Ok, After hours fighting what seemed a simple task of replacing my stock Thermal Reactor muffler with a Stebro unit I ask for wisdom. The orig muffler won't come out because the pipe for the front bank has to snake out between the frame and half shaft. So do I unbolt half shaft from the hub or remove shock & collapse suspension to give enough room. 2nd question: If I am sucessful in removing this 80# muffler, doubtful at this point, do I go ahead & remove headers & eliminate air pump injectors? Bill
you need it up on a lift thats how i did my gt4 and no I dont have a lift I had to pay a guy to do it I think he had to unbolt one motor mount also, the tubi went in in 5 minutes..... They called that thing the barbeque, without it and the pump unhooked the engine bay is 100 degrees cooler and I am serious!
Bill, I'm seriously considering taking my headers out now too. Since I can't seem to get the interior done and my trunk is all torn out, I'm thinking I might as well! My air pump has been disconnected since I've owned the car but the tubing and ports are still there. What the heck, it's just more time and money!! By the way Peter (Sophia here on F-chat) a local club member has some pretty cool plugs for the ports if you don't want to get them welded. Look on FerrariAds.com for them.
Slow down a minute. You dont need a lift, you need to rest the right side under its wieght so as to "jack up" the suspension. This will raise the drive axle and allow enough clearance to slip the exhaust out. I assume you have the car raised up off its wheels and up on jacks. With no wieght on the wheels the suspension sags down and the drive axle blocks the exit path for removing the muffler. If the car is well supported you can jack up the suspension with a floor jack. BE CAREFUL!!! make sure the jack is well placed outboard under the knuckle, or near the brake rotor, so it wont slip and has better leverage. In other words its one of those dont try this at home things. Use good common sense and THINK. No sense getting hurt over a car. You just need to raise it some, just enough to get the exhaust through, not so much you raise the whole car off the jacks and make it unstable so it can fall. Cars falling off jack stands are bad.
my thermo reactor is coming off this weekend i hope. sawzall anyone mine is so rotten, it may just fall off. the weight advantage alone has got to help, the thing is HUGE!!!
When Ric Rainbolt owned my 308GTB he pulled the exhaust and headers, not because there was any problem as the car is a Euro with the single outlet stainless muffler, but because he was in the middle of a major service ...and it was a good time to get the headers ceramic coated. Talk about cutting engine bay heat! My headers are now light gray, inside and out, ceramic coated steel. Give that a thought if you are pulling all that good stuff off anyway. rick / '79 308GTB
Wheni removed the thermal reactor, and installed the flowmaster, the car did a lot of popping back thrugh the carbs and backfiring out the new exhaust. It seemed that reducing the back pressure by gettting rid of the TR made the car run much leaner. If i can recall correctly the mains went to 140, AC went to 200 and the idle jets went to 60. Noticeable power increase and no more popping back or backfires. hth, chris
Good point on the rejetting....... Missing Air Pumps will always be 1 point on FCA judging that's all. One of my cars they are gone, the other the belts have just been removed...that's probably 1 point, as well! I have been cautioned that eventually the tubes and valves corrode and you induce exhaust leaks, so it's probably a good idea to clean it all out when in there! RH gas tank has to come out to get the front header, in my experience.....
Bill, After you get the thermal reactor muffler out, it would be a good idea to fabricate some kind of heat shield. What I did for mine was to use the heat reflective material used in the F40 engine bay. Barry Image Unavailable, Please Login
great post, i spoke with the owner of my old GTB and he first put a large free flow dual out set up on the car. the car was too loud and had no balls. he got the idea to take a new original euro exhaust to a muffler shop. they duplicated the set up nicely and ( i think) used a Magnaflow for the muffler. the single out gave the car just enough backpresure and made it a bit faster seat of the pants than before. i need to see what jets are in my GTB now. most likely stock 55/125/200. i will try 55/135/190 and see what it does. e tube should be a F36, i can never remember the relationship between the E tube and the air corrector.... guess i have some reading to do this weekend !
Why would you want to remove the Thermal Reactor? What you should do is install a Flux Capacitor, and then you can go back to the future! Much classier than a Delorean. But seriously... The PO of my 308 removed the old exhaust and installed a Tubi. Very nice! Sweet sound. He did remove the air pumps, but not the CATS. In fact, he installed new CATS when he did the exhaust. Why? I don't know. Anyway, I keep getting intermittent "slow down 5-8" light fluttering on and off. Any ideas what could be causing that or a cure?? Thanks.
Because removing CATS from 1978 on is illegal. Check the thermal sender in the unit. The other thing, and this is the weak spot on the carb/CAT cars is you have to be very careful on carb tuning AND ignition.. Run it rich, overload cats. Lose ignition on one bank and you dump a LOT of unburned fuel into the exhaust. I had an ignition misfire destroy the headers! So just be careful with that. Well worth the expense to have a good tech with gas analyzer set up the carbs. I heard it described in a great manner the other day: "Carburetor is a French word, meaning 'leave it alone'"....... That is correct once they are properly set up......for guys like me anyway!
There was an excellent chart on various years/versions jetting on here somewhere.....I may have printed a hard copy.
The Plutonium Chamber or the Mr. Fusion upgrade, in my case, are both more efficient than the thermal reactor. The flux capacitor is installed in the cabin behind the seats for visual verification of "fluxing" as per the checklist. Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
So how fast is it with the plutonium conversion??? I have heard that loosing the belts on the air pumps may eventually lead to exhaust coming back up the pipes and rusting out the air pumps. I have also heard that loosing the air pumps may lead to overheated, (read - melted/deformed) air injection nozzles. This leaves a big obstruction in the exhaust flow. I have also heard that the nozzles are a mother to get out, particularly if they are slumped over in the exhaust manifold. My plan is to pull the right side fuel tank, remove the front header, pull the back header, remove the nozzles, install "sophia's" beautiful plugs, (i have a set), in the old nozzle holes, then have both Jet Hot coated silver, (i believe the lowest emisivity rated color). This whole operation is a (as long as you are in there) operation while doing the belts and bearings. Dont you just love it? chris
I pulled my front header off from underneath. I got it out that way, never touched the fuel tank. I would never recommend anyone else ever attempt such madness unless, like me, you really needed to pull out the console anyway. Pull the fuel tank, it has to be far far far far easier. The other way is like removing your tonsils through your nose. I have all my nozzles plugged. Correct, they can be difficult to remove. I had one break off and the nozzle part was stuck in the hole. I very carefully pushed it into the exhaust port with that valve closed, and it fell right out. Make sure you keep all those silly parts for the next owner just in case he lives in one of those blue states and has to spend a small fortune to make it all work. The reality is that the air pump really only does anything at idle speed. Seems rediculous to carry that garbage around for the small amount of time cars idle. Its not like a Ferrari is going to be sitting around .idling much anywhere.
Finally! after a week the Stebro is in, sounds good & raspy. Thanks Artvonne, your "jack up the rt side by suspension" worked. What a pain, I need a lift. I hereby swear "no more f-car work til I get a lift." Bill
I'll be doing my ANSAs soon, I guess I'll post pics here. Correct, on inactive air pumps causing tubing corrosion problems...see my post above. These cars ain't gonna go back to any "blue states"...LOL!
Unfortunately a Republican Governor overturned the Democratic Governers 30 year rolling exemption on smog checks in CA. Now 75 and earlier are exempt. If we would have kept a Democratic Governor now 78's would be also. FWIW
good bye thermo reactor! shop could not do the dual in and single out. car sounds and drives much better. going to fit the metal shield ( diaper ) today after work. Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
