There are some exceptionally gifted folks on this forum that are willing to share freely with the rest of us. Very nice work and thanks for taking the time to share your progress and photos with the rest of us. It is more of an inspiration that you might realize. Especially that you document the evolution of the various challenges of your project including the decision making process along the way. Very helpful.

 

I really like to stop back here frequently to check on your progressive and marvel at the workmanship. Simply outstanding!

 

Thanks for all the kind words guys. I remember when I was just starting this stuff, I really had trouble with tasks like this. It was always a struggle and I wasted so much time and material. That's when this stuff gets frustrating and no longer fun. I just didn't know how to do it any better than guessing. I got a few PM's about my drawing for the adjustment. So I thought I'd cover the actual drawing a little better. I won't waste this much bandwidth on every little step. Promise. This type of drawing is helpful for many things. So on the work bench is the drivers side down pipe.

This time I'll just take a few pics of the method to cover the drawing better. On a clean sheet I drew a solid line. That will represent the height of the pipe. Yesterday I made the passenger side and measured three inches of raise. So I drew a level dotted line three inches higher. I made a reference mark for the flange end.





Eyeballing a round pipe on piece of paper can play tricks on my eyes, so I use a square to drop down accurate marks. I make a mark at one edge of the blue tape. I also marked the outline of the pipe again with a square. I made a mark on both sides.





Then I slide the pipe up following the parallel lines I drew that outlined the pipe. I moved it up until it rests on the dotted line that I want as the height. I made a mark with my sharpie. The sharpie mark is pretty close to the curved section of the pipe. But between the sharpie mark and the end of the blue tape I measures 4 3/4". So on this one I'm cutting out 4 3/4" pile to raise it three inches.




I took the 4 3/4" measurement and moved it up the straight section of the pipe. You can still see my old sharpie mark by the bend. I made a new drawing because I changed the placement of the cut. It only takes a few minutes for a new sketch and adding lines to the existing drawing just adds to the confusion lol. So I double check the pipe. The hashed out section is what I'll remove and matches the blue tape.





Then I slide it up so the pipe bottoms out on the dotted line. Measure twice and all that






So I chopped out the pipe just like the last one. And welded it the same way. Making the second one is always tougher because it has to exactly match the first. I slipped the joint together and mounted it on the truck. To make sure it is a good match I clamped a straight edge to the outlets of both pipes. Then set a level on it. I used a small jack to get it level. Then zapped it a few times with tacks welds.





Then I welded it up.





Mounted on the truck and the exhaust is already looking closer to my vision.





I'm going to have to think about the h pipe section a bit. I want the outlets wider so its easier to direct through my rear crossmember. But I'll need to decide on mufflers, or at least if I'll use a straight through or off set in/out. If I chop out 6" or so of the pipe that sits right under my temp trans mount it will widen them up as well as shorten. Got some thinking to do. And muffler shopping!

 

Nick you might want to take a look at these mufflers it should help your packaging challenge. The dyno data seems to show little or no power loss.

 

I made a mock up drive shaft out of some storm drain tubing to see how much interference I had with the exhaust. I then widened the h-pipe to clear the drive shaft by removing a section. Patient prepped for surgery.




Then I welded them up like the last pieces. After a bunch of research, and youtubing I decided on the mufflers. I went with Borla ProXS cans. I'm a fan of the straight through style mufflers. I have a bunch of experience with MF but wanted to try something different. I made a mock up out of cardboard to decide on the in/outlet configuration I needed.

There are several "builder" exhaust packages that come with a bunch of different bends and straight sections. I ended up figuring out all the bends I'll need and bought my exhaust ala carte. It was cheaper and I have everything I need and nothing I don't. Its a combination of flowmaster and stainless works parts all 304 stainless steel. I'll be using v-clamps for a few connections so it is serviceable in the future.




