replaced. The lamp is held in with two 7mm nuts and a self locking 'arrow' that locks into a black socket. I couldn't get them apart so I knocked the socket out from the inside. Kind of a poor design.

Passenger headlight is out too so maybe I'll work on it tomorrow while I'm off.

 

I'm personally going to be disappointed when everything is buttoned up tight on this rig of yours. This thread is a daily read for me. It's nice to know there are still some guys out there capable of doing the work you're doing to restore this vehicle. Now ... get back to work!

 

On the 2012+ bumpers and grilles, the Jag emblem is just double sided tape. I took mine off yesterday and replaced it with a red growler.

 

Don't fret, it'll be a while. It took me 10 years and 100k miles before I tired of my blown '93 Mustang. It took about 6 years to get it 'right' and when I bought it the engine was puking a quart of oil every 60 miles thanks to a PO who ran low grade fuel in a blown 5.0. Three or four pistons had the lands broken between the rings and most of the rings were broken but I was able to do a 120 mile round trip to DC for work for a couple months before doing the first tear down. I just ran the fresh air hose for the PCV system into a jug that had foam inside and the blow by would fill the jug on the way to work. I'd dump it back in before the ride home. If I forgot the oil would start seeping between the hood and fender as the jug overflowed. Good times back in Y2K. No money so it got forged pistons and total seal rings. Next year it got a bent crank from Autozone that I straightened in the block. Year after that AFR 185's and the list went on. 390rwhp, 390rwtq at 5200 rpm had that little 302 feeling like a big block. The market is so screwed up I can't even give it away right now.

 

Yes, this is something I too read every day!

 

OK, here we go again. It's raining, cats and dogs, so the weed pulling and other yard work I expected to do today are postponed, again.

I don't have the courage to tackle the passenger side headlamp yet so the car went back onto the stands for exhaust v2. Nothing is clamped together so it slid apart pretty easily. Good news is nothing it moving around which means the fitment is good.


I did find a small exhaust leak at the hanger. Couldn't see it when I did it so it's not my fault.


Originally I had planned on installing valves for the inner pipes but the resonators just plain drone way too much at 70 mph. It's oppressive so I decided to try and do something to change the tone without increasing the noise. Maybe...

I scavenged some lengths of 1" heavy wall conduit and thought the small ID would be perfect for changing the tone of the exhaust. Plus a 1.5" hole is easier to weld a patch on vs. a 2.25" one if it doesn't work. Rummaging around my hole saws I found a 1 1/2" one and drilled some holes in the main pipe.


Slid those guys in and just clamped them in place. Fired the car up and the droning pulsing is gone. Whacked the throttle and about wet my self. It sounds GOOD. Very raspy with much less of a muscle car tone. More race car which means it'll probably become cop bait around town and race bait out on the roads. We'll see...


Once it cools down I'll pop it off, fit the pipes and weld them in. I think I'm going to leave the dummy pipes open at the end to see how it does at keeping the tips clean. If it works I'll do something similar to the other ones. The tips get sooty quickly. Makes me question the tune.

 

Done. The heavy iron pipe was galvanized, that white wisp of fume will make you sick if you inhale it. Looks a little funny but it sounds good.


One curse of the small pipe going into the larger one is it's going to magnify the sound. Megaphone style...


I went ahead and installed my pipe clamps since the pipes seem happy. I found some LPS at Lowes and sprayed the crusty aluminum bits. It's basically cosmoline so it should inhibit any more corrosion. I also mounted the lower radiator duct up front. Might try to mount the belly pan too before dropping the car back to earth.

 

Sooner or later, we're going to need an audio sample of this bad boy. Sooner would be better...

 

Trying, my GoPro battery is dead. I'd planned on running it on the bike but this might be fun too.

 

One small suggestion: change the title of this thread.
You are restoring dignity and grace to a vehicle that totally deserved it and once had a ton of glory.
This will be referenced for many years to come, it will outlive us, dont call it a turtle or a junk.

