Had to replace the down pipes on my Ranger, took some pics of the progress as a simple 2 day project turned into a week long, rust fighting, pain in the @$$.

Here's the problem that started the whole thing.


The next step was of course a broken stud. 23 years of rust and heat don't make a good recipe for repairs.


It was a good opportunity to finally yank out those stupid air pipes that don't serve any purpose though.

Once I got the manifold off I found evidence of leaks around the bottom of the passenger side. Since the drivers side was likely to be similar, I yanked that side off too and plugged the hole for the O2 sensor that didn't do any
good either. You would not believe how hard it is to find an M18 x1.25 bolt. And once I finally did find one, it took ten minutes with an air grinder to cut the extra 2 inches that I didn't need off of it.



Also seemed like a good time for some extra... modification...
Can you spot the cat? :p


And I got video of the exhaust once the new downpipes were on, but the rest of it wasn't connected yet. Wish I could have left it that way! :D It sounded beast! The vid does it justice.

 

Hell, if you lived a little closer, I could have sold my Flowmaster exhaust w/ downpipe off my 88 ranger.. jsut had it put on about 7 months ago :-) Dirt cheap.. but it all depends, I dont think I want to part out my ranger.. I woudl rather see it go to a guy that wants to abuse the **** out of it.. you shoudl see the love marks I've put in it.. did you know, a tree stump through the front grille and denting 3/4ths of the radiator made it so it actually ran cooler then before? yeah.. interesting.. the big dent actually helped, in a wierd way.. I'll take a picture of it in teh mornign for ya all =)

OIn fact, I'll post pics of every dent in a miniature picture and tell the story behidn em.. heh

 

those pesky exhaust manifold studs....i'm always spraying a WHOLE CRAP LOAD of WD40 on those because i always feel like im going to break those....either screwing on or screwing off. Alright...so you replaced your y-pipe & deleted/gutted the cats. beeeefy.

 

yeah the cat is under the truck