New Used SSI's on the 77 with an 82

[Nditiz1]

So I did a thing the other day. I put on some SSI's. I bought them off Universeman, his car was totaled Driver side needed a little work so I shipped it to Ben, previously the maker of MK. He fixed the bend nicely and I just needed the muffler and an oil line to start the process. I had been collecting parts over the past year. Benny Obscene's recent vid gave me the last push I needed to get the final parts and do the conversion. I was a little hesitant at first only because my car has been running so well I didn't want to break a dreaded exhaust stud and have it down longer than I wanted. Luckily here in MD the weather has been rainy and cold so not the combo I wanted to drive the 77 in anyway. It's not to say that I won't. Hell I got caught with a down pour and left the targa top at home, that was an adventure.

Anyway on to the job.

Materials:
SSI's
Head to SSI gasket x6 - originally bought the fiber with copper center and kicked myself because I'm not sure they were correct so I went and bought the solid metal core with thin outside metal.
Oil Change gasket kit
NOS Oil tank to cooler hose - Mine was very stiff and seemed to leak from the cooler side
Barrel nuts x6
Copper 12mm flanged nuts x6
Airspruce supply SCEET 2.5" x4ft
SSI to Muffler Copper gasket x2
Bolts, Nuts to attach Muffler x4
URO Muffler straps x2
Dansk Polished Muffler 70mm
Oil line from Tstat to crossover pipe
Crossover pipe redone by Shaun TRU6
Valvoline 20W-50 VR1 x12
Oil drain tubes x2

I bought an Atlas 4 post lift from Greg's Equipment last year so this was the first time using it for a major job. My garage is a 2 car with only an 8.5ft ceiling so I could only sit under the car while I worked, but it beats wrenching on your back

I started by removing the Bursch 84mm muffler. This was a decent sounding muffler which only suffered from the surface paint falling off and succumbing to surface rust. It has a special bracket which is why I needed to buy muffler straps. I don't particularly like URO parts as I have read countless threads about fitment issues, but they are pretty cheap for straps and hell you can't really screw that up. The only other URO part I know of on my car is the front hood struts. I started to remove the connector pipe between the 2 heat exchangers as well as the Pre-Muffler. The Pre Muffler came off without too much trouble, but I could only disconnect the pipe from one HE before I ran out of drimmel discs. Next came the scary part of loosening the exhaust nuts. I sprayed liquid wrench on them for the past few days. Also, one note, I sometimes watch this Youtuber, Project Farm, that does reviews on different brands of similar items. He did a review on the different penetrating rust breaking sprays. While I always thought PB Blaster was the best, he proved simple liquid wrench from Walmart was better, next to heat of course. So diving in I was reluctant to get them all off without too much trouble. My new used SSI's came with the long shaft allen socket. It definitely got the end twisted by trying to remove the barrel nuts. Not sure if it was like that before or from me. It had done the job regardless. One of the studs looked like it had seen better days as rust started to eat away at the threads, but I thought it ok enough to tighten down and if I ever need to change it in the future I already bought new studs. Maybe in an engine rebuild if I ever need to.



With all the exhaust now removed, the worst part was over. I started draining the oil from the engine and the tank into a bucket. Then, removed the crossover pipe. I resecured the nut on the bottom of the timing cover now that the crossover pipe bracket was no longer needed there. I loosely installed the new crossover needed with early style exhaust and SSIs.



One side of my motor had the drain tubes replaced. I decided to do the passenger side as I had been tracing down a leak at the bottom of my head and that was the next logical place after already installing RSR seals, good gaskets, and truing the covers. I followed DrDIY on youtube and they went in almost as easily as they came out.

Next, I was onto the T-stat to crossover oil line. Luckily I had recently installed these as my 77 was converted from a 6cyl(died) to a 4cyl(sold) back to a 6cyl(3.0). I didn't have the tank, lines or t-stat as the 912E's didn't run them and I guess the PO took them out from when it had a 2.7. Needless to say the large collar nuts loosened with ease as when I put them together I used generous anti-seize. I loosely connected the line to the crossover before getting everything in place to tighten up.



Tire went back on and it was time to put all drain plugs and sump cover back on.
My Bead blaster is not fully setup so just a quick scuff and spray here


Next, were the SSI's. The 6 gaskets went on and up they went. I was able to get them temporarily secured with a few barrel nuts. I ended up misjudging how many barrel nuts could be used. I thought it would be the same amount that I took off, but realized quick there was a hole missing on the pass. side. I guess by design. The nuts went on next, but I didn't have a swivel 12mm. Some I was able to get tight via a small wrench, but couldn't torque them to ~16 Ft lbs without it. Also, I used generous amounts of anti-seize for the studs in case I need to remove the SSI's in the future. While I waited for USPS to deliver my socket - no local auto stores sell a swivel 12mm, I have 3 - I put on the SCEET hose. I have converted my 3.0 to the early style heat so it looks much cleaner in my bay.







Continued below...

[Nditiz1]

With the socket in my hand the remaining nuts got torqued down with the exception of one since it was too difficult for any of my tools to get to it except a wrench. Did that one by feel Now, onto the shiny new muffler. It went it pretty easily. One of the straps I bought was not the correct size. Amazon had 1 for Carrera mufflers and one for early. The Carrera one fit. There is no way the early style would fit over the Dansk even with a long bolt.



I filled her with oil and took it for a spin. No issues, hooray!

I also recently installed Karsten's shifter spring and I must say it is nice having the shifter return to 3-4 plane in Nuetral.

Next on the list is to take the Trombone off and put the Carrera cooler on w/ a switched fan.

I got this done in time for Hershey which is now cancelled, Thanks a lot COVID-19

Hopefully Luft 7 will still take place even if pushed out.
Thanks for making it through this essay

[Bill Douglas]

Well done. Thanks for the write up.

Do you like the way the engine/car behaves with the SSIs?

[Nditiz1]

I do, but I'm not sure I can tell all that much. It might be because I went from such a large muffler 84mm in the Bursch and went to a 70mm in the Dansk. The Pre-Muffler that I removed was a pretty decent one that didn't restrict flow.

[Flojo]

Originally Posted by Nditiz1

I do, but I'm not sure I can tell all that much.

first, the SSI saved you a "ton" of weight and heated parts (no cross tube, no pre-muffler).

the SSI are kind of like headers. the SSI will make your engine breathe more freely.
you'll notice the improvement on higher revs.
trust me.

[obscene]

Awesome job and thanks for the write up! Glad I could help with the motivation even though my SSI install is lagging well behind yours!

[sundevil64]

What gasket did you use between the muffler and HE? The 901 part for 69-74 models is small for a larger motor.

[GAJon]

I think we have the same car.... Copper Brown '76 with a '78 SC motor. My 2021 upgrade was redoing all of the suspension and getting the seats recovered. Between the wallet and wife, I'll be putting the SSI upgrade off until next season...

Making a note here to come back in a year when I do my SSI upgrade.