 

Ha, in the vernacular of this day, what you call it isn't necessarily what it was, is, or ends up being. I think it was my son who told the PO that he couldn't believe they wanted so much for a ragged out piece of junk. We are fixing this junk and with the staying power of a turtle we'll get there. Oh well, that's why the emoticon is a winking smiley.

Car is currently drip drying before going back up on the stands. What sounds amazing free revving sounded like a souped up civic on the road. Very small pipe glass pack sound, almost a gurgle that was cringe worthy. I made it 50 feet before realizing it wasn't going to work. We did run it out on the interstate to see how bad it was. The small pipe did shift the resonance frequency drone up from 2k to 2.2k. The car is quieter inside other than that 80 mph spike. Now if I can get it to do it at 95 I'll be OK.

I have some 1 5/8" header pipe that I'm going to weld in and see if it's happier.

 

Mixed feelings about the change. Sounds a lot more hollow and not was good as the straight resonators do up high. Couldn't push it hard since it's wet out.

1 5/8" header pipe vibrates the heat shield at idle.


Got a little ugly on the fitment on one pipe. Kind of a 'where are you going' type deal with the grinder.


Oh well. It's not where I want it, hoping it's not worse at interstate speeds. I have a couple other options before canning the whole mess so we'll see how things pan out.

 

So, no more drone. I think it's because I removed most of the flow pressure from the resonator. It sounds like open pipes now. A lot quieter on the interstate but not quite as fun on the back roads. It does cackle pretty violently when I get on it around town. Might do a balance pipe between the muffler stacks and choke off the open pipes a bit. Maybe...

 

OK, punting a little here. I'm going to fabricate a muffler insert for the 2.25" dummy pipes. I did this to a D+D muffler that would make your ear bleed on my neighbors '92 Ninja many years ago. On his the D+D was a big glass wrapped perforated tube. I cut the tube in half and made a plate setup for the rest and it made that bike sound like a Ferrari.



So, some design parameters to allow the flow to be close to a straight pipe while breaking up the pulses enough that it doesn't sound bad:

1 5/8" diameter pipe is 2" sq in
2 1/4" diameter pipe is 4" sq in
A 1/2" hole is .200" sq in so ten 1/2" holes will flow close to 1 5/8". I'll lose some flow due to the flow path changes but it won't hurt it horribly.

I don't think only a balance pipe is going to help the tone. The pipe will just cushion the pulses a little. The tone is just too gurgly and sounds like a 70's pickup with glass packs at anything beyond 1/4 throttle. Sounds horrible with the windows down but OK with them up if that makes sense. If the inserts don't work I can toss them aside and move on.

More to come.

 

I'm thinking looking at the back box set up that maybe a Camaro or mustang unit could be made to fit. Just thinking out loud here.

 

Yeah, I'd love to have a stock back box right now.

Rummaging around and I found that I'm out of 1 5/8" straight stuff. I'll figure something out since it's supposed to rain all day tomorrow.

 

OK, still banging my head against this. Found a length of 1.75" tubing at a local auto store with a 1.625" ID. Checked a piece of scrap that I welded in place and it has the same ID and OD. Played with the numbers for a couple hours and I think I can do a twin plate setup with a muffler chamber between the plates. Packaging sucks. The transfer tube will have four 1" x .250" slots mills through the wall similar to the factory resonators, just larger so the exhaust can flow through them. Because there's only a 1.14 sq in area difference between the 2.125 ID of the dummy tube and the 1.75 OD of the transfer tube the end caps will have three .350" diameter holes. The sum area should flow the same as an open pipe. It's kind of an exercise in insanity since the gasses can go out the other pipe through the resonator if it's an easier passage vs. this 'muffler'. All I'm trying to do is reduce the pressure through the resonator pipe so it drones less and eliminate the harsh gurgle tone from the straight pipe.