94_302
07-17-2006, 06:57 PM
Well I had been toying with this idea for a little while and I was really looking for a low budget way to open up the exhaust. I have to thank Rich_Long, his post and answers to my questiones convinced me to go for it. I started looking on svtperformance and other boards for someone willing to dump their manifolds. I finally found a guy in jax that I had talked to and was going to buy his set. I was going to be over there on a weekend trip to visit some family. Well he never showed up to the mustang meet :( But I started talking to some of the other owners at this meet and I got lucky, one of the guys there had a new motor he just pulled out of his wifes cobra and he agreed to sell me his manifolds.
Well I had the manifolds and the next step was to install them and that was a lot harder than I thought. Getting the mid pipe off was easy but the manifolds were a lot harder to get at. So after a few trips to Sears picking up deep sockets and a breaker bar I got them both installed.
Next was finding an exhaust shop and a mid pipe. I ended up at Miami Muffler and buying a VRS Catted X. I originally wanted to go with an o/r but I thought that might be a little too loud.
Here is the pipe being installed.
http://www.mustangmods.com/ims/u/2464/5076/78110.jpg
Here it is done and on the car.
http://www.mustangmods.com/ims/u/2464/5076/78116.jpg
I kept the stock mufflers for now to see how it would sound but I think I may go to something a little louder, it still sounds fairly stock. Ill do some sound clips later on.
Now for the challenging part, the EGR :mad2: Well since the cobra manifolds does not match up I had to figure something out. I first tried to make one out of some Home Depot fittings. As you can guess by looking at the picture it leaked and I was never able to really tighten it up. Also it did not look that great.
http://www.mustangmods.com/ims/u/2464/5076/78134.jpg
After trying to make various fittings from home depot fit I was getting really frustrated with the whole process. Then my Dad told me about a local machine shop and said it might be worth a try. They took the original bolt from the cobra manifold, cut it in half and welded a 3 1/4 in. extension this was the result.
http://www.mustangmods.com/ims/u/2464/5076/78120.jpg
It was just a little bit off. Since a bend would be too frustrating to work out, I did not take the car to him so he could not work on it while it was on the car. I decided cutting it a little, since the egr curves down and in hopefully this would do the trick. So he cut it down to 3 in.
http://www.mustangmods.com/ims/u/2464/5076/78114.jpg
Then I got lucky and each end threaded in. So I tightened it to the manifold first then tightened the egr down. It took a bit of elbow grease but it fit and there is no leak.:banana: Also it looks 100x better than the adapter I tried to make. The whole project was tougher than I thought and I really got down on it all. I had considered quitting and just putting the stock exhaust back on but with some forced breaks and some help from my Dad and a friend it got done. I did not coat or port the manifolds, mainly because I wanted this to stay a budget exhaust setup. Also I think most of the power gained comes from the catted x. I can't tell if I really picked up too much down low but it does seem to pull harder in the mid to upper range. I guess now I should be thinking about getting a tune.
Edit: I thought I included a pic of the adapter installed but I didnt so here it is.
http://www.mustangmods.com/ims/u/2464/5076/78115.jpg
Well I had the manifolds and the next step was to install them and that was a lot harder than I thought. Getting the mid pipe off was easy but the manifolds were a lot harder to get at. So after a few trips to Sears picking up deep sockets and a breaker bar I got them both installed.
Next was finding an exhaust shop and a mid pipe. I ended up at Miami Muffler and buying a VRS Catted X. I originally wanted to go with an o/r but I thought that might be a little too loud.
Here is the pipe being installed.
http://www.mustangmods.com/ims/u/2464/5076/78110.jpg
Here it is done and on the car.
http://www.mustangmods.com/ims/u/2464/5076/78116.jpg
I kept the stock mufflers for now to see how it would sound but I think I may go to something a little louder, it still sounds fairly stock. Ill do some sound clips later on.
Now for the challenging part, the EGR :mad2: Well since the cobra manifolds does not match up I had to figure something out. I first tried to make one out of some Home Depot fittings. As you can guess by looking at the picture it leaked and I was never able to really tighten it up. Also it did not look that great.
http://www.mustangmods.com/ims/u/2464/5076/78134.jpg
After trying to make various fittings from home depot fit I was getting really frustrated with the whole process. Then my Dad told me about a local machine shop and said it might be worth a try. They took the original bolt from the cobra manifold, cut it in half and welded a 3 1/4 in. extension this was the result.
http://www.mustangmods.com/ims/u/2464/5076/78120.jpg
It was just a little bit off. Since a bend would be too frustrating to work out, I did not take the car to him so he could not work on it while it was on the car. I decided cutting it a little, since the egr curves down and in hopefully this would do the trick. So he cut it down to 3 in.
http://www.mustangmods.com/ims/u/2464/5076/78114.jpg
Then I got lucky and each end threaded in. So I tightened it to the manifold first then tightened the egr down. It took a bit of elbow grease but it fit and there is no leak.:banana: Also it looks 100x better than the adapter I tried to make. The whole project was tougher than I thought and I really got down on it all. I had considered quitting and just putting the stock exhaust back on but with some forced breaks and some help from my Dad and a friend it got done. I did not coat or port the manifolds, mainly because I wanted this to stay a budget exhaust setup. Also I think most of the power gained comes from the catted x. I can't tell if I really picked up too much down low but it does seem to pull harder in the mid to upper range. I guess now I should be thinking about getting a tune.
Edit: I thought I included a pic of the adapter installed but I didnt so here it is.
http://www.mustangmods.com/ims/u/2464/5076/78115.jpg