2001 Continental Exhaust upgrade

J

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Hey everyone, the day I got my Continental (her name is Mary, by the way) I was getting out of my car at work and someone else with a Continental drove by with aftermarket exhaust and it sounded amazing. What brand/type of muffler would really make her purr?
 
I spent a good deal of time under my car today - had a leak in a power steering joint that luckily was fixed by simply tightening it.

I noticed that the front part of the exhaust seems to be made well enough that changing it wouldn't warrant the expense. I'll skip the PITA factor of cracking headers and finicky collector flanges. The pipes are large-ish and seem to Y together reasonably well for a factory piece. Then there's a big flex joint before what I assume is a third catalytic converter and then a resonator.

Starting after that flex is where I would upgrade. You'd still want a resonator inline and the muffler choice is up to you. Anything from "turbo" mufflers (which may not flow better than stock but will rumble nicely) to obnoxious Flowmasters can be done. I was wondering about adapting some stock Mustang GT mufflers to be a little more noticeable than stock but not outrageous.

I don't mind some bark - I just hate droning at highway speeds. Cruising is what these cars do best so I don't want to destroy that.
 
When I step on the gas and get my rpms up to 3000 and the butterflies open, I get a real nice growl in the cabin like the old days when the 4 barrels opened up and I had the air cleaner lid flipped upside down. As long as I have that sound, I do not need loud exhaust. The stock exhaust is very restrictive with 3 cats and the car may not run without computer tuning. I dont want to go there. If you upgrade your exhaust system, I would suggest you do the laundry detergent was on your cats - see scotty kilmer viedeos on the tube, or run some solvent thru the gas to clean out the cats - also a scotty kilmer video and change the O2 sensors.

And YES to the Continental cruise factor - a classic - there are getting to be lots of 1979 Conti's for sale in the local ads....
 
I don't have the knowledge, equipment, or materials to do any of this myself so I'd be bringing it to a shop somewhere. Would removing the 3rd cat all together be a bad idea? Also, would I keep the stock resonator and just replace the mufflers themselves? I'm completely clueless when it comes to changing exhaust systems seeing as I'm only 17. Always time to learn :)
 
If you just want to change the sound then just do the mufflers. Something like the DynoMax Turbo Mufflers will give it a nice rumble without making it sound like open pipes at full throttle. Exhaust shops won't remove the cat for you anyway (unless you know somebody) so this is your easiest & cheapest route.
 
Awesome, definitely gonna look in to it. My school has a car show coming up June 1 so I gotta pimp out the car as much as I can before then :) MooJohn, when you installed your sound system, how did you get the power wire through the firewall?
 
There is a grommet in the firewall above the pedal area that comes out behind the brake master cylinder. I fished a line from inside the car through an opening in the grommet into the engine compartment, then connected that to my 4 gauge power wire and pulled it back through.

There's a surprising amount of room in the door sill area to run wire to the rear of the car. I have power down the driver's side and audio signals / nav antenna / backup camera down the passenger side.
 
Another question- how'd you get the audio signal cables to the back of the stereo through the dash area? I have it all run from the trunk right now under all the trim to the front seats, just ran out of time before I had to go to work.
 
My RCAs (3 pairs plus backup cam wire) and speaker wires (from the amp to the door speakers) run up the passenger side of the car, across the passenger floorboard area, and up the center console area into the dash.
 
I have no idea how you got a 4 ga. wire through that tiny little grommet... Looks like the hood release cable goes through it?
 
4 hours later I have all the wires run and hooked up, just gotta wait for the wire harness and DIN kit to arrive :D
 
this is my car. straight pipe from the cats back

[video=youtube;Mpf_KCheZD4]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mpf_KCheZD4[/video]
 
It sounds really good, that's for sure. I just don't know if I could live with it during normal driving. I'd consider an electric cutout but people say they all end up leaking eventually.

I have the stock muffler section from a 3000GT/Stealth that has a valve for loud/quiet operation. I know it's not a restriction until well after 400 hp (my Stealth at 4000 lbs ran 12.5 @ 109) and I might see if a shop can adapt it to fit my car. It's a single inlet (3 inch) with a muffler on each side. I can handle wiring a motor for switching the valve and make it automatic at WOT with a switch for any time I just want to hear it.
 
do you guys know what size the mid pipe is? I am doing a muffler delete with tips and installing a single Magnaflow in place of the resonator. I need to know what size the pipe is so I order the correct muffler.
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Well, it would I appear I have found what I was looking for, I wanted to know what Magnaflow to order and ground_zero298 gave the details on it. http://www.lincolnvscadillac.com/fo...nental&p=2037294537&viewfull=1#post2037294537
Magnaflow 10415 here I come!
 
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Long tail pipe after the muffler can end up sounding like a farm tractor. I'm stock on the Conti, but put Walker turbo's on my Mustang and 14" Magnaflow on my v8 Porsche, its about the limit on loud for the street.

Very happy with my sound system, mostly stock, with a Bazooka bass tube in the trunk and replaced factory amp with a real amp, a cheap Bazooka around 35 wpc and high passed the factory mains with all bass below 100 hz coming from the tube in the trunk. Music via cassette adapter and either a phone or mp3 player. Nothing I would basically change doing it again.
 
I'm currently running an Eclipse CD1200 head unit which is going to be replaced with a Soundstream VR764B double DIN 7" touchscreen head unit, kenwood 6.5's in the front doors and kenwood 6x8's in the rear doors, disconnected the factory rear deck woofers. I have an American Bass XFL 12" sub in a 6.5 cu. ft. custom kerf-ported enclosure with biiiig plans in the future. I plan on sound deadening the ENTIRE car, getting a high output alternator, running ~100W RMS to new door speakers and around 3000W RMS to a pair of American Bass XFL 12's.
 
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