FueledSoul

iTrader: (18)

Most will probably picture read, but all post some info anyway that maybe helpful for someone.

Headers
Im running long tube hedman Hedders Part#68460.

FueledSoul

iTrader: (18)

FueledSoul

iTrader: (18)

Fast forward: The car really has ran much since iv been working on other things the car has been kept indoors and i see some of the jet-hot coating is getting what appears to be surface rust SMALL but i see it! so much for spending up words of $600 for a set of headers you thought would last.
anyways rather then bitch about it i started to buy parts to fab a y-pipe but before i started on the fab, i did i what iv been wanting to do! switch out my rubber motor mounts! I originally planed on it but right after i put all my front suspension back in and made my way to the motor mounts, i realized that they are fastened by nuts and bolts i figured they would be welded nuts like the transmission cross member - WRONG so about a month ago i pulled most of all the front suspension back off to access the 6 nuts on the bottom of the K-member, see another reason why i really wanted to switch these out is i wanted the motor to sit like its spouse to before i built the y-pipe and to correct any issues before hand. I went with poly for the engine and transmission.




also since i had most of the front end parts off I spent about 7 hours prepping and painting the front of underside, everything else was previously painted as you can see...



This is all i got for pics of the front for the moment.


Getting ready for the poly mounts clam shells painted.

FueledSoul

iTrader: (18)

I permanently welded all 6 nuts to the k-member, so much easier to do mounts wish i did this when i had it all apart before!

FueledSoul

iTrader: (18)

Here is how shitty the rubber mounts were.

passenger side.


driver side.

FueledSoul

iTrader: (18)

Before getting to the y-pipe:
I had bought a 4thgen magnaflow cat back several years back before they seen any popularity in the thirdgen community, i had one on my 4thgen Camaro and liked it...

All stainless 2.5" and 3"


I bought new factory style thirdgen hangers and a 4thgen 93 - 97 v6 hanger? here is some pics the part numbers are on the boxes. i had to modify the brackets to get them work but it was easy.

FueledSoul

iTrader: (18)

Test fitted...






Some shots of the clearance

FueledSoul

iTrader: (18)

I had to correct the angle of the cat- back tube so i marked it and notched and tact it in place it it it worked great and the angle was how i wanted it.




I also had to cut the tube back to clear things for the y-pipe.
I took about 8" to 12" off of it... after trimming it here and there to test fit

FueledSoul

iTrader: (18)

Y-pipe:
After the cat-back was pretty much where i wanted it... i turned to the Y-pipe. I ran into a road block with trying to find someone to make a stainless socket so i could match it up to the headers ball. I even emailed hedman and they where No help! competently disappointed! but after driving to several exhaust shops i was able to get something close and im sure it will leak but all deal with that later on. Sad you spend all this money on stainless and cant even get a stainless reducer. another thing is i wish hedman made 3rdgen headers in stainless.

FueledSoul

iTrader: (18)

I put together my own kit and i sell them too...
2.5" stainless full mandrel bends


Here's the start of the Y


So to gain ground clearance i looked into oval tubing...


Oval tubing
To damn expansive so i decide to hit the drawing board and i came up with my own forming process, the first forms i made worked ok, i brought dad aboard to help me fine tune the form... and thus oval tubing was born from round! the oval came out just like the diagram above...
This isnt the best pic but you'll see better ones, i had to do a round to oval transition right away to gain extra ground clearance right off the bat.

FueledSoul

iTrader: (18)

Starting on the passenger side,
i had to modify my UMI transmission cross member...




Round to oval then back to round.


At this point i temporarily put up my 10 point sub frames to make sure i wouldn't run into any issues. Here what they look like if you never seen them

I built them awhile back, here is the link if you want to read and see more about them: https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/fabr...al-design.html



Passenger all tacked up.

FueledSoul

iTrader: (18)

Drivers side.
i had to modify my UMI transmission cross member on this side too.

This side started out the same way as the other one side did round to oval right off the bat but i had more bends on the drivers side.

