Date:         Wed, 25 Feb 1998 20:00:16 -0800
Reply-To:     Mark McCulley <raven@HALCYON.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <Vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         Mark McCulley <raven@HALCYON.COM>
Subject:      Re: The F**d muffler debacle
Comments: To: Vanagon@VANAGON.COM
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

At 05:56 PM 2/25/98 -0000, Larry Carter wrote:
>Hello; I went back to the fellow who installed the F**d muffler on my 87GL
>today, and told him that some of the baffles in the muffler must have
>broken off and are smothering the exhaust, since I can barely reach 80 kmh
>no matter how I try.  He cut the F**d muffler off, it was definitely toast,
>it was also full of melted chunks of catalytic converter guts.  The cat had
>fried, my argument was that the f**d muffler wasn't free flowing enough to
>handle the extra heat generated.  So the fellow wanted to sell me a $250
>cat which he would have to weld on, and also weld in a bulkhead fitting to
>screw the O2 sensor into.  I told him to gut the cat and weld a cherry bomb
>onto the cut-off stub, then formulste the hangers.  He was a little miffed
>that he couldn't sell me the cat, and doddled, but did as I asked.  The van
>now has it's original power back, and has a pleasing tone to the exhaust,
>we'll see how long it lasts.  The mechanic was concerned for the O2 sensor,
>and thought that it needed the presence of the cat to do it's job.  The
>shop where I work replace the cat with a "test pipe" soon after taking
>delivery of new trucks, and never have any F.i. problems, not from that
>source at least.

I don't get it. Bus Depot has mufflers and cats for $99 each. Why not do the
job right? The F**d muffler, cherry bomb, and welding labor probably cost
close to that much.

-Mark McCulley