I'm a sucker for side-exit exhaust. Plus it's cheaper and easier.
I'm a sucker for side-exit exhaust. Plus it's cheaper and easier.
I'd go with either a Y with a single outlet in front of passenger rear tire, or an X with two outlets in front of passenger rear tire.
AngryCorvair (Forum Supporter) said:or an X with two outlets in front of passenger rear tire.
This! Or twin tips flanged through the bottom of the bedside with one of those AL-you-min-yum bezels?
The question is one of how hotrod you want it (to sound). All the way back will get to everyone else's ears (and perhaps noses) more than your own . . .
Oh, and here's a vote for the single all the way back. I've been stuck on that configuration for some time now. Granted, for the truck in question, dual pipes would add more WTF effect.
Started on the exhaust last night. The game plan is: Headers - Vbands - flexpipes - mufflers - Y-pipe -4" out the side in front of the right rear tire. The addition of a head lamp and a horizontal plane laser level to my tool collection has made a night and day difference for doing exhaust work on a car. This 409 stainless is pretty nice to work with, it's a little easier on bandsaw blades than 304 and it is just a little less picky when it comes to welding.
I ended up making this Y pipe from two 45° bends and a 3" to 4" reducer. It will change slightly to accommodate the different approach angles of the two tubes.
I have done enough TIG welding on my back this weekend to hit my nonexistent yearly quota. The exhaust system is all tacked together, just need to pull it all apart and run about 60 beads.
Pro tip: Quick release V-bands are worth the premium when you are doing work like this and have to remove and reinstall you're exhaust umpteen times to weld on the bench.
Still need to change the angle of the dangle on the 4" exit a little bit.
I got behind on my reading. You're doing great work!
It certainly looks a lot better than my hastily drawn likeness.
In reply to Floating Doc (Forum Supporter) :
I still have that box! That drawing is way better than I can do.
Floating Doc (Forum Supporter) said:I got behind on my reading. You're doing great work!
It certainly looks a lot better than my hastily drawn likeness.
An explanation for the drawing: the box had that picture of the truck labelled "to".
This badly drawn miata was labeled "from".
I scored a spare Dana 34 out of a '94 Vette this weekend for $20. It has the same 2.59 gear as diff currently in the truck but it is much tighter and less grimy. I would like to model the Dana36 up and reverse engineer it to fit a Ford 8.8 in its place for better gear ratios and an increase in strength. But that's me just thinking out loud on future project possibilities, not happening anytime soon.
I also discovered that the U-joints on my half shafts need to be replaced so I'll be taking care of that before the bed goes back on.
Current to do list:
Low priority, not essential to first drive
Brake lines are done but they aren't anything to write home about so no pictures. I don't have the same finesse for this regular wrenching that I do for metal fab and 3D printing. We can cross out radiator hoses, bump stops, radiator fan mounting, PS cooler mounting, and front brake pads. I'm getting low on argon, I'll have to swing by Northern Tool and get a fresh bottle before the weekend so I can finish the exhaust up. Exhaust, seat mounting, wiring and some U joints are the big items before we get into the preflight checks.
Cutting that punch list of tasks right down! Exhaust should go quickly.
What's the plan on wiring? Building a loom, or able to use some factory stuff?
In reply to Mezzanine :
The Holley Terminator X Max that I'm going to be using came with an engine harness. I have one of those generic 17 circuit restomod wiring kits from Speedway so I'm hoping to use that for the chassis wiring. I am totally out of my element on the wiring so I'm enlisting the help from a few friends that are more experienced.
Well, if you get stuck on the chassis side stuff, call me. Ill do what i can to walk you through it. Ain't no different than plumbing, really.
In reply to Dusterbd13-michael (Forum Supporter) :
I appreciate the offer. I'm going to try and struggle through it, I'll let you know if I get really stuck.
I love wiring, so I'd be happy to help too. A project like this is an excellent opportunity to go from out-of-your-element to highly competent.
Decided to see if there would need to be any big modifications to get the front swaybar installed. At first glance it looks like that should be pretty straight forward. I will have to pull the wheel and double check that the end link doesn't contact the coilover at all through the suspension travel as they are pretty close to each other.
I need to do some cleaning and organizing, my garage is a diaster right now.
Most of the engine wiring is done, the Holley Terminator X is very plug and play. It's a mess now but I'll make it presentable once everything is functional.
The only complaint I have is that the DBW harness that came with my kit does not work with my throttle body. I was unaware until yesterday morning that there was two different DBW harness, one for 8 pin TBs and one for 6 pin TBs. I have the 6 pin harness but I have an 8 pin TB. I do have a 6 pin TB on the shelf but it is the later 4 bolt style instead of the 3 bolt interface that my LS6 intake has. Simple enough fix I ordered the ICT Billet throttle body adapter plate for $20 should be here tomorrow.
I also pulled the half shafts because the u-joints are sloppier than a sorority girl that found out her boyfriend was cheating on her at winter formal.
7 of 8 u-joint strap bolts came out no problem, one of them was partially pre-rounded and would not budge. So I had to get in there with a carbide burr on the die grinder and take the head off the bolt.
I cleaned the garage up real nice Thursday night and it quickly returned to it's normal but high level of entropy.
Tech tip: If you are like me and don't have an air chisel or even an air compressor but have an abundance of cordless tools, a cordless SDS hammer drill makes a pretty decent stunt double.
Great progress--dig the Shelby Cobra shifter position!
One of the super-cool things about this axle design is that when the outer u-joints are completely toasted, they actually still stay put while you're driving (the whole rotation thing gets a bit noisy, though). That's good engineering!
What's your plan for the front mount on the pumpkin? The batwing does like zero for accel/decel forces. Sorry if you already tackled this earlier . . .
In reply to rustomatic :
The would be Cbeam mount is essentially hard mounted to the crossmember that runs behind the fuel tank to hold that pinion angle nice and tight. The engine and trans aren't moving anywhere either, they both are mounted with stiff poly bushings.
I popped the ujoints out of the halfshafts without issue using the press only to find out that the ujoints I got from Rockauto are too small. On top of that only two of the four ujoints I ordered have grease zerks, I specifically ordered joints with grease fittings. You have berkeleyed me for the last time Rockauto, if I'm going to buy questionable chinese made parts I'll buy them from Amazon with free return shipping.
I made a switch panel with a momentary button switch for the starter. I still need to print out labels for the circuits and I am going to wire up a relay block but I am starting to understand this electricity thing.
Finished up the big welding projects on the truck, the exhaust is done and just needs to be bolted back on.
I had to change the intake a little bit to fit over the upper radiator hose and I also added a bung for the IAT sensor.
Wiring is getting close, I need to run a couple ground straps, mount my ecu and relay panel and we should have a first start this week.
Macho Man Randy Savage voice- OOOH YEAH!
In reply to RacetruckRon :
Yep. I've dumped Rock Auto for much the same reason.
Looking forward to the first start 
Small update with some 3d printed wiring projects. I made this relay/fuse panel but rather than laying it out flat and taking up a lot of space in the small cab of the truck I made it three dimensional to minimize it's foot print.
I printed some labels and a back plate out for my big switch cluster. This is V1 and this thing is bulky! I'll slim it down later in life but it should work for now. Pretty sure I really only need 3 of the switches but I'll figure out uses to the other two in the future I can always print new labels
You'll need to log in to post.
