Date:         Sat, 14 Aug 2004 15:38:30 -0400
Reply-To:     Jonathan Farrugia <jfarrugi@UMICH.EDU>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Jonathan Farrugia <jfarrugi@UMICH.EDU>
Subject:      Re: New Muffler, how hard is that?
Comments: To: Donald Baxter <onanov@GMAIL.COM>
In-Reply-To:  <2c84d36404081411114d425996@mail.gmail.com>
Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII

Donald

its not super hard other that all those seized bolts :(.  take the exhaust
off where it bolts to the two headers.  that means that you will drop the
muffler cat and connecting pipe together as a unit.  then undo the other
bolts once is on the floor.  if the bolts are rusted don't spend a bunch
of time trying to get them off just cut them off.  do yourself a favor and
hop over to boltdepot.com and buy all stainless hardware.  its cheap and
you will thank yourself next time.  oh i would break the cat from the
connector pipe while its out and put stainless fastners on that flange
also.  you will need the two gaskets for the cat flanges and two gaskets
for where the connector bolts to the headers.  good luck.

if your going to keep the van for several more years then think about
stainless.  frank will correct me if i am wrong but, i think to get a
stainless muffler from him you have to by a 2.1 muffler and changed to the
2.1 aluminum engine mount bracket.  thats because his stainless mufflers
aren't round they are sort of square.  your other options for getting
longer life out of a stock muffler is to have it ceramic coated or have it
galvanized via Flammspritzverzinkung :).

jonathan

On Sat, 14 Aug 2004, Donald Baxter wrote:

> After all these years, my muffler (1.9 L '85) has finally expired.
> How hard is it to replace this?  How difficult are the bolts to
> remove?  Any real advantage to these stainless steel mufflers as
> opposed to stock items from Bus Depot or VanAgain?
> --
> ---------------------------------------------
> Donald Baxter
> 316 Ridgeview Avenue
> University Heights, Iowa 52246
> http://www.mindspring.com/~onanov
>