Fired up the furnace to combat the single digit temperatures and went to work this past week(end).
Exhaust is finished and installed. Made a flange and "test pipe" to replace the cat, put two bungs in it, one for my wideband and one for the factory downstream. Once its tuned I can remove the downstream and use it for tuning.
Used old shock bushings to make a muffler mount..we will see how this works long term...
3" from the Y-pipe, through a braided flex, into a 3" Thrush welded, and out to the 3" stack.
Fired it up and ran the 30 min cam break in. All seemed to go well, never got past 210* and maintained 45-50 psi oil pressure. Im hoping the valve train quiets down once everything is worn in, but its no worse now than any 4.0.lol
Pulled the front axle out and removed the factory track bar bracket..which took a bit of effort.
Then did some cardboard fab
Made .25" steel tabs and tacked it all together.
gusseted the inner C's as well
Slid the axle back under and mocked up the track bar and cut to within .5" of the drag link..then made a rough cardboard template for the frame side bracket.
Looks like my track bar will be within a degree of the draglink. I may make it a touch steeper to keep the bracket from contacting the tie rod on the driver side at full stuff.