The Miater has always been lacking in the exhaust department. Shortly after I bought her, I had to replace the existing cat back in that it was so rusted and leaking that the emissions sniffer couldn't pick up a large enough sample. I purchased a Dynamax free flow muffler and paid Mieneke (sp?) $100 to fab it in and ended up with this peice of crap (this was when I was still very new in the game):
It's severerly pinched in the corners and flows for crap, but it got the overal job done. It sounded bad, and was even worse with the new 1.8L (that's not to mention even more restictive). So it was time to hack it up and make something a bit better and maybe even a bit lighter.
Once the cat-back was removed, I salvaged the muffler:
I then welded on a flange, turndown pipe, hanger, and painted it with high-temp paint to keep down the rust. The final product:
And after it was installed:
Overall it's about 19" long. It sounds so much better than the buzzy contraption that was on there before. I will say that I'm sure it'll be intolerable on long drives and I'm not sure if it'll pass the sound requirements of the local sanction (though, I haven't yet tested this).
I have a video including the sound note, but it's a 20M MOV file. I think I'll pass until I convert it.
It's severerly pinched in the corners and flows for crap, but it got the overal job done. It sounded bad, and was even worse with the new 1.8L (that's not to mention even more restictive). So it was time to hack it up and make something a bit better and maybe even a bit lighter.
Once the cat-back was removed, I salvaged the muffler:
I then welded on a flange, turndown pipe, hanger, and painted it with high-temp paint to keep down the rust. The final product:
And after it was installed:
Overall it's about 19" long. It sounds so much better than the buzzy contraption that was on there before. I will say that I'm sure it'll be intolerable on long drives and I'm not sure if it'll pass the sound requirements of the local sanction (though, I haven't yet tested this).
I have a video including the sound note, but it's a 20M MOV file. I think I'll pass until I convert it.