I started a little bit on the install. First I did some double checking and made sure my real axle was square and centered. A made a few adjustments to the link bars to make it so. I want to make sure my exhaust U bends over the axle are centered and won't have interference with anything. I wrapped my mock up coil overs bars with some cardboard to simulate the diameter of the spring. Then did some measuring on some paper and a sharpie like before. I made the over axle bends. This is the tightest spot so I start here, then work to the h-pipe. I made one.




Then made another to match.





Then I did some test fitting. The long leg of the tubing that drops down behind the axle will be for the tail pipes and I'll do that last. I set a scrap piece of steel over the frame rails to simulate the bed to keep the bends below it. Just a few zip ties and some vice clamps for now.





Next I'll make the section to connect these to my mufflers. It will require 4- 45° fittings to drop it down a few inches and over a few inches. Just tack welds for now. Once complete I'll fully weld everything.

 

I really like what you're doing! keep up the good work!

 

Thanks for the tutorial on the exhaust fabrication.

 

A little more progress. Temps here in B-Lo are a balmy 2° F, wind chill -16°. Its cold. Even for us. My heater is working OT . Originally I was going to connect my over axle tubes to the mufflers today. After looking at it some more I decided I could run into a snag if I didn't put some more thought into the after axle section. I'll be able to take out any offset to the mufflers with the quad 45's anyway. I may as well set it up so my after axle is as simple as possible. Nothing worse than crooked tail pipes. Well I guess there are worse things ha ha.

Lots of planning, cutting and matching.




Here is the over axle part. It consists of six 90° bends, and two 180° bends.





It looks like this on the truck.





After the turn out 90's I'll add yet another pair of 90's to run the exhaust straight out the back right next to the fuel tank. This is my inspiration for the rear end look.

 

Man-o-man this thing is really starting to take shape.

 

Thanks Mike.

A little more progress. I got the h-pipe nearly complete. Because I widened it I also needed to extend the crossover pipe. I also cut in 6" extension pieces behind the crossover tube.




Then I installed the mufflers with v-bands. I offset the pipe connection under the band 1/4". One side sticks out and the other shallow. This helps index them when installing. I installed one clamp on the in and out of each muffler. This will make muffler replacement easier in the future.




Then I plugged away slowly but surely cutting bends and tack welding until I ended up with this. The exhaust is symmetrical so I could make one side, then copy it for the other. (The visual offset is the rear brace offset to match the pinion offset for drive shaft clearance).




Now that its all tacked up and I'm happy with the fitment I have one more mod to the h-pipe. I need a place to help with vibrations and engine movement. The current h-pipe has "ball and socket" clamps on it. I'll cut out that clamp section and weld in some stainless triple layer flex sections. They are 4" long each.





Then I'll fully weld all the joints.

 

So today I had high hopes of fully welding everything up. I sorted out the tail pipes this morning and tacked everything in place. Then made the trip to get more tri mix gas for my welder as I was getting low. I get home with my "fresh" bottle after a 1 hour 20 minute round trip.... The new cylinder is empty. WTF.

That's just my luck. But I did make some progress. I pieced together the aft axle section and tacked it all up. It came out well. The end tips are just set on for now, they are clamp on type and a little floppy. I might end up going with a longer style weld on. But they offer a good idea of clearance around the fuel tank and frame rail for a 4" tip.























Tomorrow I'll get my new gas cylinder and work on the hangers. I'll use some 1/8" 304L stainless stock for the brackets and these little blue guys for vibration control. They hold the exhaust pretty secure, that's why I added the flex joints to the down pipe. ( I realize the picture below looks like the Preditors self destruct arm band but it makes sense to me ha ha.)






By the end of the week I hope to have the exhaust complete. Then I'll polish it all up nice.

 

Looks good Nick, wish I could put mine out back..

 

Thanks John. The leaf springs in the way?

 

Did you get rid of the transmission support? Are you going to bring that back or do you think it will be fine without it?

 

Trans mount is next once I finish the exhaust. I have plans for a center section with a drop out for transmission removal with out sheet metal removal. In most of the pictures there is a bottle jack under the trans.