Sticky #4: Pantera Exhaust Systems

quote:

Originally posted by OSOFAST:
I saw this companies website on a post here somewhere, they can make you anything. Jeff

Yup, they seemed like good guys. I bought mandrel bends, v-band clamps, and various odds and ends from them. They were competively priced and had American milled 304L stainless and had a good selection of 16 gauge. Most folks go 18 gauge but 16 gauge stainless is .062 wall and since I was building step headers stepping twice by 1/8" increments this meant each step nested tightly inside the next making it self-fixturing. The slightly heavier wall and half lap joints will be very strong and TIG up nicely. I figure I gave up 6 lbs going 16 gauge instead of 18 Ga on the primaries but probably a good concession considering the aforementioned.

Their bends were very smooth but the only downside was when I received them they were still full of mandrel lube on the inside. I'll need to have them all vapor degreased before any welding or I'll have a total mess. I'm thinking I'll only have the inside ceramic coated and polish the outside. I'm hoping the inside coating will slow down the heat and rate of oxidation and discloration. I can always re-polish them. I'm just having a hard time bringing myself to putting a coating on a stainless exterior given that I'll have to be crawling all over them.

Best,
Kelly

This is an old shot of the rear on Pantera 4384.
But the exhaust system is still the same.
Headers are ceramic coated.
Rear connector pipes are 2 1/2", (63.5mm) diameter & they go over the driveshafts instead of under.
Nothing touches, has full clearance in bounce & droop.
This makes the pipe slightly longer which helps to muffle the sound a little more & I'm told by my Dyno guy, better to tune.
Stainless mufflers purchased from PI motorsports.
I Tig welded a trangular stainless flange onto the input pipe of the muffler instead of having the slip joint.
The connector pipe spigots into the muffler after the flange so there's no exhaust pressure on the gasket.
This is also done on the end of the headers.
At the rear of the mufflers I Tigged on a mount plate which in turn has a bolt on rubber insulated mount to the chassis to support the muffler weight.

I usually run Mindtrain exhausts but every once in a while, I run these - Dual Flowmaster 40's.

Most of the time, it sits in a box .

Rear view

Kelly,

I am also interested in running 180s on my car and have thought about fabricating a set myself. I ran across this thread a few months ago and found it to be very informative: 180 Header Fab on 400 Swap

I also took some photos of a 180 set-up that Quella's son was installing on a Group 4 car in Castle Rock in March. I'll see if I can find them and post some pics.

GT5 Without Heat Shield

Pic with Heat Shield on GT5. When I refresh the paint on the car, I will shift the heatshield to the decklid so as to better expose the 180s.

Better shot of Detomaso isignia

Who made your headers JT?

The GT5 conversion was done in Glen Pascal's shop in Pennsylvania. Glen has since passed and I do not know who fabed them up.

quote:

Originally posted by Garvino:
Kelly,

I am also interested in running 180s on my car and have thought about fabricating a set myself. I ran across this thread a few months ago and found it to be very informative: 180 Header Fab on 400 Swap

Thta's a good one. I have that thread pasted in my favorites. Hope Brooke's business is picking up so he can resume his build and post here some more.

I'll look forward to the Quella pictures.

Best,
K

quote:

Originally posted by JTpantera: Pic with Heat Shield on GT5. When I refresh the paint on the car, I will shift the heatshield to the decklid so as to better expose the 180s.

Thanks John. Looks nice. I agree, mounting the shield on the engine keeps the weight of the deck lid but is one more thing to remove for service and obstructs the view of that purdy hardware

Best,
K

I have been looking at doing 180's for a long time while planning my build. I have saved about 125 pics of various cars with these set ups from the forum here as well as other places on the net.

If I were to build them I would consider doing a flange between the right and left so you can bolt them up without slip joints.

Also it looks like most people don't have any muffler supports. I would think this would lead to cracks. I was planning on a muffler support bracket using the trans mounting bolts or something.

Now this is nul and void as I am leaning heavily to go 5.0L modular.

Kelly,

Here are a few photos of the Group 4 Pantera that Quella’s son was building in Castle Rock when I was last there. I did not take as many photos of the car as I thought, but hopefully these will give you some more ideas for your 180’s. I do not know who builds the actual 180 headers for Quella’s cars, but I don’t believe they build them in house.

The car was still a long ways from being finished but already looked great. The Group 4 conversion was all steel. On the 180’s, I particularly liked the rear support that Quella had fabricated for the mufflers. Quella’s son also mentioned that the muffler exits would have rings around them when he was finished fabricating the muffler system, etc.

I hope this helps and please keep us posted on your build.

Pic of the muffler support.

Pic of mufflers exiting the car.

Those are georgeous. I love the alignment.

Thanks for those Garvino. That exit and mounting configuration is very similar to what I have in mind. Not much progress but I did manage to get the VBands welded onto my mufflers which was no small task. The mufflers are very light and have a spun end cap that is very thin (like .030"). The extensions are usually slotted and secured with an external clamp. I had to make a stainless spud that fit down in the muffler and into the VBand socket. Even so, it needed a close fitting aluminum plug made to sink the heat and keep the thin walled material from burning away. Turned out pretty good but took some doing. Will have to repeat this on tail pipe section.

Who are some good sources for the various styles of 3" entry stainless tail pipes?

Best,
Kelly

ALEX's Group 4 build has pictures of a nice setup with 180 exhaust. I don't know if he split the tips that way so he can have at least half a trunk or not.

My friend is also running this set up but with the pipes going out the center. The problem with this config is it leaks at the crossover pipes.