“Life's under no obligation to give us what we expect.”

The Vintage Speed muffler showed up today and I opened it right up and put it on the engine to see how things lined up.

Considering that I pretty much eyeballed the measurements from the standard exhaust and then communicated those measurements to MT at Vintage Speed, I'd say this came damn close to perfect.  MT also sent me two steel flanges to weld to the heat exchanger adapters so the two parts can be mated together via standard flange bolts.  Once it's all fabbed up, it may require that the lower mount be removed before the upper can be removed but I think it's going to work out just fine.

 The right side has a slightly different angle to the output of the upper heat exchanger but that can be dealt with when the adapter/flange is welded up.

Now, to find a suitable person to weld the flanges up...then I'm good to go.  This is a huge step in the right direction for this monumentally slow build.  I'm starting to feel a little motivation toward getting some other things accomplished.

I used another super scientific method of determining if the exhaust pipe would exit the apron in the correct place by using two 4' construction levels.

One level was placed at the interior edge of the muffler tip and the second was placed on top of the engine at the timing mark on the fan shroud.  I measured the engine in Nigel as a reference point and then measured the exhaust loosely installed on the engine for Ferris.  Oddly enough, both came out to 18.25" so I think it'll be a good fit.  Of course, this could (and probably will) completely change once the engine is actually installed in a car but for now, it's looking good.