90-irocdx3

iTrader: (4)

ouch that exhaust looks like it is going to hang low.. I would of notched the crossmember to gain ground clearance, over go over the top of the crossmember. Nice looking tho

FueledSoul

iTrader: (18)

I had a harder time connecting the front header peace to the y-pipe transition so i measure points on the rockers and the tube centers and did some math and laid out the points on cardboard so i could have an idea what would work. it was so simple i was able to know what bends would work and where to mark.

FueledSoul

iTrader: (18)

LOL, i did notch. you cant go over the top of the cross-member. re-look at this post.

FueledSoul

iTrader: (18)

Y-pipe all fab up.

FueledSoul

iTrader: (18)

Just for fun i put the car back on the ground and rolled to settle.

NOTE:

1) 255/45/16 tires at the time of these pics they all had 32lbs of air.

2) 1.6" drop springs up front. 1.4" drop springs out back

3) No front hanger at the time of these pics the front hanger would give me half of inch more clearance






Currently the lowest point of the exhaust, remember this is with low tire pressure and no front hanger over 4" 1/4.

FueledSoul

iTrader: (18)

More to come...

chevman24

iTrader: (1)

Thats plenty of exhaust ground clearance. I have about 3 inches between the ground and my Y-pipe on my 4th gen and rarely ever hit.

Shadow Z

iTrader: (2)

Cool build man. Feel like doing mine?

one92rs

iTrader: (5)

so i have to know. how did you do the oval tubing.

FueledSoul

iTrader: (18)

exactly

FueledSoul

iTrader: (18)

thanks, not really hahaha

FueledSoul

iTrader: (18)

I made a form.

FueledSoul

iTrader: (18)

I had to modify one of my sub frames to tuck the exhaust up more, i will have to come back to this and reinforce it.

FueledSoul

iTrader: (18)

Pulled it down so i can fully weld it. I will be using 0.30" 304 stainless wire tri mix gas on a mig.


drilled the spots i per marked while the exhaust was still under welded all the bungs on.

FueledSoul

iTrader: (18)

I was semi disappointed looking into my magnaflow transition,
As you can see theirs a ridge where the exhaust flow will run into...




I removed the ridge and bleat it in with one of my carbide burs and hit it with a few cartridge rolls, I also did this to the cat-back tube leaving it with a near knife shape edge since slip fits in side the transition

88gunmetalgta

iTrader: (1)

Looks good!

FueledSoul

iTrader: (18)

I got your PM all send you one back sometime within the next couple days

Primetime91

iTrader: (15)

Care to share the "die" you made to create the oval tubing? I'd love to see it, really cool

FueledSoul

iTrader: (18)

not really hahaha. but thanks

FueledSoul

iTrader: (18)

This stuff is a amazing!




I might have to put another layer of protection on the fuel and brake lines the tube that comes down from the header is has a bit over a 1/4 of an inch from making contact with the lines




I never liked the factory heat shield...

88gunmetalgta

iTrader: (1)

No rush man. My exhaust project is a ways off.

GTA Sammy

iTrader: (1)

Your Exhaust and Fabrication looks great! Congrats!!!
I did almost the same thing last year... (your workmanship is head and shoulders better than mine...)
https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/exha...y-new-3-a.html
I Love the oval tubing idea...
Your car sits way higher than mine and you have drop springs!!!????
Time for me to change my springs I guess... cause I still scrape. (Our roads suck a**)

Good Luck with the rest of your build!!!

chevman24

iTrader: (1)

[quote=GTA Sammy;4952131]Your Exhaust and Fabrication looks great! Congrats!!!
I did almost the same thing last year... (your workmanship is head and shoulders better than mine...)
https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/exha...y-new-3-a.html
quote]
That looks preatty good!! Only i think your exhaust tubing is too close to the transmission pan and to take the pan off would mean that you have to drop the exhaust to access the bolts.

