1989 C4 Functional Restoration

[SirReal63]

I took a short camping trip yesterday until wed., close to home to test out whether I can be somewhat comfortable with what I can pack in this little car.

You can fit enough in a C4 convertible to camp in comfort for one person. Mattress pad, air bed, large semi-soft cooler, 2 lanterns, tea, coffee, sugar, spices, food for 3 days, utensils, sleeping bag, pillow, 6 person tent, laptop, 2tb usb drive with movies and TV shows, large tool roll (just in case), camp chair, 25' extension cord, cook stove, and more I am probably forgetting. I did not need to put anything on the rear tray/lid everything fit in the back and the front seat.

The planned Route 66 trip could be a reality this year.

I am a little surprised at how much I could fit in the rear compartment, the last iteration of the amp/rear speaker box made a huge difference. I have learned a few things, I need a much bigger air mattress, I toss and turn and kept falling off the side, lol. I can get away with a much smaller cooler and use my smaller tent, this one is great but also way more room than I really need.

The car did great, but it is only an hour away from home, I did want to be close for the maiden voyage in case something happened. I almost went to the coast, which is about 5 hours away and the car probably would have been fine but it made sense to stay close to home for the first trip. Overall, it has worked great so far, other than the bird crap on the car and cat foot prints overnight.

 

[SirReal63]

I managed to get everything packed back into the car the same as when I packed it, no small feat. No issues with the car, the AC worked perfectly and it started right up each morning.

A few random shots of Inks Lake State Park, it was nearly perfect weather. These are two of the fishing piers. The park was about a third to a half full, getting my reservation was easy, in a month or so it will not be easy, it is one of the busiest State Parks in Tx.

One of the reasons I will have to wash the car, they were everywhere.

This is the time of year for bird watching, though it is not an interest of mine, lots of migratory birds Winter here, the number of Geese was astounding but lots of songbirds as well.

 

[SirReal63]

I decided on a small change, since the FiTech installation I have had the MAF and associated airbox in place I have been pondering how to remove the MAF and make it look halfway decent. I like how the 90+ units have a larger air opening and larger accordion hose, I managed to find a used one from a 90 locally for the price I wanted to pay, so I grabbed it. It is not a direct bolt on replacement as in 90 the radiator got tilted toward the engine as opposed to the 89 and older having a vertical radiator. I had hoped I could heat up the 90 unit and bend it into shape to fit, but I cannot, the lower part is smaller than on the 89 so that won't work. I then decided to see if I could merge the two into one that had the right shape and use the larger piping.

This will broken in a couple of parts or the post will be way too long, and I am not finished yet.

The difference between the two, the other end is aligned in the same plane as it would be mounted on the TB, although it slid down a little in this pic. The white lines show where it is aligned to be even. I will have to use the 89 filter as there was no feasible way to use the larger 90 air filter, not the end of the world, I don't really expect there to be a massive difference in airflow between the two.

The other major difference is the size and where the center lies.

The other difference is the width, the 90 is wider than the 89.

I believe I can merge these and have it fit like it is supposed to without any interference. I should have waited a day or so to make my marks, pain pills and thinking sometimes don't align but I had a small weather window so I went for it. The mark on the old piece is in the wrong spot for the cut. It should be above the round mounting holes, not below them. Ooops. I cut it like an idiot and had to cut it again and glass it back together. The old 89 part was smaller and fit into the 90 but I had a lot of cutting and shaping to make the transition smooth on the inside.

Once the pieces were cut and the old side fixed from my bad cut I then slid the old into the new and took it to the car to see how I would need to align them so it would fit without obstruction. I marked them and ran some self tappers into the overlap so it would not move. I noticed the alignment for the center would be almost exact if I slid the two pieces to the drivers side and trimmed down the passenger side overlap and heated it up to bent the pieces to where it fit like the other side. The extra length at the center of the cut was trimmed to fit. The glass and epoxy is where I had to mend back the piece I cut wrong.

