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1980 280zx Exhaust Questions


fajitas

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Hello everyone, recently my rear driver side strut popped of the knuckle and i had to drive my car 300 feet to park it in a safe spot, in the process it made an inch hole in the muffler and part of the pipe. hopefully exhaust tape will help me pass smog next week. Now, for the long run, I was considering the MSA exhaust kit from zstore.com. I understand the '79-'80 exhaust system is longer and exits on the passenger side, but i was wondering if i could put on an exhaust from a '81-'83 non turbo on to my car," which would exit on the driver side". Would this work for my application? Would the shorter exhaust effect me passing emissions, or be unhealthy for my car for any reason?

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It would be easier to go to a mexican muffler shop on the corner and get them to just replace that piece of pipe. It would probably be less than $40.

 

As for the exhaust  the only issue you will have will be having to make hangers, which any competent muffler shop can do, and you will need to use tin snips to cut out an exit on the driver side rear part. 

 

The length will not affect anything during your smog. 

 

edit: fixed my sh!t english

Edited by BluDestiny
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FWIW

 

I'm not sure how much that exhaust kit you're looking at costs, but I bought a legal high flow CAT and muffler from JEG's and a stainless downpipe off ebay.  I took all of this to my local exhaust shop with a good reputation for working custom setups with stainless and he did the rest for under $350.  All 3" mandrel bent SS, custom hangers and also helped put a nice cut on the other side of my valence to have it exit on the same side as the exhaust manifold as you mention.  I think all told I was in $550 and I have a lifetime warranty SS 3" custom exahust (read tailored fit). 

 

I also opted for some higher cost welding stock that he claimed would hold up just as long as the SS pipe (can't remember what it was).  He stated that if you used to standard stuff for welding that those will break down well before the SS pipes will.  I'm not a welding expert and he may have fooled me but it wasn't that much more anyways so I took him up on it.  So far everything is still doing great and it's been about 5 years.  He also said that I should clean the SS from time to time using just dish soap and water to keep the other chemicals off the SS and make it last.  Honestly I was very pleased that he took his time, charged a reasonable price and tried to make sure that what I got would last.

 

Good luck and hope you get to unleash some of that cool inline 6 sound without breaking your bank and getting the local govt controllers upset.  What caused the strut to pop off?

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Re; 69sroadster- 

 

 The custom exhaust you have seems... awesome! The set I was looking at cost about $160, but in reality spending a bit extra for a 3" would be better suited for future upgrades. And about that strut, well, I just took a corner too soon and clipped the right rear wheel on like 2" worth of curb and the left strut came off the knuckle. I'm thinking the bolt became loose over time and gave out. So, the strut was shot and I'm waiting on a set of HP Blues. Next time I"ll beat that corner! Just kidding.. I learned my lesson.

 

Re; skirkland1980-  

 

Yeah. those people haha. well thanks for your input on this thread. By the way, I like the videos that you have been posting up on Youtube, very educational. Keep it up! I'd like too see what you have instore!

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