GTA Sammy

iTrader: (1)

8 bolts to drop the Y-pipe... 4 minutes tops.
And having the routing that close to the Tranny pan is the only way to keep ground clearance...
That's why I wrapped it in header wrap....
you can actually touch it with your hand....

But I digress, lets not take away from FueledSouls thread.

scooter

iTrader: (11)

Why wont you share? I have contemplated the oval tubing but I am completely put off by the price from the manufacturers, if this was something easily replicated by the DIY'er could save your fellow members a LOT of money

chevman24

iTrader: (1)

I think its part of the thread and both exhaust systems are better than what i have. It was more constructive critism than anything. Both were done well!! Just my

FueledSoul

iTrader: (18)

Thanks for the comments and complements. Yea, making the oval tubing gained me 1/2" more ground clearance which i feel was worth the extra time and effort. It could be more of a optical illusion some of the pics i had took the camera was on the ground pointed up. The car sits pretty low it has a 1.6" inch drop springs in the front and a 1.4" drop springs in the rear. Our roads suck as well...

FueledSoul

iTrader: (18)

Your not taking away from the thread even if you where its not like we're falling off topic... I semi agree with chevman24 about the exhaust being close, but i do have to say tho how many times do you plan to pull your transmissions pan? Im not a fan of exhaust wrap in general, it does serve a purpose in some cases, in yours it will help keep heat away from the pan so i guess i feel pretty neutral about it. I will likely have to drop my y-pipe to unbolt my transmission crossmember and im not worried about it at all since i rarely need to drop it...

FueledSoul

iTrader: (18)

I contemplated about oval before digging into this build, The pricing of oval tubing in my opinion is ridiculous, that is why i did quite a bit of trial and error in designing and making forms/dies. The time, effort and what i invested coming up with ways of replicating oval tubing isn't something im ready to share yet... I think to show you that oval tubing can be replicated in it shelf is sharing.

scooter

iTrader: (11)

Great! Another JERRYWHO

//<86TA>\\

iTrader: (14)

come on james, i can think of 2 or 3 ways to make oval tubing without even thinking hard.

//<86TA>\\

iTrader: (14)

good looking work FueledSoul! But from the pics, i dont feel the car is that low.either way, it looks good.

i kinda like the blue thing you have going under there. Any reason you didnt match the parts to the body color? or do you just like blue

scooter

iTrader: (11)

Well think a little harder about what you told me the other day about the Corvette sitting in my driveway, I hadnt thought about that either.

I can think of maybe one way to attempt to make oval tubing but it would be a pain in the *** and obviously this guy has it figured out, maybe it is easy too but we will never know. Not to mention the only way I can think may distort the tube out of whack or not work at all.

This guy gave an awesome play by play of how he made his own sub frame connectors too, doesnt make sense why he wont share something else cool, guess he wants to sell his "kits" and make a ton of money since it is expensive to buy from other places.

FueledSoul

iTrader: (18)

i have no clue what your talking about.

FueledSoul

iTrader: (18)

Exactly...

FueledSoul

iTrader: (18)

Thanks, the drop springs i put in did drop it about what it said it would (1.6F/1.4R) over the ws6 springs i had on it before so i dunno... I might drop it more but that depends on the wheels i go with in the future.

Matching things body color would be a little more costly. The real reason i went with blue beside the fact i like blues is everyone has red and black suspension peaces so having blue also adds a color contrast you have the body color being primary and blue being the complementary color...

FueledSoul

iTrader: (18)

Whats your idea on doing oval that would be a pain in the ass? Its pretty easy just took some thought and trial and error to get it right. The subframe thread is probably one of the better write ups as far as subframes go for thirdgens. I just wanted to toy with people to see if they could figure out how to do oval... I think i hear knocking but no ones at the door... The kits i put together arn't oval nor will i be offering that you can sang one from me for $225 probably a better deal then you'll likely find anywhere else...

FueledSoul

iTrader: (18)

Out of stock...

Took a month to get these stainless flanges in...