I epoxied the two halve together after using the heat gut to massage the two pieces until they fit tightly together. The self tappers and paint lines allowed me to get in back into the proper place after applying the thickened epoxy. The bond was much stronger than I was expecting, but it needed a lot more work to make it look right.

After it was cured I sanded the lip down and tried to get it as close to flat as I could, it wasn't a smooth and fair transition, I knew it wouldn't be. I mixed up more thickened epoxy and created a fillet that I could glass over. I used the epoxy all the way around the seam and filled most of it in. It took several applications and sanding to get it close enough.

This is in process, I did not take enough pics of each step but you get the idea.

This is the top, the visible part in process. the first layer of fillet done.

After a little sanding to see what still needs to be filled.

The bottom glassed but not yet sanded. I sanded the bottom after this cured but did not bother to try and make as finished as the top. It isn't visible and each step takes hours for the epoxy to cure before I can sandit.

This is where I am as of tonight. I still have a lot of work to do with sanding and filling. The work so far is just to have enough material to sand out and make look halfway decent. I coated most of the top in leftover resin as I will probably have to paint this airbox when the glass work is done. Having it all epoxy should help the paint look right because of the consistent texture, plastic will probably paint differently than the epoxy and the seam will be much more visible.

I will need to fill what looks like a divot in, it isn't as deep as it appears but it looks off, even though there is a divot in the original piece right where I made the cut, the divot is not larger because of the merge.

This is the passenger side I had to cut down and mold with heat. It is going to need a lot more work.

The edges were by far the most difficult, this is the drivers side where both pieces were pushed together, but the 89 was more round and the 90 more square. This will need a little more work. but is getting close.

I have to take a break from this for a couple of days, the temps are marginal for epoxy to kick, today was too cool so a lot of it ran instead of sticking like it should. Temps will be 85 to 90 this weekend which is perfect for this kind of work, it was only 62 for a high today I used fast cure hardener for everything but the last coats.

 

[SirReal63]

Teaser pics...it is getting there.

The passenger side almost done, this is the side I had to cut, heat and mold the plastic.

Most of the divot is filled in.

I am not sure how much more I will do before paint.

I need to fix where the filter cover mounts, I am not sure yet how I am going to do that. It will be more difficult to get the needed strength in that area.

 

[mountie]

Teaser pics...it is getting there.

The passenger side almost done, this is the side I had to cut, heat and mold the plastic.

View attachment 480525

Most of the divot is filled in.
View attachment 480526


View attachment 480527

I am not sure how much more I will do before paint.

I need to fix where the filter cover mounts, I am not sure yet how I am going to do that. It will be more difficult to get the needed strength in that area.

If you need to strengthen that area,….. try a fiberglass wrap ?

 

[SirReal63]

If you need to strengthen that area,….. try a fiberglass wrap ?

Fiberglass and epoxy will be involved but because it is under constant tension I don't think it will hold up by itself. The air box is some type of poly or other plastic, but not ABS so while the epoxy and glass is sticking well enough to hold the two halves together where there is no forces acting on it the hold downs are different. I may bend some abs or aluminum to fit under the broken attachment and then epoxy and glass it in and add a rivnut for the bolts that hold the lid on. Hopefully that will hold well enough. Currently the lid is being held on by a very large screw clamp that works but isn't ideal.

 

[SirReal63]

I have been collecting parts to keep me busy. I got the front carpet set and the Cognac "dye" from MAMO so that is upcoming. I am also going to replace the knock sensor, the ones for the speed density cars are different, Rock Auto already delivered the GM replacement.

I just got back from another score... Hooker2149HKR.

Though I am not sure I want/need to do headers, for $300 bucks I could not pass them up. They may be wall hangers or I may flip them, or maybe I will install them, I don't know.

 

[SirReal63]

Teaser pic...I "dyed" both new trans tunnel carpet pieces and the door sill pieces. While it is not perfect, it is more than close enough. I still have two cans of the "dye" so I can touch up the back and other pieces. I have a lot of work to do before I get these installed, but at least they are ready now. It was quite a process that took all morning.

No Flash

Flash

Not too bad, even though I hate carpet it is probably best.

