Friday, April 23, 2010

Exhaust. Again. Or More... Whatever...

As I suggested before, I tried to heat the area around the O2 sensor bung so as to adjust the angle at which the sensor sits, due to it's interference with the bumper. My little torch can't heat enough area to make that strategy viable, so I decided to go with plan B, which was to plug that fitting and install a new one on the other side of the collector.

Well...

I suspect that some steel shot from the Wheelabrator must have gotten in the threads of the sparkplug, which was ironically there to protect the threads, from inside the collector. It turned about one quarter turn and seized firmly. Ratchet, breakover, 2 foot cheater and hammer impact wrench couldn't touch it. I spent nearly an hour struggling with it before I adopted a new plan C and took it to the BTW clubhouse to use the *real* torch to cut the fitting out.

I brought it back home and welded in an actual official O2 sensor bung, as opposed to the chopped off spark plug anti-fouling device used before. Even though the torched out hole was significantly too large, I did a somewhat better job putting this one in. I think I even got the angle right. I did have to use a bit of 3/16 rod as filler around one side of the bung. Oh, and here's a tip: don't poke yourself in the neck with red hot metal.

I spent a bit of time chipping  and sanding off sputter and generally cleaning up the joint. I then degreased the header and sprayed on a coat of paint. I will let that dry overnight, then flip it over and paint the other side.

So, basically I spent an entire evening working on one little thing. Ugh.

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