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[hoopty5.0]

I'm really curious to see how your exhaust fits after a good drive. For whatever reason, no matter how well I adjust mine, it always ends up moving around and rattles on something, especially the downpipe. My point is, the places where it's really close to other things concerns me.

 

[Mustang5L5]

I'm really curious to see how your exhaust fits after a good drive. For whatever reason, no matter how well I adjust mine, it always ends up moving around and rattles on something, especially the downpipe. My point is, the places where it's really close to other things concerns me.

I know. That concerns me as well. I HATE exhaust rattles so I want to work through that all now.

One thing that came up was clearance with a possible Torque Arm down the road. I may have to kick the fronts of the mufflers out a tad to give clearance. I'd rather do this now while i can pull it apart and modify it easier. These mufflers are slightly narrower slightly, which is what is causing me to have to make these adjustments to kick them out slightly. I'll show a photo later, but essentially I need to make a sort of Z-bend on the flow tubes to kick the fronts over next to the subframe rails. Then i should have tons of clearance and the tailpipes should hook up easier.

The rubber exhaust hangers i bought are quite firm. I hope that reduces movement in the exhaust a lot. I bought some 99-04 muffler hangers, which are improved over the 86-98 style muffler hangers as there is a second hanger for the tailpipe.

This is kinda why i'm going to put the rear back in and mount the PHB as I need to be 100% sure all this will clear perfectly and modify it now while it's easy to do. Seems like a lot of work, but I actually enjoy this type of fabrication with the welder.


This is going to drag out a bit simple due to lack of available time. Busy few weeks coming up, so lots of spit-balling to do here. and maybe 5-10 mins in the garage to brainstorm

 

[Mustang5L5]

This pic shows how the 99-04 hangers offer additional support. I'm pretty confident they will bolt to the fox floor, but we shall see. My intent is to modify the exhaust so the mufflers are a parallel to the subframs line in this pic. Right now they have a slight angle. It will work, but I want to future proof this for a T/A.

 

[2000xp8]

Even with no trans hanger my exhaust hasn't rattled in years. I credit that to not welding anything and using good clamps, this way you can adjust and work on as necessary.
Clears panhard and torque arm (though i didn't not drive the car with the torque arm).

 

[Mustang5L5]

My last cat-back didn't really rattle much. It's not so much i'm expecting it to rattle, but more of me wanting to go the extra mile to make sure it definitely won't rattle.

 

[02 281 GT]

This pic shows how the 99-04 hangers offer additional support. I'm pretty confident they will bolt to the fox floor, but we shall see. My intent is to modify the exhaust so the mufflers are a parallel to the subframs line in this pic. Right now they have a slight angle. It will work, but I want to future proof this for a T/A.

I was going to suggest something like this. The additional hangers make the exhaust much more stable in the longitudinal axis. I'd like to do this mod on my '95.

 

[Mustang5L5]

So after thinking about it a bit I pulled one of the flow tubes off to look at.

I think I found why I have a slight misalignment issue. The inlet-outlet offset on the Borla is not the same as the flowmaster. If I carefully lay the muffler on top of the old flows, the offset is about 1” narrower. The offset on the flow tube is not kicked over enough to meet the inlet, if I position the muffler based on where the tailpipes need to be.

You can kinda see my mashup here assuming the outlets are lined up. So in order to have this all line up I need to put a little more “z” into the flow tube to kick it over a tad.

I have a plan. I just lack time at the moment.

 

[Mustang5L5]

So, need to hold off on the car for bit. DD troubles.

At 150K miles, the Taurus finally succumbed to the dreaded 3.5L Transverse internal water pump failure. I kinda had a feeling it was coming and was looking for a new vehicle. But nope...came out to the car one day and saw a small drip on the ground. (I was keeping an eye out for this). Get up under the car and coolant is starting to come out the weep hole, so I caught it early.

As much as I am tempted to tear into this myself, i just don't have the time right now. EVery weekend is booked solid, and the weather has been crappy out. Mustang takes up the garage so i'd have to do this in the driveway. I would need to buy the right tools, do a little research and dig in over a few days. I don't have the time.

After shopping around on best quote, settled on just letting Ford do it. A little more money, but best warranty and highest confidence it will be done correctly after speaking with about 4-6 indie shops. Downside is they can't fix it until the 22nd. SO needless to say, i've been playing musical cars borrowing vehicles from family members until then.