 

[SirReal63]

It is almost time to paint the airbox, but a lot of "fixing" needed to be done. The tabs where the filter lid screwed on were broken off, one of the previous owners used two large screw clamps around the airbox and lid to hold the filter in place. There is a decent amount of upward force on these, which is probably why they were broken off. If I want to fix these I am going to have to recreate the tabs in a way that they will be ale to handle the forces applied to them.

The problem. You can see the two tabs broken off in the upper part of the pic. Fortunately I had one piece of the broken off tabs as it was attached to the lid so I could see the proper shape of the tab and location/placement of the U-shaped speed nut. If anyone needs to do this in the future the correct thread is an m6x1. I bought a 50 pack in 304 stainless for $10, probably a two lifetime supply but it was cheaper to buy 50 than two, go figure.

I still had the filter part of the 90 base and it had close to the right shape I needed to replace the tabs.

I just needed to cut them out, heat them up and mold them into the right shape. This turned out to be harder than expected, the memory of this plastic is incredible, it took vice grips to hold them in shape, they held the heat in for several minutes so I could not hold it by hand.

Once they were close to the right shape, which you will note is conical, this is to provide the strength needed to keep them from pulling up, I began a series of epoxy and glass to get the shape finalized and for added strength.

Once the shape was right, the thickness right to hold the speed nut in the correct position I then epoxied the speed nut in place.

I had one more and insignificant concern to deal with, the inside where the two pieces overlap, it is an abrupt change in airflow, if I had been thinking far enough ahead I would have tapered these before epoxying them into place but I did not. I have a cheap burr set but they are not long enough to reach inside and shave down the edges. They need to be able to reach about 8" into the cavity and I could find none that long online. I used a long drill bit and "chewed" as much off as I could. It is not perfect but it is better. I really should have dealt with this before joining the two halves together. I think a 1/2"x18 or 21" belt sander would be the easiest tool to use to smooth the transition perfectly after the fact, but I don't have one and will probably have to revisit this transition in the future. The opening is still the original size of the 89 airbox, it is just that hard sharp angle I want to remove. It is probably completely irrelevant because the air flows from small 89 section into large 90 section and not directly into that 90 degree part but instead air flows over it, but it will create an eddy that will disrupt airflow. it also gave me the chance to ensure the epoxy that dripped out was cleaned up to keep it from breaking off in the future and going into the intake.

The problem.

After a good chewing with a drill bit. There will still be some turbulence but it won't be as bad now.

It is almost time for paint, I decided on 2K HotRod black, hoping it will be durable enough. Truck bed liner would be perfect, except for the crazy texture. I was unable to find one that didn't have crazy texture and the ones that has less texture were rubber based and that would not be durable. There is a Durabak-18 which is a smooth version but is cost prohibitive.

 

[SirReal63]

Airbox is done. The function came out as I hoped it would, it fit perfectly. The finish did not come as smooth and blemish free as I had hoped, my fingers did not feel any blemishes but the black paint showed me how much more work needs to be done before they are "perfect". I used the SprayMax Hot Rod Satin Black, and I have no real complaints on the paint, it sprayed perfectly, dried very hard which should help with scratches, but it is more semi-gloss than satin. I installed the airbox for a test after removing the radiator cover to clean the collected debris, and there was more debris in there, mostly leaves and grass. I did not take it back out for pics because my back hurts from bending over so much the past few weeks. I was able to make the joint completely vanish so that is a win to me. I replaced the filter with a Genuine GM A1236CF which is a severe duty filter, I used it because of the dusty environment here. Everything bolted right back into place with no fitment issues at all, I got the repaired tabs in perfect alignment and that is also a win.

I managed to get the alignment pretty close to perfect, there is a slight bend in the center line but you can't see it when looking at it. The box needs to come to the passenger side about 1/8" and I am not going to worry about it, I Frankensteined this together and can't expect perfection.

