Exhausting Coronet Work

While at our testing day at the track in May, we discovered we had an exhaust leak.  To make things even worse, one of the studs on the engine broke, making sure we couldn't fully tighten the exhaust manifolds onto the engine.

The engine comes out again.

This weekends we decided to tackle the issue and pull the engine from the car. Once out, we could more easily address all the issues.

Burnt gasket.

With the exhaust gaskets off, the burned areas were clear signs of the exhaust leaks. What we discovered was that the cheap headers were actually not ground down flat where they were welded.  John spent some quality time with a metal file and got everything all sorted out so they'll sit flush with the engine and properly seal.

Cleaning up some really cheap headers to hopefully finally seal the leaks.

Another issue was that some oil had mixed with the coolant when we quickly re-sealed the intake manifold before the May test weekend. Time to fully flush the block and radiator with water.

Flushing the engine.

What came out was in no way related to water or coolant, but rather seemed to be the hydraulic android fluid from Bishop in the Alien movies.

Almost fully flushed now.

Plug all the holes to drain maximum old gunky fluid.

Having fun flushing the radiator.

And don't forget to clear out the radiator fully.

Old mufflers on the left, one of the new ones on the right.

With all that back into shape, we loaded the motor back in the car and got onto some exhaust upgrades. We started by replacing the cheap mufflers that came with the car with lighter weight and free flowing ones to pick up a little more power.

Much more direct air flow through the new one.

With the exhaust now flowing more freely, we added an H pipe to the system. By connecting the left and right side exhaust together, it helps balance out the flow and helps pick up a little extra torque down low in the rev range of the motor.  Hopefully this will help pull us out of corners quicker during the race.

Fresh piece of pipe to make the H in the system just behind the transmission.

Our final project this weekend was fabricating and installing tow hooks for the car. Having an easily accessible metal loop on the back and front end of a race car is required for all racing series so the car can quickly be towed if it gets into trouble on track.

One of the new tow hooks bolted right below the rear bumper.