Project WidowMaker - The Build Thread

[The WidowMaker]

so i had some decisions to make on the mufflers. the wife wanted it quieter than before, but i still wanted it to sound good. i ended up buying the stainless 50 series deltas back in december when bing was giving 20% off ebay purchases. ever since then i have somewhat regretted not going with the 40 deltas like i had before. i figured that the bigger motor and larger piping would make it louder, but that the increased insulation, carpet and x-pipe would mellow it out a little. a wash? im not sure.

since i had to open one up (i'll get to that later) and i had already polished them and couldnt return them, i had three choices. leave them as is, weld up the resonator chamber in each muffler essentially making it just a longer 40, or removing the extra 4" and making a 40 series. i ended up just leaving them as is, but if i want it louder after its been on the road, i will take the full 4" out at that time.

then there was the other issue (the part i said i would get to). flowmaster only makes one part number per style (inlet/outlet) of muffler. so, if you need two mufflers with offset inlets that are next to each other (our chevelles), one muffler has to be flipped over. when you flip a flowmaster, you get the ugly case seam. and since i was polishing them, that wouldnt work. below are the pics of what i ended up doing. cut the end off and grind away their weld until the stamped plug end was back to normal. then just flip, reinsert and reweld. now i have a matched set.......

here you can see the inlet side of the muffler. the small hole to the right is the inlet to the resonator chamber. that is what i had planned to weld up.



here it is flipped and rewelded. i cant get any good pics of the welds. they just look blurry.