After getting my car to my friend’s shop (free CAA tow) 2 weeks ago I finally got the car back with the exhaust done. It sounds pretty good even with my stk. 351W engine from my parts car swapped into my 78 car formerly with the six.
He had some other work to finish which is why it took him this long to get to my car but I’m happy it’s done and it looks wicked.
He had to do some modding with the rear frame rail where the rear trans mount bolted to it and he also modified the actual rear tranny mount (almost like converting it to a double hump x/member on the frame and the mount) for it to clear the 3” pipes from the collectors. I had to bring him the second mount from my 78 car for him to do the mods.
The pipes go back to 2 Dynomax Super Turbo mufflers (16” case, 3” in and out) with a crossover and exit out each side all mandrel bent with no kinks anywhere. I wanted the pipes to exit out the back ala 5.0 but there wasn’t room on the left side for the 3” pipe to run all the way to the back. (the gas tank is offset towards the left so that setup was next to impossible without moving the tank, something that I wasn’t willing to do at this stage)
I drove it home last night and also went out for a rip later in the evening and it feels good. I hear a lot more noise with the headers which is expected and it has a nice idle (almost like it has a cam) when sitting at a light. The tranny shifts great (very firm when I got on it, nice when I take it easy). I still need to install my tranny cooler which is this weekends project. Water temp was 180’F and never went above that (with Milodon Alum. high volume WP and 3 core rad). Oil pressure was 50 psi. after the oil heated up with long highway drive but at idle it was around 10psi. (I feel it’s a bit low but a quick stab with the throttle brings the pressure right up to 50 almost right away) so it’s probably no big deal. I seem to think that this engine was probably rebuilt at one time but there’s no way to confirm that.
The GF gets her shot at driving it today and we’ll be racking up some k’s on it for sure this weekend so we’ll see how it is with more time behind the wheel. Stay tuned.
He had some other work to finish which is why it took him this long to get to my car but I’m happy it’s done and it looks wicked.
He had to do some modding with the rear frame rail where the rear trans mount bolted to it and he also modified the actual rear tranny mount (almost like converting it to a double hump x/member on the frame and the mount) for it to clear the 3” pipes from the collectors. I had to bring him the second mount from my 78 car for him to do the mods.
The pipes go back to 2 Dynomax Super Turbo mufflers (16” case, 3” in and out) with a crossover and exit out each side all mandrel bent with no kinks anywhere. I wanted the pipes to exit out the back ala 5.0 but there wasn’t room on the left side for the 3” pipe to run all the way to the back. (the gas tank is offset towards the left so that setup was next to impossible without moving the tank, something that I wasn’t willing to do at this stage)
I drove it home last night and also went out for a rip later in the evening and it feels good. I hear a lot more noise with the headers which is expected and it has a nice idle (almost like it has a cam) when sitting at a light. The tranny shifts great (very firm when I got on it, nice when I take it easy). I still need to install my tranny cooler which is this weekends project. Water temp was 180’F and never went above that (with Milodon Alum. high volume WP and 3 core rad). Oil pressure was 50 psi. after the oil heated up with long highway drive but at idle it was around 10psi. (I feel it’s a bit low but a quick stab with the throttle brings the pressure right up to 50 almost right away) so it’s probably no big deal. I seem to think that this engine was probably rebuilt at one time but there’s no way to confirm that.
The GF gets her shot at driving it today and we’ll be racking up some k’s on it for sure this weekend so we’ll see how it is with more time behind the wheel. Stay tuned.
