Engine movement

[Spittybug]

Weird question here. I've just put on my Peugeot headers and the passenger side one comes very close to the metal side wall of the the engine cradle. Any idea how much the engine moves side to side under hard acceleration? I don't think I want it hitting the cradle...
Thanks.

[Ron]

$.02
I would have drawn the line at toasting the frame, on a DeLorean like yours anyway...
Break out the welder:wrenchin:

[Spittybug]

$.02
I would have drawn the line at toasting the frame, on a DeLorean like yours anyway...
Break out the welder:wrenchin:

I don't follow... :headscratch:

[dmc6960]

I don't follow... :headscratch:

With or without engine movement, having it close enough to warrant concern is going to leave you with a heat issue. Your going to bake off the epoxy.

From a pure movement standpoint, you can get the engine rocking really good at a standstill with some bad misfires. Just go plug in some random numbers into your megasquirt and see how much the engine rocks. I'd leave at least an inch, if not two. Though I know the DMC Stage I exhaust gets pretty close too, and its never hit, would need to measure to know for sure how far away it is.

[Nicholas R]

Do you have any pics of the clearance?

[Spittybug]

It's about 1/4" from the flange to the side wall. The header tubes are further, but of course the orientation of the flange is such that it is close (thanks Murphy....). I should be able to grind the flange back a bit, maybe another 1/4". I've found some high heat fiberglass plaster cast type of material from McMaster Carr that I'll put on the side wall. I'm also going to use this stuff to make a new heat shield for the starter. If I didn't have an engine in the way I'd probably see if I could pound the wall back a bit or drill a hole. I'll take a look to see if I could dimple it by wedging a bottle jack between it and the block maybe.....

I'll see if I can get a pic tomorrow.

I really want to keep these headers since they are nicer than the stock ones and I've already got all the right pieces to connect them to the cats & mufflers. I've wrapped the headers nicely with wrap and if it weren't for the damned orientation of the flange we wouldn't even be having this conversation........ugh.

[Spittybug]

Here are the pics. The first two are the passenger side and you can see how close the mounting flange comes to the side wall of the cradle. The third is of the driver side. In both cases, the missing link is a piece of flexible 304 stainless tubing that does a 180 bend and then straight out the cats & mufflers that are hanging from the cradle extension rails (which line up perfectly with the cutouts in the fascia.

Yes, I did try swapping the headers with each other. A few problems with that; starter clearance, angle of the output is bad (straight at axle) and it would also require extraction of one snapped stud because it would use the opposite holes in the heads.

My "new" rear seal is obviously leaking too. About a drop a day I'd say. I'm getting the temptation to yank the engine/tranny out of the car since the cooling pipes have been removed already. I'm going to find long lengths of 1 1/4" rubber radiator hose and route them anyway I want to instead of the solid aluminum pipes under there. With the engine out I could do a few other...........ugh... it's a disease.

[Nicholas R]

Honestly I don't think it's all that bad. Sometimes things are tight, lol. If it was the pipe that was right on top of the frame I'd be more worried about the heat, but I wouldn't worry as much about the flange.

Worst case, you keep an eye on it, if it heats up the epoxy, you scrape it and shield it/wrap it/paint it etc; or you have to bend/reshape the pipe in the future. Best case, no major issue. To me there isn't a failure mode that causes irreversible or dangerous damage.

Just my two cents.

[Spittybug]

Oh this exhaust project is turning into the project from hell. The McMaster Carr flexible SS pipe isn't cooperating in terms of twisting it to expand it by 1/8". It's tough stuff. It's also got a fairly wide turn radius so once I get the ends flared a bit at the local shop, I'll still have a task to connect them. They will come within an inch or so of the axle boots, so I'll want to wrap my exhaust insulation stuff around them at that place.
I've also been tracking the rear engine seal leak and it's getting worse. Since the car is half ripped apart anyway, looks like it's time to drop the tranny again. No more Special T auto seal this time around.

I'm going to have to re-route the cooling pipes by the looks of things too. I was just going to get long rubber hose but that is hard to find. Thin wall aluminum is way easier to find and cheap. I'll fabricate custom pipes to connect under the car, up into the engine bay and over to the water pump and block. Bending them shouldn't be too hard (says he like the rest of this project has been painless.....) if I use the old sand inside trick.

I thought about just throwing the old manifolds back on but I've got three broken studs on them and one broken stud in the block that would have to be removed (not necessary with the new headers since they use the opposite holes). Ugh.

But with 95+ degrees in the garage and the humidity to boot, who the hell feels like working on this?

What a PITA.

[Ron]

Oh this exhaust project is turning into the project from hell. The McMaster Carr flexible SS pipe isn't cooperating in terms of twisting it to expand it by 1/8".
If I understand the problem, why don't you take them to a muffler shop and get them to pop it on their machine and open the ends up a bit? Probably do it for nothing...
FWIW- If you take a stiff coat hangar and bend it to match the outside of where you want it to run (make sure you include the closet point to the axle, or boots if you must), a decent exhaust guy can usually make one close enough to use in one try...

[Spittybug]

Yup, I've had the local Midas or Meineke guys stretch the cat pipe to fit over the muffler in pipe... now I need to do the same to the expandable stuff. I may end up having solid pipes made using the flexi as an expensive template if they don't work out.....

"While I'm in there" is now looking more like an engine removal to replace motor mounts, create a little more room for the exhaust manifold flanges, add the high temp plaster mesh stuff to the cradle frame side and to get to the rear seal. I'll paint up the engine bay, fill any extra holes in the fiberglass and maybe move some stuff around....

It's going to wait until we get down below 95 degrees though. This heat and humidity removes all fun from working on the car.

[Spittybug]

I can't believe it's taken 3 months to get back to this. Between the heat, then vacation and now my gimpy state (hip replacement coming up in January), I've been dragging my feet. I finally got the exhaust hooked up and the cooling system returned to its stock position. I didn't have the necessary clearances to have it all on the driver side so the supercharger project will have to wait until I can get some aluminum piping custom bent.... Anyway, the SS flex 2" tubing is good stuff, but can't make a very tight radius 180. I managed to just get it on and it's all clamped up. I think I will take it to the muffler guy who says that he can get a good 10" radius which will really help space wise. The angle of the outlet on the headers isn't ideal, creating some of the issue. I wrapped them in muffler insulation tape and also used some insulation mesh stuff (wet it and it sticks like paper mache) on the cradle walls so that I don't bubble the epoxy. I think it will work well since it has a really high heat rating.

I filled the cooling system, tightened a leaky joint and relished in the sound of my deep note, throaty exhaust! It now sounds the way it looks! While I haven't driven it yet (want to do in daylight), I've revved it up and let it get to temperature. WOW. One might actually think it was a sports car from the sound of it. LOL.... I'm dying to see just how much better it drives. Several of you have told me you've experience a great improvement by freeing up the exhaust. I'm certainly hoping so.

[Spittybug]

I didn't care for the wide radius of the flexible pipe. Nor the way the hangers in the back were visible. Took it to the old boy down at Meineke and although it took about 8 hours over 2 days (phone, other customers, anal attention to detail, etc...) he did a great job. 2 custom bent pipes, 2 hangers, 2 SS tips and all labor $275. Clearance around axles, body parts, hoses, etc.. is all very good both on the ground and on the lift.

Sounds and looks great now.

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