A Muzzle for the 98' Mustang

 I figured I would just drive on home in the hope that nothing serious has gone wrong. I was eager to get to back to the rack and look around. Once the car was in the air it was easy to see what had gone wrong. Fortunately it turned out it was only the exhaust system. I knew there were a few small rust spots on the aging mufflers, but one bank had a crack around then entire inlet. So the car has always been a project car. From the day I took delivery; change was in it's future.  Back in 98 with a whopping 11 total miles on the ticker, the exhaust was the very 1st thing that had to go. Keep in-mind this is another tale of the underdog. This was the age where performance was generally reserved for BIG cubic inches or Exotic and Expensive factory turbo/supercharged cars. This SN95 platform like so many others is the base non-performance general use air-pump, a V6 adorned  with what else than a single exhaust. But FORD did use tubular manifolds and two separate hi-flow type cat's per bank, not to metion they put the cross over WAY down the line allowing for an easy retro-fit. Little goodies, but remember this Winsor 3.8 shares nothing with the 3.8 turbo coupe V6 from the thunderbird.

So nineteen years on the original after market dual exhaust convinced me to keep the cost low and just use the same aluminized steel materials. I was even able to salvage some of the original system; but did replace the muffler shop BS hanger for the passenger side with a reproduction GT spec (thank you cjponyparts.com ). Now I've always read about crossover pipes; but it was more about tone vs performance. Only shop talk about exhaust scavenging and other SOTPP (Seat of the Pant's Performance) indications mentioned HP gain's. Since I had the opportunity however, I thought I'd incorporate an H-Pipe into the new system. SOTPP said there was an improvement in throttle response and torque. Tone was mellow and smooth; a little too quiet at cruse, but still a noteable tone. Funny thing is that a day or two later Engine Masters released episode 22 ( Straight Exhaust vs. H-Pipe vs. X-Pipe ); validating the SOTPP indicator. I opted to weld the system for stregnth and hope to get another 19 years out of it. One tip, don't forget to check and recheck fitment before you weld AND recheck fitment often.