Removing my exhaust

[BrianAbington]

So over the past few days my exhaust has started falling off my car.

It started with the muffler dropping when I went over a train crossing.
The rear bracket is shot, and the rear muffler has a huge huge hole rusted through it and no packing inside anymore. So I just decided to remove it.

I tonight unbolted the clamp...then I started to twist the muffler off and the pipe just twisted right out of it.

Problem is now that this was the only thing holding the rest of the exhaust up...so now the huge main muffler in the middle of the system is putting aton of weight on the pipe and I'm worried about it breaking the rest of the system or even cracking the manifold.

So as I am typing this I am waiting for the WD-40 to break the nuts loose on the center section.

Since I am kind of being pushed into this, I know that alot of people ask about fuel economy differences with straight pipes, and stock and aftermarket exhausts, so...
I will report on any noticed difference in driving and economy like this compared to stock...then when I have a new muffler put on I"ll report on any further changes.

[Frank Lee]

I've piddled with it; many, many others have done so too.

I couldn't detect any fe increase with a straight pipe instead of a good muffler.

So annoying though, not only for me but I'm sure for everyone else.

I wouldn't care if fe dropped by 50% with good mufflers, it's WORTH IT to not be the neighborhood eh hole. Luckily that is not the case.

[BrianAbington]

holy crap...this thing is super loud. I am definatly going to put something back on there...its honestly not that loud and droney at hwy speeds, but under acceleration it is so freakin loud...it hurts my ears.

It is amazing how loud a 2.0 with no exhaust can be.

[bhazard]

Just have an exhaust shop make something up for you. Lot cheaper than replacement systems.

[99LeCouch]

Dynomax (or Cherry Bomb) Super Turbo FTW! I had one of those installed on a catback on the old 4 cylinder car before my current couch, and it sounded awesome. Quiet, deep, and didn't drone. Also $50 at Advance.

Also got a slight fuel economy increase over the crap muffler that came with the crapback. Increased backpressure heck yeah!

[BrianAbington]

A "factory style" replacement unit for the hump over the axel and the rear muffler is almost $450.

Screw that...$15 worth of pipe, $5 worth of clamps, and $25 for a glass pack.
Won't win any design awards but, hey its burried under the car and it gets the job done.

Done this before and its really easy to do. I'll probably just have a shop weld a tip on eventualy.
If my car was fairly new I would definatly have a shop weld up a nice system but its just not worth it on this car.

[BrianAbington]

Oh yeah...forgot to mention I weighed the parts that came off

The old rear resonator weighed 10lbs with the tip.
(nothing in it, and has a huge hole rusted in the side)

The center muffler is a big oval shaped unit that sits side ways under the car, often refered to as the suit case muffler.
The exhaust enters it from the side of the body and it exits out the drivers side end kind of like a backwards shaped L. I will post pics later on to give you a better idea.

This unit with the respective piping weighed just shy of 15lbs.

This muffler has tons of rusted metal and carbon that shakes around inside and just pours out of it.
So I think most of its internals have broken apart and blown out through the hole in the rear resonator.

So I removed about 25lbs from my car...thats a bonus.
I'll keep track of what I put back on.

[hyperyaris]

A more free-flowing exhaust, technically, should reduce mpg. But I guess actual usage would tell you. *shrugs*

[BrianAbington]

well...I've been averaging 32mpg with the old rusty holey system so we'll see what happens.

[BrianAbington]

Third day of working on my exhaust system...I went to a local shop to get a piece of pipe cut and bent...the guy said that its been really slow and they have nothing to do...so he told me to pull the car around to the garage, then he cut off the old part with the torch then put everyting together for me and clamped it down just so he'd have something to do for a while.

It sounds really nice, mellow growl at idle, has a nice roar under accleration, then no drone at hwy speeds. Its still pretty loud but I"m gonna let it break in abit and see how it sounds so I can decide what muffler to use with it.

The glasspack is directly attached to the cat so it should get alot of heat in it and break it in pretty quickly.