I also swapped out the knock sensor with the correct one, I lost maybe a tablespoon of coolant, it went easier than I expected. I am going to up the base timing to either 10 or 12 degrees as recommended by FiTech, the current 6 degrees may be limiting power as there is a limit on what the ECU can do for timing advances. It has been about a month since the car was started and it fired right up this morning.

After my back stops hurting it is on to the front carpet which I expect to go smoothly, I just have a lot to remove to do it.

I have been researching these headers and how to make the best use of them. My pre-cats are the only cats on the car, the center one has been hollowed out. I want to run a cat and see it is probably going to have to be a high flow replacement for the center cat or two of the little bullet cats. ****** used to have a Y-Pipe to make this install easier but it is no longer available and is 2.5" and pinched down on the drivers side. I hope to be able to come out of the headers with a 3"x16" extension before going to a smaller pipe, if there is room, I have a feeling there is not and that is why the ****** pipe is pinched down. The extension will probably have to have a bend in it to get it going in the right direction. I have a lot more research to do after taking some measurements and bending some wire for fitment before I can do anything. Planning is fun, more fun than the actual work.

Edit...** o ok e r is a bad word. lol
Edit Edit H O is a bad word too. LOL

 

[SirReal63]

Front carpet is done. The only difficult part of this was the dash trim and seat removal, but I have done it so many times now I think I can do it in my sleep, or heavily medicated. lol

I have learned a lot on how to do the carpet color amending so that it covers the fibers all the way around and not in just one direction. My first venture with the MAMO/SEM product I now consider a failure in some parts of the carpet from trying to make an inconsistent carpet base color uniform. The old carpet was matted down and no longer "fluffy", this is important, it has to be fluffy and a consistent color for all of the pieces if you want a consistent color for the finished product.

Below is what I did and will include the steps in case someone finds this thread in the future while searching for a carpet color correction.

Step one, vacuum the new carpet and old carpet, you really don't want dirt or loose fibers getting coated and buried in the coating.

Step two, use a stiff plastic brush to brush all of the fibers in the same direction, I used a brush designed to clean fragile A/C fins, it had firm but long flexible bristles that did not remove any of the carpet fibers. I did two pieces at a time but you could easily do all of the carpet at the same time.

Step three, once all of the fibers are in the same direction and the can of dye has been shaken enough you will apply a dust coat on the carpet, you do not want to put a heavy coat on as you will have three more coats to put on. Less is more. I waited about three minutes after the dusting and brushed the carpet with the same brush in the same direction as earlier. This helps to keep the fibers separate and prevent clumping of the fibers, the product hasn't cured yet but also was also dry enough to not be removed. I would think temp and humidity would affect how long to wait. It was dry to the touch, if it still tacky then wait until it isn't.

Step four, exactly the same as step three but this time brush all of the fibers in a different direction than you did in step three.

Step four, once it has been coated in all directions and brushed right after applying and completely dry from the steps above, give it a final brushing. The color should be what you after and it should be consistent. I let it cure for about a week but that isn't necessary, I was doing other things and wasn't ready to install it yet.

Once you have all four directions coated it should be a consistent color no matter which direction the fibers are laying. It should also still be relatively soft, not hard or brittle feeling. The new carpet pieces came out better than the existing carpet on the door panels and floor mats, this is because the fibers were easily manipulated in the new carpet and stay where brushed to old carpet would not.

A word on the MAMO/SEM product, you really have to shake it a lot the first time. I put the cans in the Sun for about an hour before using, you also have to shake the can good before every pass, it seems to settle out of suspension easily. If you don't keep shaking it, the thicker base will clog the nozzle, I learned that the hard way.

Before and after pics of the color change.

It came out better than I had hoped it would.

I also did the rear speaker box, it did not come out perfect but it is better. Since I had the box and amp all apart I ran the wires into the chases I created when I built the boxes.

The interior being put back together.

I may order another can of the "dye" and color change the cup holder. The shine, color and texture are wrong and it makes it stand out too much.

