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| To help make our exhaust quieter we got two Vibrant Ultra Quiet resonators. The Ultra Quiet resonators have a bigger oval case than tour typical bullet resonators. They are also all stainless construction. |
To make the cat easily removable for tuning purposes and so it would not be damaged during temporararily too rich conditions when tuning, we made a 3” test pipe for our exhaust and welded in Vibrant’s all stainless quick release V-Band clamps so we could remove the cat and replace it with a test pipe with only two bolts.
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| Like our main muffler the resonators also have a straight through perforated core. |
Vibrant also makes an assortment of high quality two bolt stainless flanges and gaskets. We used one of their flanges near the tailpipe to make the exhaust easily removable and serviceable. We also used Vibrant’s stainless steel headed hangers so our exhaust could be hung from the stock rubber mounts. The headed hangers are shaped just like the stock parts and will resist falling off the mounts. We added an extra O2 sensor bung from vibrant to our exhaust so we could easily install a wide band in our system for tuning.
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| Ernie cuts stainless tubing to length using a cut off saw. |
To build our exhaust, we got our buddy Ernie Fixmer to help us with the fab work. Ernie is a talented drifter and ex Formula D judge but he can also weld among other things. Ernie fit our exhaust by cutting sections of the U-bends and J-Tubes and tack welding them together to get a rough fit.
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| A band saw is used to cut sections out of the U-Bends to make crush free bends for the exhaust. |
When large sections of the exhaust were tacked together in a satisfactory way Ernie TIG welded the joints together. When welding, Ernie used Solar Flux on the back side of the welded tube. The flux helps prevent embrittlement of the weld from oxidation from the inside of the tube by protecting the molten weld from oxygen in the air while it is hot. The weld on the outside of the tube is shielded from oxidation by the argon inert gas shield that issues from the torch head.
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| Ernie uses the band saw to make fine cuts to get the angles just right. |
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| This manifold and flow meter is used on the argon tank. Some of the argon goes to the torch head, the other goes to a tube used to back purge the section being welded. |
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| Backpurging involves flooding the inside of the tube being welded with argon to prevent weld oxidation from the inside out. Use of Solar Flux and backpurging can typically increase the strength of a stainless weld by 40% or more. |
