95naSTA's Bonneville Progression

[95naSTA]

I got most of the exhaust tacked together today. The cutout doesn’t fit due to how long the headers are.. It puts the cutout in a more narrow portion of the tunnel. So, for now it's just the cat and muffler. Only the rear hangers (reused 15mm ones whoo) are tacked on and I still need to add the hangers in the center. Any sagging in the exhaust in the pic is a combo of the missing hangers and the fact that it's just tacked.

The rear was a huge PITA to tuck up and get out of view. I did guess right on the bends though. I only ended up with one extra 3" bend.

The tips are still in the mail. It's going to be a bit more work to tuck them up in the bumper than I thought. The bumper support is right there.. The plan is to still go for it. I'd go up into the bumper maybe 3/4".

[[ChaosweaveR]]

Awesome work on the exhaust.

[Ghost]

' timestamp='1326768613' post='65135']

Awesome work on the exhaust.

[Young gun]

WHERE THE F@&% IS THE SOUND CLIP!!!! but looks good

[95naSTA]

You want a sound clip of a tacked together exhaust? lol.

[markpetersonii]

lol Very nice!

[Ringo64]

Bet the lift made it a lot easier!

[95naSTA]

It was a bit tougher than I thought it was going to be. The inlet position on the new muffler was a good bit off from the original location making it hard to tuck the muffler up and still clear everything. The inlet had to be rear of the exits and the muffler clocked to fit the 180*. Then the bends to the rest of the exhaust from there were a bit tough.

It's going to need some tweaking after welding. The heat will distort it a bit I'm sure.. especially since it's stainless. (more thermal expansion than mild)

Either way though it's better than doing it in a driveway/the street like the last 3" exhaust I built:

[95naSTA]

Aside from my welder jamming up every 10 mins, today went pretty good.

Everything is finished and welded all the way to just before where the tips are going to be. There wasn't enough time to really dig into that portion of the project.

The stainless hooks I got off McMaster worked out good for the front factory exhaust hangers. Even with those welded in there was still some sag around the gas tank. I guess more and heavier material will do that.. The shop had a broken stainless exhaust that I stole a 90* hanger from, a common two hole rubber hanger, and I used an extra stainless hook I had to make an additional hanger under the rear lower control arm mount. I threw a bolt through the hook to the LCA mount with big washers up top to distribute the load and welded the stainless 90 to the exhaust. The result is awesome. The play in the exhaust is very minimal and factory feeling.

I did have to do some minor tweaking of the passenger exhaust hanger and pipe to get the muffler level and tips symmetrical but other than that it went smoother than I thought it was going to.

I also finally got to mount my ABS module. I cut up a silicon coupler for cushion between the module, body, and bracket. Bracket positioning was dependent on body contour but it's solid.

Video of the exhaust routing:
/>http://youtu.be/SoT4rZ4swm0

Sound clip:
/>http://youtu.be/fhs-_cRdteM

I'm not super happy about the rasp up top but the idle did end up being deeper and throatier than I thought it was going to be.

I'll probably add a resonator later but it's good enough for now.

[Killiger2009]

Unshould have used a glasspack instead of a straight pipe

[95naSTA]

The only reason I didn't include a resonator after the cat is because originally (had the cutout fit) there was no room for it.

When I found this out, I wasn't going to wait around for a resonator to come in the mail to do the rest of the exhaust.

So, like I said, a res will probably be added later,

[The01Cav]

For a 3.8L though it's not really as raspy as alot of them turn out to be. I still think it has a great sound over most exhaust systems!

[95naSTA]

Thanks man!

[Twenty]

I like it.

Can't wait to hear it on the open road.

[[ChaosweaveR]]

Not bad. Sounds good for a 90*V6.

[Young gun]

+1 for borla

+1 for a res

[Jedi3]

[Ringo64]

[AndrewVolpe]

hey man u wanna help me out with my bonny? ahaha

[95naSTA]

No problem. lol. As soon as I'm done with mine.

[AndrewVolpe]

ur not done with it yet? lol

[becksmerc]

i don't think he'll ever be done

[Ghost]

i doubt it. but if he does finish, he said he wanted to work on an Ecotec next. sooo...that would be my car.

[havoc1482]

Anyone wanna work on a Chevrolet small block? lolol

[AndrewVolpe]

Anyone wanna work on a Chevrolet small block? lolol

i would if i knew how ahahah wanna let me mess around with it and maybe make it better or worse? in the end we'd both have a couple good laughs lol