All in all it was worth it. It is sad that no one makes this carpet in the right color, it cost as much for the "dye" as it did for the carpet. My original plan was to replace all of the carpet with something else but in the end the best direction to take the car was to just fix the carpet and make it consistent in color. I am happy with how it turned out and now it looks like it belongs. I am not sure what to do next, I considered making the armrest black as it would tie the black seats into the black dash. I am still undecided on that, it will make the armrest hot in the Summer and I don't know if I want to put my arm on a hot armrest purely for aesthetics.

I had said long ago I wasn't interested in doing any car shows, however, there is one next month that will be four miles away from me. I may attend that one for grins. I have zero expectation of ever winning anything with this car as I live in an area with a lot of old geezers and their custom rides that I cannot compete with, in any class, and I am OK with that. I am also hesitant to do car shows any more because of the manners and etiquette of the general population these days. The last thing I want is to be keeping people from crawling all over the car. I have friends who have had to deal with that lately, I have worked too ******* this to have someone use it as a jungle gym. lol

What I brought home.

A decent change in appearance and function.

 

[Tonyrodz]

Front carpet is done. The only difficult part of this was the dash trim and seat removal, but I have done it so many times now I think I can do it in my sleep, or heavily medicated. lol

I have learned a lot on how to do the carpet color amending so that it covers the fibers all the way around and not in just one direction. My first venture with the MAMO/SEM product I now consider a failure in some parts of the carpet from trying to make an inconsistent carpet base color uniform. The old carpet was matted down and no longer "fluffy", this is important, it has to be fluffy and a consistent color for all of the pieces if you want a consistent color for the finished product.

Below is what I did and will include the steps in case someone finds this thread in the future while searching for a carpet color correction.

Step one, vacuum the new carpet and old carpet, you really don't want dirt or loose fibers getting coated and buried in the coating.

Step two, use a stiff plastic brush to brush all of the fibers in the same direction, I used a brush designed to clean fragile A/C fins, it had firm but long flexible bristles that did not remove any of the carpet fibers. I did two pieces at a time but you could easily do all of the carpet at the same time.

Step three, once all of the fibers are in the same direction and the can of dye has been shaken enough you will apply a dust coat on the carpet, you do not want to put a heavy coat on as you will have three more coats to put on. Less is more. I waited about three minutes after the dusting and brushed the carpet with the same brush in the same direction as earlier. This helps to keep the fibers separate and prevent clumping of the fibers, the product hasn't cured yet but also was also dry enough to not be removed. I would think temp and humidity would affect how long to wait. It was dry to the touch, if it still tacky then wait until it isn't.

Step four, exactly the same as step three but this time brush all of the fibers in a different direction than you did in step three.

Step four, once it has been coated in all directions and brushed right after applying and completely dry from the steps above, give it a final brushing. The color should be what you after and it should be consistent. I let it cure for about a week but that isn't necessary, I was doing other things and wasn't ready to install it yet.

Once you have all four directions coated it should be a consistent color no matter which direction the fibers are laying. It should also still be relatively soft, not hard or brittle feeling. The new carpet pieces came out better than the existing carpet on the door panels and floor mats, this is because the fibers were easily manipulated in the new carpet and stay where brushed to old carpet would not.

A word on the MAMO/SEM product, you really have to shake it a lot the first time. I put the cans in the Sun for about an hour before using, you also have to shake the can good before every pass, it seems to settle out of suspension easily. If you don't keep shaking it, the thicker base will clog the nozzle, I learned that the hard way.

Before and after pics of the color change.

View attachment 481297


View attachment 481298


View attachment 481299


It came out better than I had hoped it would.

I also did the rear speaker box, it did not come out perfect but it is better. Since I had the box and amp all apart I ran the wires into the chases I created when I built the boxes.

View attachment 481300

View attachment 481301

The interior being put back together.

View attachment 481302


View attachment 481303

I may order another can of the "dye" and color change the cup holder. The shine, color and texture are wrong and it makes it stand out too much.

