Exhaust for 1983 21ft Sunrader

[Kimbo]

Looking to replace exhaust on '83 21ft Sunrader. I see location of muffler is different than it was on pickup, namely behind the rear axle and sideways rather than in front of the axle and inline with the cat. Does anyone have part numbers or info on the pipe between cat and muffler (it goes over the rear axle) and the tailpipe (muffler to right hand exit behind right hand rear wheels) or are these custom pieces?

[Maineah]

A good muffler shop might be able to help you out some of those guys are real artists with a pipe bender and can make you any pipe you want. Sounds like it was made for the coach and not the truck.

[Gulfstream Greg]

I agree, sounds custom. Muffler is in front of the axle on every truck I have been under. A wild guess but the guess is a muffler shop would be around $300 for a new cat back system.

[Kimbo]

Thanks guys. System is a cobble job for sure. Somebody tack welded every slip joint as well. Hangers are makeshift too. I think I will go back to OEM style parts. The only piece that will have to be custom forward of the muffler should be the first straight pipe off the downpipe to make up for the frame stretch. What are the wires coming out of my cat?.......O2 sensor? Are these Toyotas California spec?

[powdrhound]

I just had the muffler and all the tailpipe replaced for $155.

[Gulfstream Greg]

I purchased the Pacsetter replacement exhaust sold by Summit Racing and JCWhitny. Its supposed to be a bolt in place, use existing hangers exhaust system replacing the system from the catalytic converter to the tail exit..

Almost just bolted in. On a stock pickup it would have just bolted in. In fact on our motorhomes it will just bolt in. Where it falls short is the tail pipe. It is set up for a stock pickup so the pipe does not extend far enough out to end out side and not under the coach. I had to cut the tail pipe end off and extend it longer. A note: The pacsetter has a beautiful chrome tail pipe end and I wanted to retain that.

Problem number two and three I encountered. There are two pipes in the kit that go from the catalytic converter to the muffler. A straight and a s curve. The straight pipe was too short for this truck and had to be extended. The s curve is supposed to slip into the inlet of the muffler. Apparently the factory forgot or missed expanding that inlet pipe and so there was no slip in. I have a muffler expansion tool and was able to make it work. Not a complete slip in as was intended by the factory but far enough to weld. Normally you would just slip it in and secure it with a muffler clamp. My preference was to weld all my joints anyhow. But the clamp method would work fine also.

The way the pacesetter is set up is it bolts to the catalytic converter, then the straight section then the s curve to the muffler (both clamped) and the tail section which bolts to the muffler.

The system did use the factory hangers! But there is one set of hangers on my rig that is between the muffler and catalytic converter that were not used. Eventually I will weld some hanger rods to the pipe there to utilize those hangers.

There was one other slight problem. The idiots who build this system give you 3/8 inch dia. bolts for the bolt together sections. The flanges have 1/2 inch holes, so the 3/8 bolts are really too small and the heads end up falling into the flange hole and besides that it is very difficult to get the two flanges and gasket lined up and tightened properly.

I replaced them with 1/2 inch bolts and all steel lock bolts. Worked perfect then. I just don,t understand why the included 3/8 bolts. I might note this is the second pacsetter exhaust I have purchased. When we had our sunrader 4x4 I bought one but found that on the 4x4 the tail section would not pass through the spring area so I returned it. Summit racing has the same exhaust as JCWhitney for I think $10 less. But I called Summit and if I needed to return the exhaust I had to pay return shipping. JCWitney paid the return shipping on my previous exhaust purchase.

End result for me is it sounds really nice and is using the original exhaust hangers. Here is another important note. If you are going to use the original hangers with the toyota 2 hole rubber hanger donuts do not cut them or throw them away thinking you will just go down and buy some from toyota. You can buy them, for around $18 each. I got frustrated and cut one off with a utility knife, $18 dollar plus trip to toyota mistake, and it had to be ordered, so two trips. Don't forget your vin or it will be 3 trips.