Engine Prep
Need to lose some crap & make her look pretty ...
Much better... I'm using Seville Exhaust manifolds so I can ditch the wrap around exhaust & run TRUE duals !! Hee hee I had them Ceramic coated to help control underhood temps & rusting. I don't like rust - which might become very obvious with all the painting I did on my X.
Before....
After...
It was all good until I mounted the 4.9L & realized the exhaust has nowhere to go !! Bastards !! The problem is my X-11 is an 81', which used a Y-pipe exhaust that went under the engine cradle. The 82 & up years went to the wrap around exhaust and had the firewall tunneled like a rear wheel drive car in order to flow the exhaust - as seen above exhaust goes over the cradle. The 80-81 are flat with no tunnel....
You can see how the old cradle differs & the exhaust goes under not over.
This shows where the cradle with hit when I try to install it & that the old exhaust is below that level.
Solution is to use another "Front" Ex. manifold from a Seville & drop the pipe down the side.
After installing the front Seville manifold it is obvious it also will NOT work.... Bastards !!! Back to the drawing board.
I used the front manifold from the Deville wrap around exhaust. I had the connecting flange cut at an angle then about 1.5" of manifold cut off, and finally the flange welded back on.
I had the machine shop drill & tap the manifold in order to mount an Oxygen sensor. All the manifolds from both exhaust styles have flat nipples like this, so they can all be modified to house an O2 sensor.
Fit tested the modified manifold & it will clear the tranny & axle.
Now she's back from getting ceramic coated & she looks real pretty!!
Now it should have a workable exhaust.
Oxygen sensor installed.