unitedwestang

As the title says, I'm strongly contemplating making some of my own mufflers. Currently have Hooker long tubes to catteed BBK X and Flowmaster catback (40 or 44s ? was on the car when I acquired it). I plan on swapping out the X for and o/r H.

I like the sound at idle of the Flowmasters, but not much else. I have Borla Stingers on my '10 V6, and it sounds very good. From videos I've seen the Stingers sound good on the 4.6 as well.

I like the way several different mufflers sound but I've not about to shell out over a grand to try different exhausts. I'm a pretty handy guy, and I like to make things. Regardless what others think about "is it worth it for how much time you have to put in?" I say yes, because I like to point to things and say "I made that."

Down to the good stuff. I could make a set of Borla Stingers (or something very close) no problem really. It would sound good, but it would also sound like a thousand other Mustangs. My idea (from where it came from I can't say) is essentially a conical Stinger. Imagine the Stinger but as a frustum with one end one inch larger in diameter and the other end one inch smaller. I could install it either as diverging or converging. I'll likely try both configurations to see if there is a difference in sound.

Secondly, I'm wanting to try a Flowmaster/Straight through hybrid. Something like a Flowmaster Super 10 in the first half of the case and a straight through in the second half of the case. I'm hoping this would yield the good Flowmaster idle while keeping more of a full tone at other rpms.

In case it doesn't go without saying, I will be making these mufflers modular so as to be able to swap easily.

So why am I telling you all this? Perhaps you too are intrigued by muffler possibilities outside of what the aftermarket has to offer. I am willing to put in the time to do this, no doubt. I'm mostly willing to put in the money as well. BUT. Seeing as this is a very large community consisting of people from nearly every walk of life, you never know who might have certain "resources." If anyone has a line on any of the following, I would be extremely grateful:
1. Stainless Steel Wool
2. Stainless Steel Mesh
2. High-temp Fiberglass or Ceramic Wool
3. Stainless Perforated Tube. Or just Stainless Perforated Sheets.
4. 2.5" Mandrel Bends. (Small angles)

I also will be sure to making a plethora of videos/pictures documenting construction and results.

Questions? Comments? Fire away.

cruisin5268d

Go for it!

You could end up creating a better mouse trap that other Mustang lovers would want to compensate you for.

Chromeshadow

Every thing you need is available on line from motorcyle sites. I might be able to get the links in a few days, not at my pc with saved links for a while.

unitedwestang

I have found online sources for much of it. I'm anxious to see your sources as well however.

Norm Peterson

A guy over on the Pro-touring and lateral-g message boards actually did fabricate his own mufflers, although in his case it was mostly to fit some kind of mufflers in the only spaces available. You might be able to pick his brain for the practical fabrication matters.

This car.


Norm

Chromeshadow

I'm unable to get the info for a few more days, should Sat or Sunday. I was able to get the baffles which have the perforations in them, the fiberglass and the steel wool. Both the glass and the wool come in a sheet that works well to wrap the baffle. You could prob find everything at a Harley dealer, I think I paid less than $100 for enough to make 2 muffler inserts which are 11" long and 2.75 inches in diameter. I should be able to post picks by this weekend.

unitedwestang

What I was considering at the moment:

Stainless wool:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/290524874680?_trksid=p2055119.m1438.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT
Fiberglass Mat:
http://www.bristolcore.com/category_s/7.htm

Stainless Mesh:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/181510484856?_trksid=p2055119.m1438.l2649&var=480465826565&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT
Various bends:
http://www.mandrel-bends.com/catalog...l-16-gauge-55/

Sheet metal and pipe I'll get from a local steel supplier. I'll probably make my own interior baffle out of pipe and spend some time on the drill press with it. Most places I've seen think very highly of their perforated steel...

All regular steel surfaces I'll coat with header paint or something to keep it from rusting out. If I end up making a muffler I really like I could make it out of stainless later after these fall apart!

Plan is to first wrap the baffle with the mesh, that way it keeps the material from blowing out. Then follow it up with stainless wool and fiberglass wrapped semi-snuggly (precision terms at its best). Then slide it on in to the outer shell. Finish weld and call it the day.

Sounds easy enough. Ha.
Its going to take forever, I know. My biggest hurdle I think will be getting everything to line back up after I cut out my existing Flowmasters. Immediately following the outlet of the Flowmasters the pipe bends up to go over the axle. I'm going to have to cut it after that upwards bend because I'm going to need a straight section of pipe to install and clamp the new mufflers in...

I'm still R&Ding this and working out the feasibility. Doesn't help that I'm currently 307 miles away from my car and only seeing it on weekends for a couple hours

Hopefully I can get started on this in a couple weeks. I'm just trying to forsee any possible problems before I start.

Chromeshadow

Just the glass is shown on this link.

Here is the link, I got 2 different items, one was the steel wool mat-it's very dense and about 3/4" thick. one package was enough to do two motorcycle mufflers.
fiberglass mat-There was enough to do 4 mufflers-it's also very dense, not at all like speaker or insulating glass. Here's the hard part, everything-the size of the internal baffles, the size and shape of the holes in the baffles, how the glass and wool is packed, makes a difference to the sound. The baffles are easily removed from MCs, so if's its too loud or too quiet, it's about 10 minutes to change it. Not sure how you could make changes to a car muffler.

unitedwestang

Attached are pictures of one of the muffler ideas I have. Inlet is on the left. My idea is of how it "should work" is as follows:
Exhaust pulse enters the expansion chamber. Expansion chambers help to attenuate higher frequencies. It then goes through the radiused hole. My hope is that this creates somewhat of a vortex ring effect (think each exhaust pulse acting like a smoke ring). It then enters the baffled area of the muffler which will be wrapped with stainless mesh, stainless wool, and fiberglass.

If it works as I hope it does, it should yield a nice deep tone with a good idle while retaining a full sound throughout the rpms. The idea of the "vortex ring" is to hopefully help isolate each exhaust pulse a little bit more giving a more "blub blub blub blub" idle as opposed to "bluuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuub" if that makes sense.....

unitedwestang

Here's the other idea. Baffle will be wrapped with mesh, wool, and fiberglass. A source I have states the conical shape helps to attenuate higher frequencies. If that is the case, it should produce a tone slightly deeper than a normal Borla Stinger. Worst case, it sounds like a Borla Stinger.