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The Swap Meet Five Point O.  

In this feature we will install some headers and free-flowing exhaust on a 1988 Mustang. This is a popular "swap" and we do a ton of 'em.

The customer purchased these items through eBay and local swap meets.  He told us that money was tight and he couldn't afford "new" parts.  So, we dubbed it... The Swap Meet Five Point O.  

Install used parts?!? 

Heck... we like a challenge.  Hold on, here we go!

 Adam ignites the oxy-acetylene torch. 

In many cases the bolts from the manifold flange to "y-pipe" will be rusted or frozen in place. Our vehicle just needed a little persuasion with the old "flame wrench".  The bolt is indicated by the red circle in the photo below.

Once the flange bolts were worked free, we turned our attention to the exhaust hangers and muffler clamps.

A large pry bar and extra set of hands will speed the job.

Here Adam ensures that the hangers are loose.  With a little back-and-forth motion, our exhaust system came down as a complete system

The stock exhaust setup removed

This process took less than thirty minutes to perform. Without the torch this could have turned into an all day affair!  Below is a picture of the replacement "swap meet" part.  As you can see it's a much nicer piece.  It features mandrel bent tubing that is 1/2 inch larger than stock, an integral H-pipe, and Flowmaster aluminized mufflers.  The seller even threw in an extra O2 sensor!

Although the factory "tubular" exhaust manifold was much better than a cast iron unit.  We will also be ditching the stock exhaust manifold, and replacing it with chrome equal length headers.

(Above) Edelbrock equal length tubular exhaust

Notice of the difference in design.  The equal length style helps scavenge the exhaust gasses by tuning the pulses.  It causes a favorable condition that pulls the exhaust from the neighboring cylinder. The Edelbrock headers feature a nice thick mounting flange, top notch welds, and great construction.  Take a minute to compare them.

Now that you've had a moment to look at the components... Here's where most people give up!

Can you even see the exhaust manifold in this passenger side photo?  A ton of wiring and emissions controls had to be moved out of the way.

How about now? Can you see 'em?  Let's go in for a closer look...

Adam had to remove the spark plugs to install this new header & gasket.  Fortunately the torch was not needed for the header mounting bolts.

In these photos (above & below) you can see the finished product, with all the spark plugs installed.

Now Adam turns his attention to the Driver's side manifold....

Believe it or not... This was the "hard" side!

The steering linkage looks as if it will be in the way, but with some creative "wiggling" the unit just drops in. Again, the spark plugs needed to be removed. 

Wow, that's a tight fit!  We checked for adequate clearance near all fuel, brake, and gas lines.

Once finished... the exhaust bolted right up with minimal hassle. Start to finish, this job only took 2.5 hours.

 To complete this project we cleaned up the carbon on the throttle body butterfly, and suggested a few tune up items. Such as a timing adjustment with cap/rotor/wires. A K&N filter could only help this pony breathe better!  Also, we'd like to see that drippy oil pan gasket replaced!