The Rumble in the Jungle

Another Oldsmobile Cutlass Cierra muffler job.

While there is a lot of disparagement of the accumulation of stuff that happens over time and accrued age, there are some advantages, namely, the possibility of having the thing you need in the house to do whatever it is you want to do is much, much greater.

For instance, I have now pealed 3 different mufflers off the ChevOldsmobuiac. I mean this quite literally: to get the muffler off, the muffler inlet is split in a couple of places and rolled back with a pair of vice grips until it can be pulled free. Over time, I have accumulated a large number of screw-posts for my dremel. The upshot of this is that you can load up four posts and thus spend more time cutting, and less time swearing, since it lets one avoid the frustration felt when a brand new cutting wheel explodes when it touches the piece being cut. Totally useful, though not something I would have thought to purchase on dremel day one, when I was intent on cutting air holes in the side of my mac.

The departing muffler has been unpleasant since day 1. There's always been some exhaust rumble from some where or another, and I've never band able to totally abolish it. Then, in july, the rear hangar ripped off the muffler, and I had to buttress the system with coat hanger wire. A somewhat sturdy fix (compared to the torn hangar) but not quite and certainly not likely to pass virginia state inspection.

Halfway through muffler cutting and pealing. You can also see how close the exhaust pipe rides to the rear axle, which hides the parking brake cable. Remember that little disaster?

Once removed, I discovered that the old muffler was about 10% smaller than the new one. Smaller on every axis!

I reinforced the hangar on the new muffler with a bit of JB weld, figuring that if it would hang on the car for longer. When the two mufflers were side by side, the difference in the hangar quality became apparent too. The old muffler hangar was smaller, lacked guides, and only had two welds, while the new one had three.

The new muffler, by virtue of size along, fits all the hangars in the car better, and so the exhaust noise we've been hearing for years is now gone. I am mystified by the apparent difference in quality between the mufflers. As a normal person, I have trouble distinguishing muffler and intrinsic autopart quality when I buy online or in store. Often, there is no selection to even compare with. I wonder how many other parts I've bought over the years have inferior or superior craftsmanship.