2000 AWD Xploder from Turbo back to NA

[willzilla]

Need to buy a new drill.. Arg.. Wobbles! :-/

The IAT the truck had was epoxied or whatever to a metal bung screw setup to screw into a pipe... Just bought a new one for a 2000 lightning that looks like it will mount into the MAC piping without a problem.

Heading out to buy a drill now.

Also bought some plugs for the oil feed/return.

 

[willzilla]

Hopefully will have time to drill out holes to fit the MAF to the heat shield plate... only issue though (well, possible), will having edges inside the tube from the transition of the stock size intake hole to the bigger MAF tube (which leaves a few mm ridge around the outer edge) affect air flow to the TB by a large margin? Or would it be negligible?

 

[willzilla]

On a side note.. the new IAT plugged into the MAC tubing perfect!

 

[willzilla]

Found a Maf tube laying around that fit! Got the MAC intake installed finally lol.

Drove it around block.. Def hits down to 10 on AF when I gas it lol.

Need to get a temp tune to remedy the AF.

Still unable to reach Bob.. Ugh :-/

 

[willzilla]

A cpl pix...

 

[willzilla]

Found where the oil return line was tapped at... Into the oil tube that the breather was connected to... Yanked the line, cut a section off, capped it, and connected the capped piece back on.

Yanked driver side tire to trace feed line, took out the fender lining and saw one spark plug cable was hanging disconnected from the plug :-O... Reconnected and found the oil line... Ran out of time to figure out the best way to access it to plug it :-/

 

[willzilla]

Still have not been able to get in touch with Bob for the TMHs... Does anyone know if he is maybe on vacation or something? Left him a cpl VMs over the past few weeks and still nothing :-/

 

[willzilla]

Has anyone else reading this been able to get in touch with Bob in the past few weeks?

 

[willzilla]

Project kind of on hold at the moment... pending getting in touch with Bob and getting some TMH's... still also need to remove oil feed line and the turbo... Hopefully I can reach him and order a set soon and continue on the project... Currently driving the wife's old Freestar and yeah... I don't feel extremely manly in that thing! Lol.

 

[TekMan05]

I plan on having all new piping ran from headers to muffler and to tails... I can't visualize the underside of the truck at the moment... but, I won't be running any cats... so, will any form of flex pipe be required off the headers?

What would be optimal and do-able set up starting from the headers would you say?

I know on my SVTf... I have the Cosworth SVT header on the car... and from there it directly connect to a 3" off-road pipe (in place of the cat).. which connects to a 3" flex pipe to prevent any kind of breakage on engine movement... which then connects to my 304SS 3" exhaust that runs all the way to out the back.

Pix (before some further tweaking):

I'm kinda planning to re-do my exhaust Similar to this. What I want to do is place high flow cats in place of my factory ones and then 2.5'' all the way back to my Flowmaster dual in/out muffler. I do not have rear cats anymore so in place right there I want to see if I can place an X-pipe there. I've been searching for high flow cats that would be compatiable with my truck and so far no luck. You happen to know of any? and what about the rear o2 sensors? If I were to up size the piping where they're placed out would I have to remove them or tap new threaded holes for them? Either way Great job on your truck. You have the same design and color scheme as mine.
Subscribing!

 

[willzilla]

I'm kinda planning to re-do my exhaust Similar to this. What I want to do is place high flow cats in place of my factory ones and then 2.5'' all the way back to my Flowmaster dual in/out muffler. I do not have rear cats anymore so in place right there I want to see if I can place an X-pipe there. I've been searching for high flow cats that would be compatiable with my truck and so far no luck. You happen to know of any? and what about the rear o2 sensors? If I were to up size the piping where they're placed out would I have to remove them or tap new threaded holes for them? Either way Great job on your truck. You have the same design and color scheme as mine.
Subscribing!

Thanks man!

The pix you quoted was my full 304SS 3" back setup on my SVTf (which I should have home FINALLY next month, lol)...

But yeah... Upon further looking at the truck.. I don't think I will be able to dump the pipes in front of my rear tires as originally planned due to the running boards :-/ We shall see though! May just exit right behind the rear tires, one pipe on each side, or dual pipes out of one side... Still up in the air.

I won't be running any cats on my set-up... But, perhaps some options you could look into (would need welded on, as they are not flanged or anything):

http://www.mandrelbendingsolutions.com/servlet/the-500/catalytic-converter/Detail
http://www.mandrelbendingsolutions.com/servlet/the-665/Hi-dsh-Flow-Catalytic-Converter-High/Detail
http://www.mandrelbendingsolutions.com/servlet/the-812/MBS-100-cell-Hi-dsh-Flow/Detail

I cannot remember on o2 sensors which ones can be deleted or not thru a tune or cheater wire... Worst case is you could just have threaded bungs welded in in a similar location and put the o2 sensors back on those.

And are you saying you plan on running 2.5" thru cats (one on each side) and then into a dual in dual out muffler and then into an X pipe?? I think just running into the dual in dual out muffler and then out would be fine... no need for an additional X pipe imo.

