exhaust

Help! I'm Stuck!

Well it’s 2020, and we are back at it! This is the year, I can feel it.

Ran into a bit of a delay last year, and the body work proved to be very labor intensive. Mostly for my cousin. I’m afraid of the grinder, and not a great welder. But the body work is coming to a close end, and with COVID-19 changing lots of plans, I’m back at it every Saturday.

Today I was instructed to take some additional things out of the engine bay to prep for cleaning, painting, some replacements, and to get things out of the way.

  • Exhaust Pipes and Mufflers

    • Seemingly a pretty straight forward job. Just a few bolts attaching the pipes to the headers, and removing the hanging holders. Until I got stuck of course. With everything removed, I was on the creeper directly under the pipe. It fell down, and muffler and pipe wedged in my chest. I tried to move the pipe out of the header and shimmy myself around, but an extension cord and another random piece of heavy pipe were not allowing me to move. I called out once, but no one was home. I was getting out of breadth from the panic, and then my cousin returned from the store and checked on me just in time. Wasn’t hurt but it was pretty scary.

    • For the second exhaust pipe, I was sure to be on the side of it when it released from the holder to floor

    • Will need to buy new pipes and muffler - there were some rotting holes

  • Remove Radiator

    • Overall pretty easy to remove, though messy. Radiator was drained but there was still a bit of fluid inside. AND I learned that transmission lines are attached to the radiator, since that also made a mess as well.

    • Removed the fan as well

  • Headers

    • Removing the passenger side header was not too bad, tight squeeze to get to the bolts but was fine to get out. The driver side on the other hand wouldn’t drop unless I also removed the spark plugs.

    • Headers are in good shape, could use a clean up and pain job for another day

  • Where’s the rest of the engine parts?

    • The bay looked pretty empty when I go to the garage. Not quite sure what’s missing, and not quite sure where it went, but it’s gotta be in here somewhere. I imagine doing some organizing some time soon.

Being stuck and panicking aside, pretty productive Saturday at the garage.