Muffler and exhaust

[warlock40]

Anyone here replace their own muffler?

I noticed mine is slowly self destructing and its only a matter of weeks/days before I am forced to do mine. It got loud the last few days and I am sure there is a opening on the upper part of the muffler near the heat shield.

I called my local parts place and they have the muffler in stock.

I looked and it appears the bolts to the actual muffler are rusted and corroded.. not sure what kind of luck I'm going to have.

I'm also not sure whether the end that goes to the resonator comes off or is welded on.

Since I don't have experience welding.. any advice? I have access to all kinds of welding equipment. I may be able to get someone to do that part for me. I'm a little stupid in the welding department... I don't really know what kind to ask someone for...

I'm hoping that the system can be disassembled without the need to cut anything.. keep it stock and simple I quess.

Thanks

[FireFox05]

An exhaust shop will do it pretty cheap for you. Midas, Tuffy, Minake, places like that. Call around, it'll be under three digits I'm almost certain.

[warlock40]

I wish it were like that.

My muffler part stock is $75 and then if I need the resonator is only $70 more.

The muffler shop wants almost $400 to do the same job

[rubberman]

put some cheap generic muff under there.

[warlock40]

Thats my plan. I'm just not sure if more work will be required to get the suckers off. I don't know much about welding and am hoping I can get everything off without cutting.

[warlock40]

Ok well I've pick up the replacement muffler.

I measured and the replacement (a stock steel jobby $69) its about 2 inches shorter than the OEM one. (although the OEM one is stainless steel.. I'm a little disappointed that it didnt go further.. but hey... thats life)

I'm waiting on a 4inch pipe with flang to add on to the front (cat side) and that will attach to cat pipe with a gasket and bolts.

I've got to cut the existing one off. But the replacement
is wider on the in side and (in theory) slide over the muffler and I'm not sure on the other side but I do have a tool that will stretch these suckers.

Here is a pic of my dirty old rusted bag of a muffler



As soon as I get the flang piece I'm off to the races on this one.

[1999montana]

Boy, Warlock, I've never seen one quite that rusty. Must be spreading more road salt in Toronto than out here in Durham region!

Ours (touch wood - patting my forehead for emphasis!) is still going strong, although I expect to replace it some time in the near future. Would like to see it last another year though.

The flange / cat side on ours let go about two months ago. The engineers (in their infinite wisdom!) placed the bolts (they weld them to the flange in the factory) pointing forward instead of backward....must have something to do with easier assembly on the plant floor.

Of course that caused the nuts to rot off and the thing fell apart. I drilled the old bolts out, replaced the gasket and re-assembled it with 7/16 stainless steel bolts, lockwashers and nuts (this time facing the rear of the van away from all the road salt and road muck.

If I am right, the gasket that is supplied is actually too big to cover the outlet side correctly and the gasket will slide around and go off-center when you go to tighten the bolts up.

I fixed this by creating a small wire compression sleeve that fit onto the outlet pipe on the cat side and fit just inside the gasket using a piece of coat hanger to approximate the diameter of the pipe going to the muffler. This centered the gasket and allowed me to tighten the bolts without having to constantly check to see if the gasket was centered or not.

You may not have this trouble, but if you do, this will work for you.

[warlock40]

Awesome information thanks.

I'm actually having a problem finding the appropriate flange piece.

Part source and Napa here sell Maremont pipes.

I think I picked up the wrong part number because I sent them an email and the sent me back the RIGHT information. I'm told that the appropriate model # includes that flange right on the muffler. I'm likely going to have to make due unless Napa has it because Part source doesn't event have the right part number. I may have to improvise until I can get the right piece.

[warlock40]

Well got the new muffler in today.

Got to say... this one was a no brainer... and to think I worried about it.

It was all just plug and play.

Getting it off was the hard part.



I had to grind off the old bolts but supprisingly it just popped right off.



This was the dirty part. You'll see the seem gave away.

and the last is the installed muffler. The replacement is just steel and it was a little shorter and not as thick as the original but it fit in nicely.