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Hey guys
So a major milestone was achieved last weekend. All of the Clayton long arm brackets were welded onto the WJ and painted. Now just gotta bolt the axles onto it with bigger tires and some rocker guards and go brap brap.
But, now there is somewhat of a major issue, the exhaust system. The original muffler was the size of the titanic and would not even fit in the stock location after the rear control arm bracket was welded on. So as a temp fix it was replaced with a small turbo muffler and some piping to make it drivable and not obnoxious. But even with a small size muffler, right now the upper control arm would run straight into the muffler. I cant move the muffler back any because there is about 6 inches between the after cat O2 sensor and the control arm bracket. Another issue appears that even if i go with a straight through muffler design, when the suspension articulates, the rear upper control arm will still hit the exhaust tubing. Lastly, current cat is resting on the skidplate and will be hitting it at every bump or road in general.
So here are some options that i thought of:
1)Redo the system from the headder where the cat and muffler end before the skid plate and pipe runs to the back of the jeep.
-more pricey
-have to get a new cat possibly
-due to articulation, the arm may still hit the pipe
2) do same as above, but end either right at the edge of the skid plate or right before the rear control arm bracket (seems to be the most plausable and protected)
-will have to either relocate the cat or get a new smaller one
-bracket relocation from the rear to hold the end of the exhaust.
3) come out to the side of the jeep
-the tailpipe is unprotected like the rockers
-same issues as before
4) drive without muffler or cat
-eh, no. Its an option, but no. I like to be able to pass smaug test if that will ever be needed in El Paso
5) do clever routing with more pipe and route somehow out of the way of the suspension articulating.
-No idea what this would look like
So how did you guys do it? it seems keeping the pipes short and tucked away is a good idea, but the only issue is can one reuse the cat?
Post picks of what you all did and how you solved this
Thanks guys!
Most of the time with a custom suspension, the exhaust needs to be custom bent to clear all the new control arms and the way they move under articulation. On my ZJ, I got away with a (poorly, by me) hacked and re-welded stock cat-back pipe, minus a muffler of any kind. Eventually the upper control arm won the battle, and the exhaust was almost smashed flat. My recourse was to bite the bullet, go to a muffler shop and have them bend one up. I believe that those with WJs and custom control arms have needed to go the same route.
As an aside, I switched to a high-flow bullet cat in the stock location years ago, and it was a great move. That stayed in the original location when the new stuff was bent, so essentially all I had bent was cat back. And I still don't run a muffler and it hasn't been an issue for me.
Bud's Muffler in Denver does incredible work if you need a shop.
Pipe from the stock cat back ran me $100 in my ZJ.
8th and Santa Fe if I remember correctly.
FWIW, Bud laughed at me when I told him Jim got his done for $100. I had mine done there still though because of the quality of their work. Mine was a fair bit more than $100 but super happy with it.
Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk
I must've hit the lotto and gotten a front desk guy that was under-bidding I guess. LOL!
I did just pipe, no muffler. The bends are a thing of beauty...ergo the reason Dave went there too
I have used Bud's in the past on my 65 Mustang. Great work for sure. Probably the best out there. I will likely use them for my touring exhaust on my new Mustang.
However I used Lakewood Muffler after I got my LAs on. Great price and good work as well.
I hear a lot of good about a AAA muffler on South Broadway in Englewood.
Springs area, no idea.
Lakewood said $700 without even looking at the Jeep. Tells me they didn't want to touch it (at least at the time).
That's why I went with Bud's.
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