Date:         Wed, 25 Feb 1998 17:56:13 -0000
Reply-To:     Larry Carter <lcarter@COWICHAN.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <Vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         Larry Carter <lcarter@COWICHAN.COM>
Subject:      The F**d muffler debacle
Comments: To: van <vanagon@vanagon.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1

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.                             Larry Carter