Got some more work done on the Pinto! I have been super busy with work, training new restaurant manager's, fixing troubled stores, developing and strengthening existing managers, and now in training to be a district manager. I finally got around to getting a week of my vacation time put to use, and of coarse, the Pinto wants some attention as soon as it started! lol
A week ago I noticed the exhaust started to sound pretty bad. I looked it over last week and noticed that the pipe (which I have known was rotten and beyond repair for some time now) from the catalytic converter back had finally started to rust away from the muffler inlet. I wrapped a coat hanger around the muffler and secured it under the car, just in case the pipe decided to give away and drop the muffler like a hot potato, glad I did to!
A few years back it started to rust away from the hanger above the axle. I patched the pencil sized hole and it actually was still holding quite well! I took the car in before patching that hanger hole and they said that the pipe was so rotted that welding anything to that pipe would only burn a hole through it due to it being so thin from age. I told them I would just patch it and wait as long as I could before doing any work to it, hoping to get the V8 in before I had to redo any of the exhaust system.
I didn't get the V8 in, but I did, quite literally, wait until I absolutely had to do anything to it!
So two days ago, I picked up a FlowMaster 40 series muffler, and removed the pipe from the cat back to take into Boise Muffler and have them do a copy bend of the pipe for me to take back to the shop (Dad's garage) and install in the car.
I decided to remove the cat while I was at it, since the bolts looked like they had seen better days, and just as rusty as the pipe was. Not only that, but they couldn't even be removed, I had to cut them off at the flange, then push the remaining bolt out with a press. For the cat to the pipe, I had to cut one of those two bolts off. The flanges are still in great shape though! Replaced the bolts for the cat and got a new gasket for the cat to the down pipe, everything sealed up real well! Not bad for a 44 year old catalytic converter shell!
I installed the pipe that Boise Muffler bent for me, and it all DID go together, just not a great fit. The bends they did to get the pipe over the axle were to far apart. They fixed all of that when I took the car back in to them to install the glass pack resonator to quite things down.
When I had them copy bend the original pipe, I had them angle the pipe, from the axle to the cat, upwards about 15 degrees, since the original pipe had sagged so low that I lost 1.5" of clearance and the exhaust would drag over speed bumps!
After everything was installed, the car sounded GREAT! A nice deep growl, just what I was hoping for, but the drone from the exhaust was to much while driving down the road at a constant speed. I loved the loudness at idle, but couldn't stand the drone while cruising, so I took the car into the Boise Muffler shop, and they installed a canister style glass pack resonator, which cut the drone down by about 40-45%. It still has the growl and deep rumble, but it's not annoying anymore.
All in all, here's what I did:
Sized up the pipe from 1.75" to 2.25" from the cat back
Added a canister style glass pack resonator just before the pipe bends to go over the axle
Added a FlowMaster 40 series 16" welded muffler
Installed a 45 degree cut straight pipe tip to direct the exhaust out from underneath the car, lessening drone noise
And here are the pictures!