Exhaust suggestions - stock/HO

[86VickyLX]

Because it was getting a bit in the way, I have the stock lopo on there still. I'll take a pic tomorrow and show you what I'm talking about.

Explorer intake is in the way as much as the lopo or HO...

[Stealthlead]

Well I wasn't sure what kind of intake you had lol

[Stealthlead]

Picked up some high temp rtv today. Whats going to be the best way to clean the block surface off to mate it with the headers after I pull the manifolds off?

[johnunit]

gasket scraper and brake cleaner. try not to get too much brake cleaner in the exhaust ports.

[zoomie]

Picked up some high temp rtv today. Whats going to be the best way to clean the block surface off to mate it with the headers after I pull the manifolds off?

roloc disc with 90 deg die grinder, stuuf some rags in the holes , clean surface area.

aloso sand paper works too
gasket scraper

razor scraper
razorblade

[zoomie]

gasket scraper and brake cleaner. try not to get too much brake cleaner in the exhaust ports.

doenst brake cleaner evaporate?

[Stealthlead]

I have a gasket scraper and some sandpaper, like 150 grit?

[packman]

Mmmmmm......shiney! We'll see how long that remains silver-ish looking, unless they're ceramic coated. Though, I liked the nickel plated Tri-Y's on my Malibu. They took on a gold-ish blue tint, that made it look tough...........for an anemic 305 sbc. Still one of the meanest sounding stock engine I have owned thus far.



Packman

[sxcpotatoes]

packman, My neighbor who helped me put the Pypes on 'Tatiana' recently put headers on his truck and polished them with some sort of header goo that supposedly protects them from tarnishing at all. Dunno what it is called, he couldn't find/didn't know if any was left over. I'm gonna look into it before it goes to the transmission & exhaust shops. *SOON*

[sly]

I'd personally never use sandpaper on a gasket mating surface. To easy to scratch it too deep.

[johnunit]

doenst brake cleaner evaporate?

yes but I'd be worried about dislodging a bunch of carbon and it either falling into the cylinder or ending up rattling around in the muffler or cat.

[Stealthlead]

Vid+pics

yes but I'd be worried about dislodging a bunch of carbon and it either falling into the cylinder or ending up rattling around in the muffler or cat.

^Ouch, would definitely not want to do that to my cats

Because I know a few of you have been waiting, here's the vid. Mediocre sound quality. As usual, sounds better irl
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RQdH3...ature=youtu.be

Also the cats came in Yesterday

[86VickyLX]

yes but I'd be worried about dislodging a bunch of carbon and it either falling into the cylinder or ending up rattling around in the muffler or cat.

Moot point honestly. If you really get into the throttle you're most likely gonna dislodge any carbon on the valves. So I wouldn't worry about dislodging carbon. Or could use compressed air to blow out of the exhaust ports.

[zoomie]

Moot point honestly. If you really get into the throttle you're most likely gonna dislodge any carbon on the valves. So I wouldn't worry about dislodging carbon. Or could use compressed air to blow out of the exhaust ports.

hence blowing out the carbon....... or anything else lol'

[Stealthlead]

Well, I got to work on the manifolds today. As a few of you said, it wasn't too bad. As previously indicated in this thread when I asked if my manifolds will be welded to the block, they have definitely been lubricated over the years and this was not the case. Both sets of manifold bolts are out, and the manifolds literally fell off after being unbolted, in addition to there strangely being no gasket (or it disintegrated over time?). 3 out of 4 of the manifold to exhaust bolts are loose. I gave up after a few hours trying to get the passenger side upper bolt out. Its at a weird angle that rejects all ratchets as well as the cat air tubes being in the way so I'm going to raise the vehicle and see what I can do with it tomorrow. I plugged up the driver side exhaust ports for now and as the manifold is still in the way on the passenger side, I left it as it is (hopefully this isn't much of a problem and dust, etc. wont accumulate in there over night). I also took a look inside my cats, they seem pretty damn clean which I take to be a good sign. Here's a few picy's-

^Driver side. As you can observe, the manifold is off. This is what I'm talking about when I say the manifold literally came off on its own. You can also notice the oil that was built up just in the bolt chamber in the manifold flowing out.

^Passenger side. Same story.

Overhead pic of passenger side.

There seems to be an exorbitant amount of oil all over, and there especially was on the bolts (they were so loose I was surprised I didn't get any leaks). I'm fairly certain this is the lower intake manifold gasket being bad and leaking everywhere and has been going on for some time. I also noticed its covered the entire lower end of my block as well. I'm going to take care of this soon (as I have the HO upper, lower, and TB in my garage, and bored out spacer on the way) so that it doesn't effect the headers. I'm hoping a gasket paired with high temperature sealant prevents any header leakage which I'm pretty paranoid about. I'm also going to take this opportunity to change out the spark plugs after the headers are in.

I'm still debating whether to get it towed or drive it to the shop. If its ridiculously loud, I'm sure a police officer will notice, and fine me. The officers around Phoenix are real asses and show no mercy. On the other hand, towing it is a big pain in the ass too.

~Stealth