metaruss

It’s been a rough couple of weeks at work (70-80 hours), but I managed to get some garage time in.  The exhaust installation is complete.  It came out pretty good, but I had the usual surprises.  The FWD Performance kits really like the passenger side.  The exhaust on both the Daytona and CSX had about 1/2″ too much length between the two 90 degree bends, which pushes the cat up against the heat shield from the back.  I had to remove that amount from both, but I had to cut that pipe anyway to swing the back half up a bit.  It’s clamped for now, but I will weld it once I’m happy with how the exhaust has settled in its hangers.  Add to that the 3″ down pipe, which doesn’t have enough length before the last curve and the cat ends up rubbing the heat shield.  Some heat shield massaging was needed to clear it.  The missing down pipe heat shield required that I wrap the down pipe in header wrap and shield the shifter cables a bit.  The offset oval muffler simplified the cutting/fitting behind the muffler, since I could use the offset to drop the tail pipe.  That part worked out well.

I’m not really happy with the Walker stainless band clamps.  They are nicely made and have captive nuts (which will be interesting once they are nice and rusty), but they don’t seal really well due to the way they pull up on the band where it is welded to itself.  The cheaper clamps that are on the CSX (Jegs/J.C. Whitney) seal better and I like how they “take-up” the band slack in the dished grooves.