Things have happened. Some of them including gratuitous amounts of frustration and swearing.
The Holley carb has completely shit the bed, idle mixtures don't stay even remotely consistent between startups. AFRs can range basically anywhere between 13 to 16 without touching the idle screws, which have become a suggestive adjustment anyways.
Got the car inspected on the 25th. I adjusted the idle to about 14 in the inspection center parking lot. 10 minutes later during the emissions check the monitor displayed around 1.01-1.03 lambda, which is about 15.0 afr
Inspector found nothing else to complain about than the air freshener hanging on the rear view mirror.
A few days later I brought an expensive box home, it says Edelbrock 1902 on it.
But instead of installing the carb, I started on the dual exhaust I've been planning for quite a while.True duals due to simplicity.
I should've just left it as a shitty single...
- Had to do it outside, so no welding under the car, I can't fab for shit either
- Mounting the tailpipe and muffler sucked major balls, had to use crappy universal hangers and there's very little space
- The AP/Eastern tailpipe tip is slash cut at a different angle, bent differently and its also shorter than the other so it doesn't even come up to the bumper
- I cut off the banana-shaped flanges off the back of the cats, thinking I'd be better off with those slip fit extension couplers, buut they're actually utter garbage!
- Pipes went in place alright, basic slip fit 45s worked nicely from the cats back and a bit of straight section for the new driver side. Reused the back part of the old Y-pipe
- LEAKS
Still sounds about the same, boomy and toneless at idle. Sounds a bit throatier on throttle, but that's about it.
Now I've got a bunch of extra clamped connections and I'm already at like round 3 of trying to fix leaks. I've had to use plenty of exhaust putty, which will probably start cracking and leaking again sooner or later.
I knew this wasn't going to be a simple job, but the whole thing has been just frustrating misery from the start. After I had gotten the tailpipe and muffler mounted I was really questioning if I wanted to even finish the job, as I hadn't done anything not easily reversible yet. But I'm not a quitter, so I kept going.
So instead of just regretting having spent way too much on a muffler and a shitty tailpipe, now I get to regret about overpaying AND having an awful botch job of an exhaust. I am simply disgusted by my own workmanship, despite doing the very best I could with my skills and the current materials, tools and circumstances.
The Holley carb has completely shit the bed, idle mixtures don't stay even remotely consistent between startups. AFRs can range basically anywhere between 13 to 16 without touching the idle screws, which have become a suggestive adjustment anyways.
Got the car inspected on the 25th. I adjusted the idle to about 14 in the inspection center parking lot. 10 minutes later during the emissions check the monitor displayed around 1.01-1.03 lambda, which is about 15.0 afr
Inspector found nothing else to complain about than the air freshener hanging on the rear view mirror. A few days later I brought an expensive box home, it says Edelbrock 1902 on it.
But instead of installing the carb, I started on the dual exhaust I've been planning for quite a while.True duals due to simplicity.
I should've just left it as a shitty single...
- Had to do it outside, so no welding under the car, I can't fab for shit either
- Mounting the tailpipe and muffler sucked major balls, had to use crappy universal hangers and there's very little space
- The AP/Eastern tailpipe tip is slash cut at a different angle, bent differently and its also shorter than the other so it doesn't even come up to the bumper
- I cut off the banana-shaped flanges off the back of the cats, thinking I'd be better off with those slip fit extension couplers, buut they're actually utter garbage!
- Pipes went in place alright, basic slip fit 45s worked nicely from the cats back and a bit of straight section for the new driver side. Reused the back part of the old Y-pipe
- LEAKS
Still sounds about the same, boomy and toneless at idle. Sounds a bit throatier on throttle, but that's about it.
Now I've got a bunch of extra clamped connections and I'm already at like round 3 of trying to fix leaks. I've had to use plenty of exhaust putty, which will probably start cracking and leaking again sooner or later.
I knew this wasn't going to be a simple job, but the whole thing has been just frustrating misery from the start. After I had gotten the tailpipe and muffler mounted I was really questioning if I wanted to even finish the job, as I hadn't done anything not easily reversible yet. But I'm not a quitter, so I kept going.
So instead of just regretting having spent way too much on a muffler and a shitty tailpipe, now I get to regret about overpaying AND having an awful botch job of an exhaust. I am simply disgusted by my own workmanship, despite doing the very best I could with my skills and the current materials, tools and circumstances.
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