Idle_Chatter
12-25-2002, 13:26
Well, after the information supplied many months ago by AFP and others, I had purchased a MagnaFlow 4" stainless muffler and 3-1/2 to 4 adaptors. It's been patiently sitting in a corner of the garage waiting since I went Juice and finally got gauges. With Christmas vacation, some mild weather and an impending trip to Florida, I finally got to it on Monday afternoon. Started out with a cut of the factory system as close to the outlet of the stock muffler as possible with a chain-type cutter. That done, I could then unbolt, unhang and remove the two pieces in the driveway on the tires with no jacking. Then I cut the factory muffer off the front pipe as close to the muffler as possible. This left me about 4" of pipe inside the two factory hangers on both ends. I was using two band-type clamps to mount the muffler to the adaptors and was planning to weld the adaptors to the pipes, thus giving me two mechanical joints and a 3-piece system. I measured carefully and realized that I had to lose some length to fit the new muffler between the hangers. Four more cuts with the chain cutter (about 2" off each adaptor's 3-1/2" section and 1-1/2" of the muffer inlet and outlet)left me with enough muffler pipe to clamp the adaptors and enough adaptor to weld to the factory pipe and fit between the hangers. The factory pipe was curved at both locations and made oval by the bender, so I used a pipe expander to make them round again and pre-fit the adaptors. I bolted and hung the front pipe, clamped the adaptors to the muffer, fit the front end of the muffler on, then hung and fit up the tailpipe. The tailpipe wanted to "droop", so I leveled it with a floor jack under the tip and tack welded the adapters to the pipes. Unclamping the band clamps allowed me to pull the three pieces back out and one-position weld the adapters to the pipes. All three pieces went back underneath and voile', I have a free-flowing 4" muffler spliced into my stock 3-1/2 system. Got a real nice and throaty sound to it, there is a drone in the cab at 1500 rpm and 45 mph, but only at that combination. EGT's are down about 100 to 150 degrees, boost is up about 3 to 5 pounds and boost and throttle reponse are much quicker! I'll have more information after New Years when I've finished my 2500 mile Florida run.