I have a Capri Sun juice at morning break on workdays. I got this one that had the bonus straws!!!
And a couple of shots of the famous tailpipe that I had fabbed up a few weeks back. Not sure if I ever mentioned, when I got Baby, she always sounded like she had a little exhaust leak. I thought it might be at the manifold area (they told me the engine was rebuilt, but I don't think that ever happened, just didn't look like it's been redone) but when I had her up for an oil change early on I discovered the first muffler was leaking around the ends. It was like a canister with crimped on ends. At the pick your parts, all I found were ones with tapered ends, similar to a glass pack muffler. I hacksawed one off, along with the flange and an extra set of flanges, and welded it in place as best as I was able. Not completely successful, but better than it was. While I had it apart, I tried it with the remains of the rather restrictive pipe to the second muffler disconnected, and it sounded fairly decent, not an insectile buzz but a bit of a throaty growl. Hmmm, a plan hatches...
Truth be told, I'd been thinking that from the time I found the leak, or I wouldn't have gotten the extra flange at the junkyard!!! I envisioned a 45° angle and exiting right in front of the rear wheel. The factory pipe exits the first muffler and does a set of 90° turns, then twists over the back axle before it enters the rather massive second muffler. I found to my dismay that my muffler man had gone out of business. I stopped in to one local guy, and he came up with a price around $175 or something ridiculous. I left. On one of my first Saturdays working I googled for muffler shops by my work, and found a guy. He quoted my more around the price range I'd been thinking, $90. He didn't do it exactly like I'd planned, but in retrospect it probably worked out better as it tucks up better. I had wanted him to add a flange where the old tailpipe goes over the rear axle, but he argued (likely correctly) that there wasn't enough room, but said he'd weld it back together if I wanted to put it back on. Oh, and by paying the last of my cash he reduced my price to $85.
I'm very pleased with the results!!! It's not too terribly loud (unless you really jump on her) and, the main thing I was aiming for, bumped up my MPG by around 2 mile per gallon. It's still in the testing phase for actual averages, of course. In the flange close up photo you may notice that I've stamped it with a "5-12" logo, making it a 5-12 labs piece of speed and economy gear!!! I had the pipe off this Friday to paint it with flat black high temp paint, one of the few things on my to-do list.
One final note on Baby before I move on, she passed her smog check flawlessly, so barring major accidents or other failures, I'm driving her for another 2 years. Of allowable hydrocarbons (66 at 15 MPH, 49 at 25 MPH) she had 30 and 17. Carbon monoxide (allowable .59 & .55) came in at .02 & .01. Oxides of nitrogen (allowable 487 & 774) came 54 and 162. I'd bet that with the factory pipe and mufflers intact it would have come out higher.
I've gotten the medicine cabinet all repainted and tried to get it wired and installed this weekend. I failed miserably in the wiring. In my defense, the schematic is roughly the size of a postage stamp. After it didn't work correctly, I looked up a larger sized one on the interwebs and found the error of my ways.
More of the automotive stuffs, here's some pictures of Janice's old motor mounts. I'm not sure if the balancer was a bit off and it tore the mounts up the rest of the way, or if it was just the motor mounts all along.
Strangely enough, ever since I've gotten the latest starter installed (a week or two back) it hasn't had a bit of trouble, but Sunday her battery was dead. Charged it up, and drove her today with no troubles.
Just a little about work to round out the random. Did I make mention that they'd eliminated the middle shift, then weeks later moved the early to right between when early and middle used to start??? They did, probably at least 6 months ago. Starting tomorrow, they're going back to how it used to be!!! Of course, makes little difference to me, I'm mostly 9:45 for life (one of the guys actually has that imprinted on his tray). Nice thing for me is that they'd moved our last break from 4:00 to 4:30, for a 2 hour 45 minute stretch between lunch and last break. Very few could make that run without dropping at least one cycle to use the restroom!!!
I've been doing the Saturday shift pretty regularly. I seem to get more done around here on Fridays. Either it's the lack of distractions, or just a feeling that I should be getting something done. Either way, it's good. I'd take it for a regular gig if they offered it to me. I don't much like the early start, but being done at 3:30 is nice. Last Saturday I was having a nightmare that I was late for work. Then I woke up, and I was late for work!!! For the first time, I think.
