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Well this is amusing. I decided to check the factory service manual to see how GM suggests doing this.

1. Raise and support the vehicle. Refer to Lifting and Jacking the Vehicle .
2. Measure from the inlet of the resonator towards the front of the vehicle 20 mm (0.79 in) (1) and make a mark.
3. Cut the muffler pipe at this mark.



On the bright side, it seems to suggest the front Y part will come right out once I do this.

Chris GTO TT wrote: ↑Mon Oct 02, 2023 12:57 am Still moving faster than me and my WRX

my forester

Jeff V. wrote: ↑Mon Oct 02, 2023 3:53 am Well this is amusing. I decided to check the factory service manual to see how GM suggests doing this.

1. Raise and support the vehicle. Refer to Lifting and Jacking the Vehicle .
2. Measure from the inlet of the resonator towards the front of the vehicle 20 mm (0.79 in) (1) and make a mark.
3. Cut the muffler pipe at this mark.



On the bright side, it seems to suggest the front Y part will come right out once I do this.

This is actually similar to replacing the exhaust on an ST or RS. You have to drop a bunch of rear suspension to get the exhaust out as 1 piece. All the aftermarket requires you to cut, and comes in multiple pieces to snake it around the suspension. If it needs to be replaced or removed at a dealer, Ford makes a clamp kit for it, so you can cut it and clamp it back together. Why they couldn't just do that from the factory I don't know...

The H3 manual mentioned a clamp for reassembly too.

It's all about cost. Assuming that clamp costs a dollar, and they made around 30,000 H3s a year, that's a fairly decent cost reduction.

And the fact cars are made to be assembled, not worked on anymore.

No going back now.



Once I cut it, the back part came out with no effort. The front part still got hung up a bit. In yet another example of "if it can, it will" it was dragging on the balancing weight on the driveshaft. Because of course that little stamp sized piece of crap would be exactly where I need it to not be.

Now I just need to source a muffler, some fittings, and a length of pipe to delete that resonator.

Jeff V. wrote: ↑Fri Oct 06, 2023 1:38 pm Once I cut it, the back part came out with no effort. The front part still got hung up a bit. In yet another example of "if it can, it will" it was dragging on the balancing weight on the driveshaft. Because of course that little stamp sized piece of crap would be exactly where I need it to not be.

It's ALWAYS something stupid!

Hmm. I wonder if it'd be worth doing this instead?

https://www.jegs.com/i/Gibson-Performan ... 2F+325+%29

For my DIY, I'm probably going to be into it for at least $200 in parts before I'm done. Then there's all the measuring, cutting, welding, fitting, etc. I could do this and just be done in a couple hours.

They have a dual outlet version for $670, but that's probably not worth it. I'm not even sure it'll fit properly with the aftermarket rear bumper I have.

Or I do my own version of the Gibson. Replace the resonator with a free flow muffler, and put a downturn tip where the old muffler used to be. I wouldn't have to be super precise with everything, and I wouldn't have to fab any hangers. All this time I thought I had to put the muffler where the old one was, but I probably don't. The stupid Missouri 'safety' inspection only seems to care if I have leaks. I could probably straight pipe it and they wouldn't care. Not that I want to do that.

I say get that JEGS kit. Worth it for the non-hassle.

Or if the second option is minimal hassle, go that route. Whatever is the least amount of work

With the resonator being straight through, that really minimizes the amount of alignment I have to do. Right now I'm fighting between cheapness and laziness. I don't want to spend $600 on something I'm going to hopefully sell soon. I do kind of want to get the welder out and try it since the geometry is fairly simple.

I'll think it over and make a decision this weekend.

The older i get the more i just want the complete kit so i dont have to hassle with things too much.

ChargerX3 wrote: ↑Fri Oct 06, 2023 3:33 pm The older i get the more i just want the complete kit so i dont have to hassle with things too much.

This. Lol


Coop

Finally got around to ordering the parts from Jegs. $280 for a Flowmaster muffler and some fittings. Gonna need a couple other small things, but I should be well under $350 when this is all said and done.

Assuming I measured everything correctly. And I can weld it correctly.

Made some good progress on this today.



Not thrilled that I have to neck this down from 2.75" to 2.5", but there's only so many sizes this stuff comes in. I doubt it'll make any real difference in how it performs. It's more about the annoyance about having to cut down the various adapters. The muffler is longer than I thought it'd be, so I have less room to work with than I was expecting.



Measure, measure, measure, cut, measure, weld. It's not going to win any awards, but I'm more or less happy with it. Especially since I free-handed the cuts with my angle grinder.

Tomorrow I'll measure up the back segment, cut out the old silencer, and weld the muffler to the back section. Then I'll figure out how I'm going to route the exit under the rear bumper.

I mocked up the y-pipe and muffler and started it up tonight. It sounded pretty good. I think I made the right choice with the muffler.

Those welds look good. I wouldn’t complain.


Coop

It's been at least a couple years since I had the welder out, and I was never that good to begin with. I was also doing this on saw horses in the driveway. So yeah, I'm not complaining.

Kudos for taking the initiative.

Got busy with some other stuff around the house today, so I didn't get as far as I wanted with this. There's still some tweaking to be done, but I think I've got the back section mostly where it needs to be.

I'm pretty pissed that GM didn't make the hanger brackets bolt on. They're welded to the frame. I have to slide the damn rubber pieces on to the pegs every time I test fit this stupid thing. PB Blaster helps, but it's still annoying.

They make a tool for that