kishy's 1984 Town Car

[sxcpotatoes]

You can check out my vid in the exhaust sound thread for an example of headers, 2.5" custom H pipe, and no mufflers at all. It was okay at idle and cruising, but if you got on it then it was almost impossible to have a cell phone conversation inside the car (probably worse outside). Eventually had to put some mufflers on because I got on it going through the tunnel on the way to work one night and the cop pulled me over.

[kishy]

Found the vid. Yours was way more obnoxious than I'd ever want mine to be.

Cats do a massive amount of noise reduction, comparing "no cats and no mufflers" to "cats with no mufflers" is apples to oranges.

Also keep in mind this is a stock CFI engine with the heads people often decry as "awful". They don't move a lot of air.

In any event the plan is to have it set up so mufflers can easily be introduced. Nothing is getting welded or U-clamped, only band clamps.

[Tiggie]

I agree - the stock cats and no mufflers sounds pretty good, at least in my garage. Not sure if they’d sound different under load. My glasspacks sound good in the garage but like butt on the road.

I too suspect the magnaflows could be louder. With the baby cams these cars run, I still doubt noise would be an issue. You could always add mufflers later.

Have you compared the length of the 84 manifold to the 91? If they are the same, you should be able to run then lincoln logs, even with the heat riser and new cats.

[marquisman]

I ran cats without mufflers on my wagon for over a year. I liked the sound, not obnoxiously loud and low resonance inside. Only think I hated, the deceleration popping in the exhaust, like when going down a hill. Honestly, sounds like shit. I was able to fix this issue and keep the nice rumble, with a pair of cherry bomb extreme single chamber mufflers.

[kishy]

I concluded that there was no off-the-shelf "S" pipe to meet the needs of my muffler bypass using direct fit H and tails, so I opted for Summit welded turbo mufflers plus short lengths of ID to OD pipe connectors to make up the length difference, which are the cheapest to-my-door option for a "non-stock-replacement" muffler. I have no interest of any kind in putting it in a shop to get stuff measured, custom formed and done...if I can't do it myself on jack stands with band clamps, I don't want it on the car.

We shall see how they sound...hopefully they work out alright.

Dual 2" stock stuff with ugly bends will still be a big flow improvement over the single, and I'm thinking the new cats may wake up a few ponies too, depending on exactly how much exhaust is able to sneak through the current ones.

Most likely I'm leaving the manifolds alone, there doesn't seem to be a compelling reason to change those (if there is, sell me on it please).

[VicCrownVic]

...
Most likely I'm leaving the manifolds alone, there doesn't seem to be a compelling reason to change those (if there is, sell me on it please).

When I swapped the engine in The Ice Car a couple of summers ago i replaced the cats and everything from that point back. Rusted to crap studs in the manifolds that were holding the cats to the manifolds weren't coming out (with the tools available, dad's torch set was in need of gas) even with the engine on a stand. Dad took the manifolds to work with him and had the studs and O2 sensors out with ease. The bolts holding the manifolds to the engine were super easy to get out though. If extracting the studs and/or O2 sensor(s?, there's only one on cfi, right? not sure where) is a concern for you and doing so would be easier on a bench, that might be enough of an excuse to at least find some Lincoln logs.

[kishy]

Well, I have a set, but I figure it would make more sense to put them on an engine that has heads with flow capability that justifies better manifolds...supposedly 84 has boat anchor heads still.

I did think of the probability that the cat flange bolts may not decide to come undone, so it's in the back of my mind. Since the best I have for heat is a propane torch, if they're truly stuck in there, I don't know how well I could wrestle them out myself in that case.

Current plan is to do the Lincoln exhaust before I switch back from the Ranger to the Lincoln as DD. Lincoln needs to be 100% ready to hit the road by May, so that sets up a timeline. Assuming I try to pull the cat pipes off the manifolds fairly soon, that timeline will be a cakewalk to meet.

[gadget73]

The stock iron logs flow pretty badly. There is a weight advantage but lets be honest, in a 2 ton car who gives a rat's ass about a few lbs?

but yeah, engine side usually comes out fine, the studs to the downpipes not so much.

[kishy]

At long last, the exhaust project begins!

The parts list is:

• Magnaflow 23367 (left/driver) and 23368 (right/passenger) direct-fit cats with air tubes
• Walker 35574 air tube connection kits (overpriced silicone rubber hose with clamps) - bought two, only need one
• Walker 40492 direct-fit H-pipe
• Summit 655230 "turbo" mufflers
• Walker 41947, 12" length, 2" ID to OD extensions to make up the missing muffler length
• Walker 46607 (left/driver) and 46539 (right/passenger) direct-fit tail pipes
• Walker 33230 2" Mega Clamp lap-joint band clamps for a couple joints, and 35335 HD U-clamps for a couple others
• Walker 35600 universal hangers (using 3, one behind each muffler, and one for the missing tailpipe hanger on one side)

Unexpectedly this will also include a spark plug replacement, because I broke a bunch getting the exhaust manifolds off. Oops. I've bought more Autolite #26 due to breaking them than any other part.

































Current status: no exhaust installed. Need to purchase hardware, stainless if available, and I'm thinking of hitting the 90 TC manifolds with VHT, but undecided.
Found the source of my weird metallic vibration sound, it's the heat riser valve shaking. No longer a concern.

The manifold for the heat riser (driver side) is different at the end; it's flat rather than with the tapered end. It's not clear to me the riser valve will play nice with the 90 TC manifold. Still need to figure this out.

Interesting trivia: the heat riser valve was made by Fram in Canada.

Also, I'm down a pair of jeans thanks to the undercoating on this damned car.

[sly]

I have the direct fit magnaflow cats on my 93 and put them on the 88. Not disappointed and even with all the abuse over 50K miles on the 88 and 100K on the 93... no issues. Still passed sniff last year on the 93 as well. No more sniff test for it this year, though my own sniffer will know if/when it goes bad.

[87gtVIC]

I see you gained a pair of shop Jeans.

[gadget73]

Deleting the flapper valve, or did you fix it? I had a thermostatic one on a Dodge I had a long time ago, but it was broken. Instead of the coil being attached somewhere to force it to open as it got hot, it was broken and the thing just flapped around, mostly towards closed. Anyy time I gave it gas it would push open. Made horrible noises, and performance on that truck was just terrible. Never fixed it, traded it towards the S10.

[marquisman]

One should never to expect to work on thy panther and retain consistent level of cleanliness of thy clothes!

[kishy]

I'm actually pleased to hear from another Magnaflow direct-fit buyer, because I couldn't really find any reports online saying much about them. This car is emissions exempt, but 1) I don't like the smell of catless cars and 2) I do believe the environmental stuff is important.

I already had a pair of shop jeans, which I did not choose to wear for stupid reasons. I guess I now have 2 pair.

I believe I have to keep the heat riser flapper valve, due to the length of the direct-fit cats. They will not direct-fit anymore if I leave it out. It has worked fine the whole time I've had the car and having it there doesn't bug me, but the shaft is loose in its bore (not sure if there's some sort of bushing in there) which causes a metallic rattling sound at specific RPM conditions. It only bugged me on the basis that it might have been a valvetrain or accessory noise, but it was such a foreign sound I never could figure out what it was.

[gadget73]

May just be steel on iron, iron actually makes decent bearing material for things like this since its under no real stress and barely moves. If the steel or iron eroded from exhaust gasses over the years it may not be a good fit anymore and thats probably what the rattle is about.