My plan, so far... will be, most likely a 409SS set-up, 2.5" off the TMHs, ran into a 2.5" to 3" transition on each pipe as soon as room allows, and then into a full boar dual in-dual out 3" muffler (http://www.mandrelbendingsolutions.com/servlet/the-849/Full-Boar-Exhaust/Detail) and then run these pipes to either exit at a slight angle behind each rear tire (or next to each other behind one tire) welded into, for each pipe, a 3.5" or 4" tip, like the http://www.mandrelbendingsolutions.com/servlet/the-795/3.5%22-Silver-Vein-Coated-fdsh-Rolled/Detail.

 

[willzilla]

Big road block right now for me though is.... I cannot get in touch with Bob to buy the torque monster headers!! :-/ Lol.

 

[TekMan05]

Is he still selling his headers? Another thread was mentioning that he was selling his business?
I emailed a rep for that mandrelbending shop and they told me they actually could fabricate a set-up like I mentioned. Problem is , they need the vehicle there to make it happen and they're located in MD. That's a long ways to go for exhaust lol. So the search continues. My friend has access to a welder if need be but preferrably I'd like a shop to do it because they can do a professional quality welding. I'll try to use paint program to show you my planned setup to give an idea of what I'd like to do.

 

[TekMan05]

This first diagram shows my current setup of the front portion of the exhaust. Note I didn't label the front o2 sensor location as I cant quite remember at the moment if the front o2 sensors mounted on or in front of the catalytic converters. but this will give you an idea of what I'm trying to show. The 2nd shows my desired idea of modified exhaust.

 

[willzilla]

Yeah, Bob was going to sell his business from what info I was able to gather, but, decided not to or something, and is still selling them... His website and everything is still up... But I don't want to order on the website as I want the large collector version w/1" extended EGR tube and also get the explorerforum discount which is $100 off if I am not mistaken...

As for the X pipe though... What is the point of an X pipe before a dual in dual out muffler? The dual in dual out muffler has a built in H pipe or X pipe configuration and equalizes the exhaust already... So in essence, you would be running a dual XX or XH set-up...? Just wondering. Nice paint tho! I need to map my planned set-up sometime like that.

 

[willzilla]

Also... What is the pipe size coming off of the exhaust manifold into the front cats? 2.25"? If so... maybe, while under there, have them upgrade that piping to some fresh new 2.5" piping as well as I'm sure it would only be a couple $s more?

 

[TekMan05]

I was considering that idea from the collector flanges. I just don't know the size of the piping as of now off the collector flanges. I guess I could live without an X Pip if all the exhaust in front of my muffler is expanded to 2.5'' with the high flow cats. The Challenge, is finding the right high flow converters. The 2nd part is a shop that'll actually touch my exhaust since I removed the rear convertors. Most around here won't touch because it's technically not legal. I may have to find some speed shops around here that may help.

 

[willzilla]

I was considering that idea from the collector flanges. I just don't know the size of the piping as of now off the collector flanges. I guess I could live without an X Pip if all the exhaust in front of my muffler is expanded to 2.5'' with the high flow cats. The Challenge, is finding the right high flow converters. The 2nd part is a shop that'll actually touch my exhaust since I removed the rear convertors. Most around here won't touch because it's technically not legal. I may have to find some speed shops around here that may help.

I believe the law is that a shop cannot "remove" cats without also replacing them... But, if they are already gone, then they are not breaking any laws by performing exhaust work on the vehicle.

Also, the only reason I say you don't need the X pipe, IMO, is because having a dual in dual out muffler performs the same function already, so, having both would be a waste

 

[TekMan05]

I believe the law is that a shop cannot "remove" cats without also replacing them... But, if they are already gone, then they are not breaking any laws by performing exhaust work on the vehicle.

Also, the only reason I say you don't need the X pipe, IMO, is because having a dual in dual out muffler performs the same function already, so, having both would be a waste

I feel ya on the X-Pipe. I will gain more sound volume and performance with upsizing the pipe and placing hi flow's in there. So that'll save a little bit of money right there. On the muffler shop. They did tell me when I requested an x pipe initially that they had to re-install the rear cats if they were going to work on my truck because it originally had 4. Which was a load of crap. I'm going to take Eric's advice and look at some Performance shops that specialize in that area. I already found one right now and will be giving them a call next week. Thanks for your helpful advice as well

 

[willzilla]

I feel ya on the X-Pipe. I will gain more sound volume and performance with upsizing the pipe and placing hi flow's in there. So that'll save a little bit of money right there. On the muffler shop. They did tell me when I requested an x pipe initially that they had to re-install the rear cats if they were going to work on my truck because it originally had 4. Which was a load of crap. I'm going to take Eric's advice and look at some Performance shops that specialize in that area. I already found one right now and will be giving them a call next week. Thanks for your helpful advice as well

It just sounds like they want to charge you more money for something you do not require... Re-install the 2 rear cats? Lol, such BS... Gl on the hunt for a real non full of **** shop!! Or, you could just tell the shop you were speaking with that it will be for track use only and not be driven on the street lol.