View attachment 481304


View attachment 481305

All in all it was worth it. It is sad that no one makes this carpet in the right color, it cost as much for the "dye" as it did for the carpet. My original plan was to replace all of the carpet with something else but in the end the best direction to take the car was to just fix the carpet and make it consistent in color. I am happy with how it turned out and now it looks like it belongs. I am not sure what to do next, I considered making the armrest black as it would tie the black seats into the black dash. I am still undecided on that, it will make the armrest hot in the Summer and I don't know if I want to put my arm on a hot armrest purely for aesthetics.

I had said long ago I wasn't interested in doing any car shows, however, there is one next month that will be four miles away from me. I may attend that one for grins. I have zero expectation of ever winning anything with this car as I live in an area with a lot of old geezers and their custom rides that I cannot compete with, in any class, and I am OK with that. I am also hesitant to do car shows any more because of the manners and etiquette of the general population these days. The last thing I want is to be keeping people from crawling all over the car. I have friends who have had to deal with that lately, I have worked too ******* this to have someone use it as a jungle gym. lol

What I brought home.

View attachment 481306


View attachment 481307


View attachment 481308

A decent change in appearance and function.

What a huge difference. Everything came together nicely.

 

[SirReal63]

What a huge difference. Everything came together nicely.

It feels good to not have a pressing project with the car. I do have the headers to install but I am in no hurry to do that task yet.

 

[SirReal63]

Just a small update, I haven't done much to the car, it has been raining and muddy here for weeks. Since I could not pull the car out of the shop I decided to advance the plan on the header/exhaust install. I have been studying this intensely and thoroughly, every place I can find. I want to give a big thanks to those I have pestered on their exhaust, every bit of information helps. Though I am still studying how to handle from the header collector back, I do have a tentative plan. First, I need to make the headers more appropriate for the car and it's lack of emissions.

Time to make the tubing go away.

The removal was really easy, a simple Dremel cutoff wheel to cut them and a flap wheel on my grinder to smooth out the factory weld. I had a lot more pics but a corrupted SD card made them all vanish.

The little tubes protruded into the header tube, I ground those down as well.

I also cut off the 3-bolt flanges and picked up some Mishimoto 3" V-Band clamps to weld on. I ground down the welds that held the original clamps on instead of cutting the tubes in front of the welds. I am glad I did it this way, the V-Bands would not have fit the 3" collector tube and would have needed to be ground down a little as the tube is slightly larger than the V-Band.

My little Harbor Freight Titanium 125 handled this easier than I expected. I got this little welder for field repair on fencing and anywhere I did not have electricity as both of my generators can handle the electrical needs of this thing. Using Lincoln wire it splatters as you would expect, to combat that as much as possible, I wrapped foil around the pipe only exposing where the weld was needed. It kept most of the splatter off of the pipe and worked beautifully. The 40 grit flap wheel cleaned up the booger welds well enough.

I am not a welder, I am a grinder. My neighbor who is a welder was low/out of shielding gas so I decided to tackle this myself. Though not perfect, it is good enough to be passable for my needs.

I bought 3 cans of Eastwood High Temp Internal Exhaust Coating as I intend on coating the interior of my exhaust as far down the line as I can. I also used this as a coating on the welds and am in the process of curing it with a Mapp gas torch from the inside in hopes of it lasting at least a while.

I am still working out what to do for the rest of the exhaust, I had planned on pulling the 89 stock system completely off and using the exhaust from an LT1 to get the 2.75" piping and resonator. This fell through as my somewhat local C4 recycler turned into a flake and would not get back to me with a pic of what I was trying to buy, that is the second time he has done this, and he and I are done doing business. lol I may still go with the LT1 exhaust but will have to drive a little farther to pick one up. I know at the power level I will be running the 89 stock cat-back plumbing is more than adequate but not much more, and I do plan on a little more power in the future.

My plan as of now is a full 3" stainless pipe from the headers to a 3" Y-Pipe to a MagnaFlow 3" cat and from there the stock 89 exhaust. Even if I swap out that 89 cat back to the LT1 the parts from the cat to the headers would remain the same. I have my Amazon cart full of tubing, enough DEI heat shield to cover from the header to the cat and another set of V-Bands for after the cat.

