Confirmed with members of grandmarq.net that these Ford 4.6L engines are funkier (hence louder) than their pushrod predecessors (in stock form). With that said, I got restless last night and fired her up. I tightened most of the bolts and nuts; but realized that I needed more heat cycles as they were fairly tight. So I decided to take her out to get gas. Very slowly pulled out of the driveway; and took a gander underneath when the front wheels cleared the driveway apron. I have a few inches of clearance at the lowest point; I just need to pull out and back into the driveway slowly. This car is very droney; capped up. The volume is somewhere between the Crown Vic capped up and it being uncapped (before the engine swap). I think I can tolerate it; but I will endeavor to find a shop that can get tailpipes on this car. I have 2.5" resonators and those '90s resonated exhaust tips to help quiet it down. Kinda reminded me of the old days driving the Malibu. Perhaps it will make commuting a little more enjoyable.

 

I fired up the Merc last night yet again. Took her to Autozone to get oil for 2 changes and filters. I got STP synthetic for the mechanic after he drops the oil pan. Got Castrol Edge to flush the Stp out when I get the Merc back. Then it's back to commuting in my car again. I'm going to start asking around for exhaust shops. My car would be great for a weekend cruiser; but not as a daily driver. I'm still a bit flustered with the mufflers not doing their job.

When I got her home, I tightened the passenger side header; but left the driver side alone since that is going to come down anyways. I replaced the U-clamp on the X-pipe flange with a band clamp. The U-clamp wasn't strong enough to indent the thicker gauge flange piping. That was the loose joint where I was hearing the puffing. Maybe it will knock the decibels down a little. My short cruise must have caught the attention of the locals. While I was toying with the clamp; somebody with a 5.0 pulled onto my block (a few houses down) and hit the rev limiter. Might have been a random thing; or somebody was looking for me. Who knows.

 

Got the Merc back this morning. My mechanic tried making a puller tool to grab the tube from the bottom and pull up. One of the bolts for that tool broke; but he had enough movement to slide hammer the tube out of the block. He told me that he really didn't want to drop that pan; major pain even with a lift.

Took the car into work and it's very droney! I will definitely endeavor to find somebody that can get the tailpipes on there. I will deal with it for now; as I have other work to be done; that was put off due to this project. My Mom made me promise to give her a short ride in it before I get tailpipes installed. But it's winter; and she hates the winter; so that might not happen. But at least I got cutouts when that time comes.

 

Forgot to mention that 2 weeks ago I brought the Merc to a shop that supposedly does custom exhaust systems. The guy put it up on the lift for literally a minute and puts it back down and parks it back outside the bay door. He comes back in the office and says "I've never seen anything like this before. It would take me at least a month to get tailpipes on there. Who put this exhaust on here?" Once I heard "I've never.......", I started tuning him out. Because the rest of the conversation is going to go nowhere. I took the keys and offered to pay him for his 5 minutes of trouble; which he refused (he was cool enough to do that). Then I left. I am going to keep searching for a shop that can fix my mistakes. If I don't find anything until the Spring, I will consider getting another exhaust system.

One positive thing that came out of this is that my mpg went up a little. I will have to mess with the Tripminder to see what I'm getting; but I noticed that I am burning much less fuel (despite a seemingly richer mixture) than it was.

 

Will 70s Galaxie pipes fit your chassis? They had big pipes on the 460s. I know they changed the front in 78 to front steer but I don't think they changed the rear until the big change in 04. My 91 Towncar looked like a 80 LTD underneath.

 

The trick with the Crown Vic was to get '94-'96 Chevy Impala tailpipes. They were 2.5" and an exact match for the 1979-1991 Ford Panther chassis vehicles. Unfortunately; there is no such swap for the newer Panther chassis. In my case, I have the tailpipes for this car; I no longer have welding equipment to fix my cobbled exhaust system. I can see that there are a couple sections that I could cut out and retract the exhaust another 6 or so inches. That would get the tailpipes on there. I just need to keep searching for a shop that has a welder and a machine that can bend pipe.

Ran a little experiment earlier today. Had my Mom drive this car around the block to see what it sounds like on the outside. It really isn't too bad from outside of the car. It just seems to be louder on the inside. Could be how I have the exhaust hung off the body. Perhaps the sound/vibration/pulses are traveling through the body and making it drone on the inside. After she returned 20 minutes later (she drove more than a couple blocks); I put the car in the driveway and uncapped it. I wanted to see if there is a difference in volume. Turns out the mufflers are indeed doing their job; just not as well as I would like. Took it down to get some gas; then took it 1 exit on the GSP; and had enough. Capped up; the car will keep me awake on a hot summer day in traffic. Uncapped, it will keep everybody else awake. The quest for tailpipes continues nonetheless.

 

I had a 68 Mustang smallblock with headers and turbos dumping ahead of the diff. My mom rode in it one time and told me to “fix” the exhaust or else. I bought a boss 429 setup from the parts house and it had big pipes and a couple small mufflers that fit under the rear seats and a dual inlet/dual outlet muffler the hung behind the diff plus tailpipes. It sounded great then and quit rattling the windows in the houses. This was in 1978, when you could buy factory replacement exhaust at a parts house. It also tucked up once it was past the headers. That was a fun car back when I was in my 20s.

 

My Mom is the opposite. She likes her cars loud. It's like having a teenage kid. My Dad was the one who would tell me to quiet my cars down. Now, it's either him going deaf, or the noise doesn't bother him. And it's me that is striving to quiet the vehicles down a bit.

My '78 Malibu was kinda loud. The Crown Vic was loud when I uncapped it. But my Merc is a different animal. I would have loved this car as a kid. Good thing most of my neighbors weren't around when I was young and driving loud cars; though they were around when I made my deal with my Mom. I am going to go out and cap my car back up before the rain starts.

 

Nothing much going on vehicular-wise. Replaced my parent's washing machine supply line valves over the weekend. The valves that I pulled are over 60 years old. My Dad noted they look like I salvaged them from the Titanic. Before pulling the valves; I anchored the pipes against a 2x4; which I fastened to the wall with concrete anchors. Whatever plumber did the work those many decades ago; failed to do that and just left the pipes dangling. My Dad said eventually he was going to deal with that side of the basement. Now they can get the repair man to come in and work on the washing machine. The previous plumber/washing machine delivery guys just dropped the machine off and told us to go get a plumber; because they were afraid of the plumbing down there.

 

I have replaced all the pipes in my house twice in 32 years. I found out that my spring water is slightly corrosive to copper pipe. Of course that is what I used 30 years ago. It wears away the copper from the inside. The house is all PEX now except for a couple small pieces that I will replace soon. I have a new bathtub in the garage and I will replace that plumbing.