SN95 Redoing My Exhaust

Finished stripping and painting the new mufflers. I did it mostly by hand as my poor little cordless drill would run out of juice fairly quickly. I at least used it and a wire wheel to get all the original paint out of the welds. I stripped the paint off only to paint them again because I have no way of knowing if the original stuff is the high-heat variety (I'm betting it isn't). I'd rather everything be the same color anyway.

Doing all this by hand was a bit of a workout. The one on top still has the original paint on it.



Old axles make great paint stands.





Nice and dry. This high-heat paint lays down really smooth. It makes up for my sub-par, impatient prep work.





I'm shooting for May 1st to install everything.

Everything got installed today. However, I didn't get to take any pictures as it took a while (those socket cap header bolts weren't as great an idea as I thought), and we were hurrying to finish before the auto skills shop closed.

Anyway, I'll be changing the oil soon, so I'll get some good pictures of the new exhaust then. I at least accomplished my goal of tucking the exhaust; the mufflers are pretty high up and are only about ¼" lower than the subframe connectors (a vast improvement over the old mufflers). The headers fit like a glove. Thanks to @95steedamustang for helping me out with them. His coating is amazing. The collector flanges were both bent a little outward which prevented us from initially installing the h-pipe flanges. We ended up putting a torch on them to get the straight enough to get the flanges mounted. The coating didn't discolor or flake. Really impressive stuff. Other than that (and the aforementioned header bolts), installing the headers was a breeze. Thanks @95steedamustang and @madmike1157 for suggesting the copper RTV in lieu of a gasket. It worked perfect with no leaks.

Only other thing was that one of the tailipipes ended up cockeyed for some reason. I'll see if I can fix it when I change the oil. I bought stainless 2.5" tailpipes from LMR in case I couldn't get my old ones to work. I was having trouble getting my elbows to work between the mufflers and my hacked up originals, so I ended up using the LMR pipes. For what it's worth, they seem to fit really great. They have hangers on the muffler side which ended up negating the need for the pypes adjustable hangers.

Anyway, pics will follow in a week or two.

Here are a few pictures of the new setup with some of the old for comparison. I'll get some better pictures once I get it on a lift to change the oil.

The old headers and h-pipe. The rust is almost entirely superficial. I'll hang onto these and have them re-coated for use on a future project...hopefully.





The old h-pipe. You can see how well the high heat paint held up compared to the headers' ceramic coating. Not sure why this was, but I am impressed.



You can see here how low the old mufflers sat. The driver's side muffler sat about 4" below the floor pan while the passenger side had about 3.5" between itself and the floor pan. You can also see how big they are. Too big for that small little space. The flows fit much better in their place.







I did manage to snap a couple of pics during the install before we really got into it.

A trunk full of new exhaust parts.



I love the auto skills shop. Everything is so much easier with a two-post.



After the install.

It's difficult to tell from these pictures, but these headers really fit like a glove. Absolutely no clearance issues and no leaks. I also bought the Ford Racing chrome dipstick to replace my severely beaten up original. The routing of the stock '94-'95 dipstick makes it a terrible match for any headers other than the originals or unequal shorties. The mounting bracket broke off when I installed the last exhaust, so it was just kind of flopping around making contact with one of the header tubes. This caused an annoying rattle at certain RPMs which sounded very much like someone tapping on a chain link fence post. You can also probably see why the socket cap screws for header bolts wasn't the best of ideas for these headers. Some of the primary tubes (especially on the driver's side) come off of the exhaust port with such a sharp bend that once all of the header bolts were started in their respective threads, it was impossible to insert an allen key into them. Moreover, the bends also made it impossible to remove them without removing all of the header bolts at once (this meant switching them out for standard bolts wasn't an option). We ended up finding a 5/16" bit and slicing off a small piece with a cutoff wheel. We were then able to tighten the remaining bolts by inserting it and using an open end wrench.











These pictures show the generous amount of ground clearance we were able to get. The headers themselves clear much better than the old ones.



The flow tubes. These ended up being a limiting factor in getting the mufflers exactly the way we wanted them (this was probably the fault of the h-pipe). We were still able to tuck them up high enough to get exceptional ground clearance, but I don't know if I'll be able to fix the cockeyed tailpipe on the passenger side with the current flow tubes. We'll see. If I can't, I'll just have some fabricated when we get back to the states and just live with the cockeyed tailpipe until then. At least it doesn't affect the sound.



It's easy to see the amount of clearance gained from here. You can see that the mufflers sit about ¼" lower than the sub frame connectors. The old mufflers sat far below this (see above).



You can also see here how there are hangers on the LMR tailpipes which utilize the factory muffler hangers which negated my need for the adjustable hangers I had bought. I would highly recommend these tailpipes if you're looking for a set of cheaply priced stainless tails with good fitment.



I achieved my goal of effectively hiding the exhaust from a casual glance. You can't really see it at all. The old mufflers were very visible from the side.



I would have liked to have reused my original tailpipes, but I just couldn't get them to work with the elbow. I realized when I tried to install them that I would have needed a much shorter elbow with a slightly sharper angle than 45° to make them work. I'm very satisfied with these, though.



You can see the cockeyed passenger side pipe here. Hopefully I can fix it at least a little bit next time I get it on a lift. Thanks for watching!



Once again, thanks to @95steedamustang. Not only did he coat the headers and remove the EGR bung, but he also removed the AIR tube from the h-pipe as well since I didn't want to simply cap it off. It was a bit of a task to get it all installed in one day, but I think the results were more than worth it.

Boosted92LX said:

Great looking car!






Nice diff damper too...

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I appreciate you getting that to me. A lot of this wouldn't have been possible without some of the parts I received from the states.

Boosted92LX said:

Sorry the rest of it didn't fit right. Glad to help!

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No harm done. For what it's worth, I obtained a set of correct axles and it still didn't fix the noise.

Boosted92LX said:

Oh that sucks. .

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Yeah. I'm not sure where to go next on that front. I'm kind of tired of trying to fix it to be honest. Only thing left to replace besides the suspension is the rear end housing itself.

mikestang63 said:

Really like those rims. Great work on the exhaust.

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I appreciate it. Receiving a few compliments from the certified techs means a lot.

One final update. I got the cockeyed tailpipe about 90% straight. It'll be hitting the frame rail over the axle if I go any further, so I decided to let it be.

Anyway, some more pictures with the car on a lift.

You can see how well the headers fit. Don't be afraid to buy MAC headers.













Everything tucked nicely with plenty of room around the mufflers.













Some pics of the tailpipes. These LMR tailpipes are very nicely made for the price.













Gotta love the hobby shop.



An outside angle of the tails. They fit great.





Very satisfied with everything. There are some slight leaks at some of the clamps, but nothing too bad. It'll get taken care of when everything is welded up.

mikestang63 said:

Looks great. MAC headers fit ok- the FIRST time you put them on.

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Haha. Yeah. I always figured people who say they fit terrible likely bought them used. They're like a glove brand new.