Date:         Sun, 20 Jul 2008 15:10:16 -0400
Reply-To:     Greg Potts <greg@POTTSFAMILY.CA>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Greg Potts <greg@POTTSFAMILY.CA>
Subject:      Exhausting work.... Advice solicited.
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed

Hi volks,

OK, yesterday AM I spent some quality time under my 1.9-powered '87
wolfsburg, trying to see how to make the back end a bit quieter.

Problem #1. The entire exhaust is all welds, from front to back.
problem #2. The muffler and cat both have leaks from the top, where my
welder can't reach to patch them.
Problem #3. The system has no hangers installed, it's all hanging from
the engine, except for one rubber-grommeted hanger off the tip of the
muffler.

So the first thing I tried was to install a 2.1 exhaust hanger I bought
at BusFusion. Unfortunately, I can't fit it between the engine hanger
and the 3-4 crosspipe. So I cut off the bottom section with my trusty
angle-grinder.  Now all I need are some hardened 6" long M10 bolts and I
an install the bracket. Unfortunately brafasco isn't open on weekends,
so that mod will have to wait.

The next thing I did was to remove the muffler, which was held on with a
U-clamp. And as it turned out, the muffler was about 1/8" bigger than
the pipe it was attached too, and the U-clamp was used to make up the
difference. In the process the clamp mangled the input flange pretty
bad, and it eventually started leaking. Luckily, I have a spare "cherry
Bomb" muffler. Unluckily, it has the same size input pipe as the one I
just took off. Luckily, my brother has a pipe flanging tool I can
borrow. So I borrow the tool and flange the pipe out a bit and the
muffler now fits snugly enough. In the process of expanding the pipe I
had a little problem with the flanging tool and subsequently discovered
that the catalytic converter is completely hollow, though it still has
the O2 sensor in it. Interesting. I supported the new muffler for the
time being with a 2" bracket that I welded to the #2 cylinder exhaust
header.

Unfortunately the vehicle is still pretty loud. The worst of the sound
has now been determined to be coming from the #4 exhaust gasket, or more
likely from the lack (or failure) thereof. Looking at the heads it
appears that it's done up with bolts all round, which I will take as a
good sign. I tightened the #4 bolts a bit and neither of them broke on
me, but the exhaust noise is still there. I guess I will have to pull
the whole works down and put new gaskets in, and in that case I will
probably switch over to a rusty but complete 2.1 exhaust I picked up
cheap at the busFusion swap meet. I'll have to have it sandblasted and
POR'd before then... is there a POR for high-heat applications anyone
here would recommend, or should I just put it up as-is? Ceramic coating
is not in the budget right now, nor is a Stebro system, much as I'd like
one. One stumbling block there is that the 2.1 system I have has a
straight pipe fitted in place of the catalytic converter with no place
to mount the O2 sensor. Perhaps I can swap over the pseudo-cat from my
current system, but it has no flanges, so that's gonna be a bit of a
hack. Sigh.

Also, over the past few months I have had a pretty regular 18.3 MPG (US
Gallon) gas milage with mostly lightly loaded highway driving at 65-70
MPG. I would have expected a bit better from a non-westy. Are the
exhaust leaks or the lack of a catalytic converter are affecting my
milage, or is this more likely a "state-of-tune" issue.

If you volks have some advice to help ensure people see me coming before
they hear me coming, it would be greatly appreciated.


Happy Trails,

Greg Potts
1973/74/79 Westfakia "Bob the Tomato"
1987 Wolfsburg Weekender Hardtop
www.busesofthecorn.com
www.pottsfamily.ca