The other thing I have done is pick up a complete intake system from a 90 C4, I got it all and only gave $250 for it delivered. That is TB, plenum, runners, lower intake, fuel rails, injectors and fastening hardware. These have been sitting in a box for a very long time. The TB shaft is not worn at all, something I did not expect. It is in better shape than the one I just put on a few months back so it may get swapped out soon. I have sent the runners out to be enlarged and have been studying porting the lower myself. It looks like a daunting task! I was going to go with ASM runners but they are out and gave me no indication of when they will have more in stock.

 

[SirReal63]

A lot has happened in the past few weeks, most of it on the car but not all of it. I have had to take a break after having two new springs (stents) put into my heart.

I am ok, just tired and low energy, that will last a few weeks and is normal. Prior to that I managed to get all of the exhaust measured, welded, coated and wrapped. I still have two small welds to connect the CAT to the rear "Y" pipe. I am a terrible welder, lol. I know, I accept it and I did manage to get everything sealed up. It took a few tries and I had to fill the pipes with water to check for leaks, I found several and sealed them up.

I had ground off the 3-bolt flanges because history has taught me they tend be a source of leaks. After being cut off I had the factory ends on the collectors that I then welded the V-Bands to, I made sure to keep the orientation of the exit the same, which was easy as the pipe still had the factory cut on it. What I did not realize is driver side would point in the wrong direction. I considered cutting the V-Band off and trying to correct the angle, and if I had a proper way to cut the pipe that may have worked. I chose to use a ball and socket joint instead, I dislike those as well but they tend to seal better than other designs. I even considered welding them at the right angle but it did not leak with numerous water tests so I left it, if I regret that down the road I can always weld them. I don't know if these were not made right or if the factory Y-Pipe was canted to correct it. The passenger side was correct.

The Y-Pipe welded up and mostly smoothed out. It took a lot of figuring and laying on my back to get this shape right and able to tuck up under the X-Brace.

The interior of the piping coated in the Eastwood product. This coating was really easy to apply, I sealed up all of the ends on the headers and Y-Pipe, poked a hole just large enough for the hose and sprayed into the pipe. Once I thought I had enough product in there I sealed up the small hole and rolled the headers and Y-Pipe around to ensure every thing got coated, waited about 15 minutes a rolled it around again to try and get the coating heavier, the stuff is kind of runny.

Some crappy welds and a decent one. I found I could not weld a circular pattern, could not keep a puddle and had to do a zig zag stitch or I would blow right through the thin stainless. Blow through happened far more than I wanted and fixing them meant a large blob to grind down. The blow through areas had more leaks than the rest. In the end it worked, even with a crappy little 110 welder.

The ugly one...

The "better" ones... (using the aluminum foil to shield most of the splatter worked quite well.) The O2 bungs turned out to be the easiest to weld, I was expected them to be the worst because of the thickness difference. I just kept the heat on the bung and quickly dropped it into the pipe. The bungs are 5" from the merge collector point, which should work well for a consistent reading.

The mostly finished setup. Design Engineering heat wrap and black silicone spray, aluminum heat shield over the "Y". I wrapped the headers where the factory shielding was lacking, no need to go all the way up the header tubes.

I cut the mounting flange off the gutted OEM Cat and welded in it onto the new MagnaFlow Cat. I only need to figure out the length of the short pipe between the Y-Pipe and the Cat and weld them up.

I mentioned I was going to send out the 90 intake runners to be punched out to a larger size, I did and got them back. They are roughly 39mm and finished nicely. A bit thanks to High Flow TPI for getting these turned around so quick. I won't install these until I take a shot at porting the intake lower and upper.

I am close to being ready to put this all back together. Things I ordered but have not installed, Summit branded split header bolts, I will be able to use most of these and I had to make room on the header tubes at the flange to get any header bolts in. Design Engineering spark plug boots and starter heat shield and ceramic boot spark plug wires. I will need to get a spark plug end tool to complete the distributor end but this will give me a better chance of routing away from heat. I have more aluminum heat shield to cover the top of the Cat with. I really wanted to do the entire tunnel with the DEI alum. heat shield but was not really interested in dropping the C-Beam and drive shaft and spending a week getting the tunnel clean enough for it to stick reliably. If the wrap doesn't control the temps well enough then I will have no choice but to do that. Given my current weakness I am glad I chose to not go that far this time around.