When i get the car back, I think it's time to let it go. I might hang onto it a few months more just to justify what I'm about to spend on it, but it's time for an exit plan, probably right around 160k miles. That's enough. It's my own damn fault for holding onto it so long. I took my Infiniti to almost 200K miles before the driveshaft fell off at 80MPH and destroyed the transmission and front differential. Had to part that one out, instead of having a clean trade-in. I seem to not get rid of cars when i should.

I have my eye on an Explorer ST. I might buy one new on the X-plan, but interest rates are not appealing at the moment. That was why i was hesitating....but I think this one repair on the Taurus would have covered the difference in interest...

Cars suck. Except Foxbodies.

 

[bird_dog0347]

That does suck, but remember you can always refinance when the rates go down (assuming that happens at all in the next couple of years).

 

[2000xp8]

The average car payment is something nuts like $750.
So for every extra month you keep your old car, that makes up quite a bit of money.
Not sure how much it costs to do what you need done, but at $750 a month, it won't take much time to get paid back.
If the trans is good and the engine doesn't burn oil, there probably is no harm in fixing it.
If it makes you feel any better, put $750 a month into an account, so when you are ready you don't need to finance 60 grand at 7%.

 

[Mustang5L5]

I've had a plan in place for a while now, putting cash aside. When i pay off a car, i just keep putting that payment aside into an account. So I'll have my trade plus a decent chunk to put down. I just hate the idea of 7% financing. That's what caused me to delay and delay. I think my last two vehicles have been 0.9% and 1.9%.

Estimated repair cost is 2800-3400. I think they quoted me some extra stuff that I don't need or can do myself (spark plugs for example) so hopefully at the lower end of the range.

After dumping $3K on the car, i'll likely keep it for a bit longer and pay myself a "payment" til I cover the repair cost. At that point, i'll start to come up with my exit plan.

For the next week or so, i'm driving my father's '18 F150 with a coyote.

 

[BlakeusMaximus]

Sorry about that Mike, I’ve dropped a few thousand into my daily driver the last few months. 2000 Tacoma 4x4.

I started a thread about F150’s and was asking about those exact trucks. How does your father like his?

That’s what I have on my radar.

 

[Mustang5L5]

He likes it enoigh that he never drives it. I think it’s got 42k miles on it. He ordered it in this configuration. The weird non-crew cab with the 6.5’ long bed. But it’s still new enough that it smells new on the inside.

i don’t think I like it, or at least the concept of the truck. It’s nice on the highway and feeling up high, but sucks when it comes time to squeeze into my kids school where parking is right, or go to the local dinner place and try to find a street parking spot long enough to parallel park in. Also, not having a trunk sucks as I had something today that couldn’t get wet, and had to put it in the backseat. Then I had to get the kids.

The long bed is nice, but this door configuration does not work if you have kids that need to go in and out.

The rumble of the coyote is very nice. Has a nice deep growl to it and sounds good at WOT.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s a nice truck. I just think the Explorer ST is more my speed. My dad likes it though so I’ve been driving it very carefully these last few days.

 

[BlakeusMaximus]

Thanks for the info Mike. If and when I get one, it’s got to have 4 full doors, 5.0 and either in white, silver or gray.

I’ve always driven a truck, so I know what comes with owning one.

 

[BlakeusMaximus]

Oh, and 4x4.

 

[BlakeusMaximus]

How’s that 10 speed transmission treating him?

 

[bird_dog0347]

Same here on the interest rates, I'm under 1.8% on my truck and have about $25-30k in equity in there, timed it perfectly on my trade.

That said, on the boat it's a 2021 model and the dealer last summer was telling me I could order a new one and trade up and make money on mine. At the time we got it at a 17% discount off MSRP and 3.5% interest rate, but the 2023 MY boat I priced out (EXACTLY like my current one) was almost $80k more for the SAME thing, and the discount was only 10% with interest rates no lower than 7%... so I told them hell no, I'm happy where I'm at!

 

[Mustang5L5]

How’s that 10 speed transmission treating him?

You know, I thought it was a 10-speed, but I only see 6 gears displayed on the dash. It runs up 1-6 as I drive along. I’m pretty sure this is an ‘18. I’ll have to check tomorrow because maybe it’s a ‘17

Whichever it is, has been fine. He’s had no trouble with the truck. I’ve put maybe 100 miles on it and it’s shifting smoothly.

 

[BlakeusMaximus]

Gotcha, I thought all the 2017 and up had the 10 speed, maybe I’m wrong.

 

[Mustang5L5]

Checked the paperwork this AM. 2017 Supercab, 6-speed auto, 5.0.