Public Cursing Record Set Today

After cleaning a medical office today, I noticed a drop in vac power. When I got home, it was clear that the silencer was partially blocked up. This silencer is just flat out rotted to the core and I've been waiting for some time to replace it with a used one sitting in my garage.

So, today was the day to get it done. I spent 4 hours under that van torching and carefully removing the mount brackets and separating the silencer from the blower.....4 freaking hours! It would have been a quicker job, but I wanted to save all the brackets and mounts to make for an easy install. Having a bad neck, working under there in twisted positions was not comfortable and had me cursing quite loudly at times in my driveway.

I eventually got the silencer out and made new straps for the remount....things were looking good and I was excited to find out just how quiet my van would be when I was done.

I carried the 100 lbs silencer over to the van and mocked it up to align the straps.....doesn't fit! My old silencer was 28 inches long and the used one (off the same year) was almost 40 inches. Now, I knew they were different, but it looked like I would have plenty of room for it as it was both narrower and shorter in height. The reality was that it didn't tuck high enough to clear the van's rear spring mount due to the fuel filler location.

End result was I spent almost 5 hours at this point, $675 for a silencer that will only work on an extended length van, and now I had nothing. The public cursing record was set at 5:34 pm on this date by yours truely. I might even be close to the record for throwing a screwdriver....if the garage wouldn't have been there, it could have cleared 50 yards easily.

Then I had to accept the reality and move on. I have a couple of jobs this weekend to conquer and the only thing worse than a rusted out silencer is having no silencer. So, I did the next best thing on short notice, I went with a pair of Thrush welded race mufflers running end to end.

Sure, it will not be all that quiet, but it has to be better than having no silencer and the welded mufflers seem pretty stout at least. I have to source an elbow tomorrow after work to finish the install, but they at least fit in the space nicely. If they can at least make the noise acceptable, that is good enough as it goes to reserve duty come April.

Still ticked off about the used silencer. Maybe I can mount it under the NPR to work with the TNT?

Hope your day went better gang.

I know those days and projects too well.

Seems it always takes double the money planed and double the time to do a project than expected. And to add insult to injury, even worse when it doesn't work out like yours...I feel for ya.

At least you were able to come up with and implement a solution......that's not always possible.

I applaud you guys that do these repairs and mods yourself, I was never into fixing stuffs or modified stuffs, I only care as far as how things work and to troubleshoot and small minor repair, beyond that I'd be happy to pay a professional to do it.
Sorry to hear that Rob and keep an eye out on ebay and craigslist for that silencer.

I am actually hoping that things are very loud when I am done. If it is quiet after a $120 investment in mufflers, I am going to be a little upset with butler and their $1300 silencer.

Worse case, I will have 2 turbo mufflers for the TNT to keep on the shelf.

Speaking of which, these types of repairs are not part of ownership on that TNT.....sounding better every day.

I think it will be louder, You can make a good silencer out of a rc 99 housing, I made some out of some first run ss dev housings that worked great,  
I used them on my VWTM. Very easy to do and it will work better than the  mufflers. The two you see right and left are the housings one for each blower. [img][/img]

^^Yup, RC silencer, that was my idea^^........hence the patent!!

I'm going with the 2 Thrush mufflers inline are as quiet or quieter than the over priced Butler silencer.

I saw a video a guy used two mufflers he was on TMF a while back it did help bring down noise but not as much as he wanted, I think blower sil. are made of a thicker wall of metal to help contain the noise. If I remember right he said the sound was coming through the metal, blowers put out some major pulses and I think the thin metal on the mufflers has a hard time keeping it IN the muffler if you know what I mean, kinda like single pane windows vs dual pane windows.

If I wasn't moving to a new mount, I probably should have just purchased a new silencer, but at this point, I can't see doing it....not for a silencer anyway.

I agree about the muffler walls being too thin to muffle and contain a blower as well as the silencer. Heck, that factory silencer was like bolting a gun safe under your van, but these welded thrush mufflers are really thick compared to a standard muffler, so I am hoping it holds together for a little while.

http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://static.comicvine.com/uploads/scale_super/10/109662/3491974-trophy.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.comicvine.com/forums/fan-fic-8/character-creation-contest-20-1519250/&h=1920&w=1920&tbnid=21dfSJZeBQYWRM:&zoom=1&q=%231+trophy+clipart&docid=VzLaNbXyIF8ZqM&hl=en&ei=cMDCVOeIDtLksATJ1IDQBw&tbm=isch&client=tablet-android-acer&ved=0CB4QMygAMAA

Yo, milspec;
This link is for you.
Cuz everyone needs to be recognized for their accomplishments.
(I hope you can read into the sarcasm and a good ribbing)

Mil your buying so many used TMs, just sell one or 2 and grab a relia built for under 7k brand new youll have thousands of pain free hours

Well the TNT will be the mainstay in a couple of months...it has less than 400 hours.

It is funny though when you think about it. My butler has over 10,000 hours on it and it has only now become repair-prone. Sure, I have replaced the heads, the entire fuel injection system, a few pumps, replaced the heat exchanger, and rebuilt the drive shaft and clutch...most of which in the last year, but I am way ahead.

Let's see, 10,000 hours at a low end conservative $75 per hour to account for run time without cleaning, equals $750,000. Not a bad roi is it?

I guess I should have just bought the new silencer according to that math.

Matt; My carpet cleaner wrote:http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://static.comicvine.com/uploads/scale_super/10/109662/3491974-trophy.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.comicvine.com/forums/fan-fic-8/character-creation-contest-20-1519250/&h=1920&w=1920&tbnid=21dfSJZeBQYWRM:&zoom=1&q=%231+trophy+clipart&docid=VzLaNbXyIF8ZqM&hl=en&ei=cMDCVOeIDtLksATJ1IDQBw&tbm=isch&client=tablet-android-acer&ved=0CB4QMygAMAA

Yo, milspec;
This link is for you.
Cuz everyone needs to be recognized for their accomplishments.
(I hope you can read into the sarcasm and a good ribbing)

Sure, but like all records, it will probably be broken in a week. Most likely someone screwing with electric gremlins.

thats true, didnt realize u put 10k on the butler thats pretty good. Our TNT I think is already at 400hrs.

Might be that time though to part ways with the butler unless u feel it will go up to even more hrs reliably

Those mufflers will be perfect for a back up TM. You know whats funny my workmaster is louder than my TNT and its car muffler.

ACpower1 wrote:thats true,   didnt realize u put 10k on the butler thats pretty good.    Our TNT I think is already at 400hrs.      

Might be that time though to part ways with the butler unless u feel it will go up to even more hrs reliably

You are correct, I should have parted ways last Spring, but then hind-sight is 20/20. I don't plan on investing much more into it at this point, just enough to keep it useful.