Quote:

Jon, a bit of explanation of how to bend "louvers" would be great!

Thanks!



I used a punch to do all the bending of the louvers. Just stuck it in and pryed one way or the other till I got the results I wanted....

Here's a little more detailed explaination:

The "louvers" I'm talking about are the perforations in baffles that come with many aftermarket pipes. These louvers are bent inward toward the exhaust flow.

When I installed the large (1-1/2 inch) washers on the outside of each baffle, I first had to grind a little metal off the inside of the washers so the baffle would fit through the washer.

I wanted the washer in the middle of the louvered section of the baffle. But since I didnt have a welder, I had no way to affix it there. So I just bent out the wall of the baffle (just a little bit) at the row of louvers where I wanted the washer to stop...

To explain, picture a row of about six louvers around the circumferance of the baffle. And about twenty rows of loovers along the length of the baffle...

By bending the metal out at each of the six louvers in the middle row, this gave me a neat little set of six "stops" for my washer.

(I did not have to bend the baffle on both sides of the washers because I realized the taper of the outer wall would hold them against the "stops" I had bent.)...

If you have access to a welder, you might wish to just weld the washers in place. This would ensure a solid modification.

The next step was to grind down the outside of the washers so they would fit into the pipes. This took a while because the outer diamater of the washers were quite a bit bigger than the inside of the pipes...

If you have access to a cutting torch it would probably be easier to just cut washers to size.

Now for the "freeze plugs"... I guess I assumed most of you guys would know what a freze plug is. (Jeff - not saying you dont know, just saying I should not have assumed most would.)... A freeze plug is a round metal plug that plugs certain casting holes in a car engine block. They are called "freeze plugs" because when coolant (lacking antifreeze) freezes in the block, these plugs generally get pushed out by the ice as it expands...

I used 1-1/2 inch plugs. I had to beat them into place because, remember, the louvers in the baffle protrude inward. This means, once I got them in place, I had to go back and re-bend all the louvers back into their original places. (Used a punch and a hammer to do this.) I bent the louvers a little more on each side of the plugs to "pinch" them into place. (Again a welder would be nice here.)

So, is that clear as mud now?

Last edited by jarnold; 07/05/2011 2:03 AM.