 

[SirReal63]

Headers are installed, as is the mid section of the exhaust mated to the factory cat back. I won't say this is an easy task, it isn't, or at least wasn't easy for me. The biggest issue isn't fitment, it is the header bolts, primarily the passenger side on cylinder #2 and #8 where there just isn't enough room for my hands or tools to fit easily. I had to swing the A/C compressor out of the way and that brought it's own issues. I used a combination of the Summit split header bolts, the ****** supplied bolts and the factory studs to get it to work. Surprisingly the factory bolts all looked good, the threads were nearly perfect, I cleaned the threads where it bolts to the head and see no real issues. I really like the split bolts, other than the need to use a 12 point wrench/socket on them. I hope everything stays tight and I did use red Loctite on all of the bolts but I have concerns about whether that will be effective or not.

The headers installed, copper faced gaskets and a lot of hopes this doesn't leak. I will go back and check the bolts after a few heat cycles. I don't really want to bag on ****** because these headers are overall very nice, but I had to "massage" almost every primary tube where it left the flange so any of the bolts would actually fit into the hole, this was a source of frustration taking the header in and out to make enough clearance. I did it and expected I would have to massage a couple of them, I did not expect to have to beat on most of them.

I bent up an aluminum heat shield for the MagnaFlow cat for between the top of the cat and the car. It does come with a heat shield already but a little extra won't hurt. I drilled the outer flange and riveted the additional shield on. It came out pretty good.

The aluminum shield for the Y-Pipe also got riveted in place as well as formed so that it can't slip.

I managed to get everything tucked into place but not without some issues I discuss later. The X-Brace will fit with no issues which was a concern with larger piping than what was there originally, I remember I had to really work the factory exhaust to get the X-Brace to fit.

This was a test fitting and I am glad I did numerous test fittings to check fitment and alignment before doing the last few welds. I ended up being about an inch longer than the factory exhaust which I am going to have to adjust for.

I did quite a bit of heat management, this is a DEI starter heat shield that fir perfectly and will hopefully slow down any starter heat soak.

I was concerned with spark plug wires being burned since the pipes are really close to the plug boots in some places. I shopped around for ceramic plug boots and ended up with a set of Dragon Fire 8.5mm wires and ceramic boots. These appear to be a fairly decent set of plug wires, 40 ohms/foot and manufactured well. Time will tell how they hold up but I have a good feeling about them. I also added some DEI spark plug Protect-a-Boot to try and save the wires from burning up. Since I had this all apart I also replace the temp sensor wire in the passenger head. I already had the Mica covered high heat wire and this was the perfect time to do it.

I dropped the whole exhaust not long after I got this car to get the speedo working but I did not really look at it closely. The cat back section is not in good shape, though I had it apart I never really examined it the way I did the mid and engine side, which was in near perfect condition. The rear Y-Pipe is rusted between the exits, I booger welded it closed for now, I have a replacement section coming. It was also really beat up, like really beat up and collapsed in places I don't understand how it could have been beat up. In order to make up the inch over I was, I decided to take that out of the cat-back as it was a good place to get a little extra room. This is when I discovered the true condition of the cat-back. Both mufflers are blown and have large chunks rattling inside that are too large to get out the pipes. I did not discover this before because I never turned the muffles over, I just slid that section to the side. I got a good laugh when I heard all of the loose steel inside rattling around.

I still have the car on jack stands and will give it some heat cycles to help cure the silicone spray and re-apply until I have several coats on. I did add the second O2 sensor for the FiTech system ordered and received the extension harness so I can plug it in but that will have to wait, the pig tail on the harness is tucked into the dash and I am not ready to go that deep into the dash again for a while. This has been a fun little project that isn't finished yet. Once the replacement cat mid section arrives I will be replacing the mufflers, yea, more welding.