Exhaust system tip

[Mike P]

I had the exhaust built on the 57 Plymouth yesterday, and thought I'd pass on a tip I've been using for a while in case someone else would like to use it.

Working as a mechanic over the years I had several cars come in where the exhaust has had to be removed or at least loosened to order to do things like starter or transmission removal. This is something that can add a lot of time and aggravation to a job especially on systems that have had all the pipe joints welded as is pretty much common practice on most custom exhaust systems.

I had spent a pretty good amount of time under the car figuring how I wanted the pipes routed and what would have to be done when it does come time to change a starter of clutch. Rather than just drop the car off and tell them to put the exhaust on I had some pretty specific instructions on some of the things I wanted (which they did a good job on).

For this project, I had a couple of ball and socket type joints added to the headpipe in front of the crossmember. Removing the head pipes will allow the access needed to remove the transmission and bellhousing and in the case of the drivers side allow for removal starter. Yeah down the road getting the manifold bolts off will still be a bit of a pain the bolts on the joints are easy to get to and removal of this section of pipe will make the rest of the job a lot less aggravating.