$700 Exhaust job...

[poopdeville]

I have had a rumble from under the old girl for about a month. The exhaust is original, front to back. Not bad life for a car up here where we toss tons of salt on the road in the winter and I am not the original owner.

I broke my kneecap at work a couple of weeks ago and just this week have been able to drive properly enough to risk mine and everyone else's life behind the wheel.

Yesterday I decided to take the lady to the shop and have her gently lifted in order to survey the extent of a forthcoming exhaust repair.

Wasn't I just blown away by the extent of the "damage".

The leak I was hearing was from the doughnut... one of the two spring-loaded studs has broken off in the manifold. The cat-converter is leaking at the front end AND the rear end.

The muffler has a hole in it the size of a quarter.

The muffler guy tells me the whole problem probably started with the cat-converter... it is plugged. He says that fact has then caused the whole system to overheat and things start busting apart after that. He told me my fuel economy was going south (which it started to) and that a cracked manifold was just around the corner if I kept going...

So, I am having it fixed up as we speak... a Magnaflow performance cat, a Camaro dual muffler with some bending for the tailpipes and a bit of drilling and such for the manifold. The pipe is stainless and he told me any replacement (other than stainless...$) would be less than what was there; he's gonna keep that one and work with it. He guesstimates about $700 Canadian ($250 US ) and it should be good but the tough thing is the stud drill and replacement labour... he doesn't know how long for sure it will take.

I envy you guys and gals in the US and some of the prices for things down there compared to here. I seriously thought of driving to a US border city (Niagara Falls, Buffalo, Syracuse...) but the idea of cracking the manifold didn't make me comfy enough for the trip.

The good thing is that after everything is done, my old girl will rumble nicely... in a tuned-sort-of way...

Next stop, the tire store... I think I found some 215-65-15 whitewalls at of all places: Walmart! I don't motor around like you N* guys so regardless of the manufacturer, I should be OK... I like to get new ones every 2 years anyhow.

Mike P

[sprucegoose]

Hey Mike,

Good luck with the exhaust and tires. I'm sure she will drive and sound like a million bucks when you get it back. Those nasty exhaust leaks really suck, takes away from driving a nice car...

Too bad about your kneecap... Ouch! I hope that you recover from that with no long term effects. I have a bum knee from an old dirt bike accident, and it will haunt me for the rest of my life I'm sure. Stupid kid trying to fleeing from the cops and laid her down on the railroad tracks! Didn't quite clear the second set of rails! Yes, I still got away...

You know, when I went under the Goose and replace that smashed pipe behind the converter, the whole converter was blueish-purple. I'm sure the Cat superheated from it being restricted to a 3/8" flat pipe! Hope it holds up in the long run for the next owner...