Concession Stand

Following nature's demand, my task-tree was blown straight to hell today.   After discovering some scheduling details I was not clear on, the exhaust work got to take immediate center stage.  I guess it's not a critical disruption, since I ran into a few things with the AC compressor mounting that was putting a damper on things, and likewise with the PS pump.

Really, though, this is just one of many temporal blisters that have been rubbed raw since winter began.  Combining today's discovery with the matter of time being a resource I had actually run out of about 6 months ago, I decided that it's in my best interest to take another approach to which type of exhaust design I'll be using.

My plan for the past couple years has been to run the exhaust as true dual, 3-1.  As much as it pains me, I've decided that I'll have to come back to this design at some point in the future when time and money permit.  Luckily, I pulled the entire Y pipe from a burrito supreme a while back, as opposed to just cutting off the collectors.

Having the whole Y from an XJ is a blessing that's been vigorously mixed, since the other exhaust pipes I've amassed are 2", and not 2-1/2".  I'm not too badly impacted by it, aside from not having any 2-1/2" elbows and having precious space taken up by exhaust pipe I can't use.  If you're wondering how I'll be plumbing the exhaust without having any usable exhaust pipe, well. . . remember that Sportabout driveshaft that got messed up?  It's 2-1/2" steel tube with the same wall thickness.  Good thing I've been working too much to throw anything away.

After figuring all this out, I pulled out the exhaust components and further abused the remaining available square feet of space in the shop, started dry fitting parts, cut the Y to a length that would let me test fit it under the car, and unboxed the sidepipes.  The pipes and heat shields in the kit are pretty good.  I have some severe disagreements with the way you're expected to mount the pipes and the associated hardware, though.

"I don't need lag screws in an exhaust kit.  This had better not be for what I think it is. . ."

"Nope.  Not a chance in hell."

I'm not quite sure what I'm going to do to hang these yet, but I'm thinking something like the hanger that the Y has/had, since it makes a lot more sense than PUTTING LAG SCREWS THROUGH MY GODDAMNED FLOOR.  Also because I have a ton of leftover polyurethane bushings that would work pretty well for that purpose.

I'm sure the screws would do a fine job of keeping the pipes attached to the car, but I have two really big problems with this: for one, I'd feel really stupid putting time and effort into intentionally sticking giant, sharp screws up through my floor.  More importantly, I don't want to travel back in time to floor pan repair (or even worse, rocker panels) because someone, somewhere decided rust isn't a big deal. 

My pickiness aside, I want to clarify that the kit would probably end up working just fine for 99% of people, but it doesn't satisfy how much of a particular person I am about some (a lot) of things.  I thought it necessary to give that disclaimer, just in case anyone does something foolish and decide to base any of their decisions on what I have to say.