Yes, that's right. I've redone 2 major parts of my exhaust and it's only cost me $5.
1st, me and 3 friends made a test pipe. My converter was gutted several months back because it came apart and clogged the exhaust near the muffler. Gutting it created a leaky sound which got annoying. To do this, I bought a 18" X 2" exhaust pipe from Advanced. We then cut(using hack saws because it was late at night and we didn't want to make a lot of noise) the converter out at the weld in the front and the weld in the back. Put the converter on end and the pipe on end, marked the distance, cut the new pipe with a pipe cutter(on which the blade is flat-spotted because my brother tried to cut a coil spring with it, which makes it really hard to use but it worked), welded the rear flange on it, held the front section and the new pipe on the car and marked it, then welded the front section on. Put it on the car, started it up, and it was louder than hell. Why? Because someone freggin marked the rear flange upside-down, which created a huge gap at that flange. So then I had to cut the new pipe in the center, put the pieces back up under the car, mark them, and I had my friend tack-weld them together so that we could test-fit it. Well, he welded like 1/4 the way around the pipe, and when we test fit it it was rotated about a centimeter. So we had to break the weld, bend the weld outward, and reweld. But it worked. Only problems are that it's hitting the bottom of the car which I have to fix, and the Pacesetter paper gasket tore, so I need a new gasket for it. Here's what it looks like:
Next up was the muffler. At work we had a '02 Protege muffler sitting in the cleaning bay for months. It was from a trade in we got which had a Racing Beat muffler so the guy just gave us the stock muffler. It's in mint condition, like new. So I cleaned it up and took it home and planned to use it on my car because my muffler is leaky. Now then, the 3rd gen Protege muffler is the same length but a little wider than the 1st gen muffler. Also, the pipe that goes to it is a different length and bend. So what we did was measure from the back of the muffler to where that brace is welded, and cut the pipe there. Then we marked the same distance on the 1st gen muffler, and cut that pipe. Welded that pipe onto the 3rd gen muffler and it fit perfectly. Next problem was that the hanger on the back muffler hit the cross member on the rear suspension, so I hacked that off. The bigger issue is the hangers on the front of the muffler. I was going to hack off the hanger from the old muffler and put it on the new muffler, but my friend with the hack saws left early, so I couldn't do that. So I put one rubber hanger sideways on the muffler hanger to pull the muffler towards the right side of the car because it was too close on the left. Then we took a wire hanger and looped it around the metal hanger on the left side of the muffler and connected the rubber hanger to it and the hanger on the car. Works pretty well but we will redo it properly this weekend. Also the tail pipe turns wrong for the 1st gen Protege, so we are going to cut it off and rotate it around so it points better. Here's what it looks like currently:
So there you have it, $5(well I have to buy 2 gaskets still) to fix my exhaust.
1st, me and 3 friends made a test pipe. My converter was gutted several months back because it came apart and clogged the exhaust near the muffler. Gutting it created a leaky sound which got annoying. To do this, I bought a 18" X 2" exhaust pipe from Advanced. We then cut(using hack saws because it was late at night and we didn't want to make a lot of noise) the converter out at the weld in the front and the weld in the back. Put the converter on end and the pipe on end, marked the distance, cut the new pipe with a pipe cutter(on which the blade is flat-spotted because my brother tried to cut a coil spring with it, which makes it really hard to use but it worked), welded the rear flange on it, held the front section and the new pipe on the car and marked it, then welded the front section on. Put it on the car, started it up, and it was louder than hell. Why? Because someone freggin marked the rear flange upside-down, which created a huge gap at that flange. So then I had to cut the new pipe in the center, put the pieces back up under the car, mark them, and I had my friend tack-weld them together so that we could test-fit it. Well, he welded like 1/4 the way around the pipe, and when we test fit it it was rotated about a centimeter. So we had to break the weld, bend the weld outward, and reweld. But it worked. Only problems are that it's hitting the bottom of the car which I have to fix, and the Pacesetter paper gasket tore, so I need a new gasket for it. Here's what it looks like:
Next up was the muffler. At work we had a '02 Protege muffler sitting in the cleaning bay for months. It was from a trade in we got which had a Racing Beat muffler so the guy just gave us the stock muffler. It's in mint condition, like new. So I cleaned it up and took it home and planned to use it on my car because my muffler is leaky. Now then, the 3rd gen Protege muffler is the same length but a little wider than the 1st gen muffler. Also, the pipe that goes to it is a different length and bend. So what we did was measure from the back of the muffler to where that brace is welded, and cut the pipe there. Then we marked the same distance on the 1st gen muffler, and cut that pipe. Welded that pipe onto the 3rd gen muffler and it fit perfectly. Next problem was that the hanger on the back muffler hit the cross member on the rear suspension, so I hacked that off. The bigger issue is the hangers on the front of the muffler. I was going to hack off the hanger from the old muffler and put it on the new muffler, but my friend with the hack saws left early, so I couldn't do that. So I put one rubber hanger sideways on the muffler hanger to pull the muffler towards the right side of the car because it was too close on the left. Then we took a wire hanger and looped it around the metal hanger on the left side of the muffler and connected the rubber hanger to it and the hanger on the car. Works pretty well but we will redo it properly this weekend. Also the tail pipe turns wrong for the 1st gen Protege, so we are going to cut it off and rotate it around so it points better. Here's what it looks like currently:
So there you have it, $5(well I have to buy 2 gaskets still) to fix my exhaust.
**SOLD**
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