Another home made cherry bomb conversion.
Discussion
Ever since I helped JKY fit his cherry bomb conversion I just new I had to do the same, the noise was awesome. I just thought I’d better wait till I had it all registered here in Oz first.
JKY’s conversion..
Not a useful photo but we all love showing off our TVRs
The inside of the walker cherry bomb (hot dog), it’s not really clear in the photo but it likes looking down the sharp direction of a cheese grater.
I cut the muffler up with a 1mm cutting disc on a small angle grinder. The indent you can see on the muffler appears to line up with a universal joint in the drive line. Before cutting the muffler open I refitted the muffler to the car with a 1” piece of foam above it to check the clearance just in case I made the muffler a little bigger, there was plenty of room.
The standard perforated pipes, these were a pig to remove as they are welded in 4 places at one end. I had to hammer a cold chisel under the weld and ended up tearing two small holes in the pipes. I guess a few careful hours with a small hand grinder may have done a better job.
New cherry bombs arc welded in place. They started out being 3 ½ “ but needed a little tough love with a hammer to get them the right size.
This tuned out the be the hardest part of the whole exercise, getting the flaps of the muffler to fold back in place.
We couldn’t quite get the gap in the muffler small enough to weld across so we welded in a thin strip to close the gap properly.
So how does it sound? Well to be honest I think overall it may even be quieter than before. When you stand behind the car at tickover it has a slightly deeper growl. When you drive normally it’s certainly no different but when you put your foot down and really go hard it has a slightly harder note than before. Overall I’m happy with the result, I was worried it may sound tinny and scrappy and it’s not at all, but it’s definitely quieter than JKY’s. We both have all our cats in place. Next step will be to remove the pre-cats (to help me survive an Australian summer of course)
JKY’s conversion..
Not a useful photo but we all love showing off our TVRs
The inside of the walker cherry bomb (hot dog), it’s not really clear in the photo but it likes looking down the sharp direction of a cheese grater.
I cut the muffler up with a 1mm cutting disc on a small angle grinder. The indent you can see on the muffler appears to line up with a universal joint in the drive line. Before cutting the muffler open I refitted the muffler to the car with a 1” piece of foam above it to check the clearance just in case I made the muffler a little bigger, there was plenty of room.
The standard perforated pipes, these were a pig to remove as they are welded in 4 places at one end. I had to hammer a cold chisel under the weld and ended up tearing two small holes in the pipes. I guess a few careful hours with a small hand grinder may have done a better job.
New cherry bombs arc welded in place. They started out being 3 ½ “ but needed a little tough love with a hammer to get them the right size.
This tuned out the be the hardest part of the whole exercise, getting the flaps of the muffler to fold back in place.
We couldn’t quite get the gap in the muffler small enough to weld across so we welded in a thin strip to close the gap properly.
So how does it sound? Well to be honest I think overall it may even be quieter than before. When you stand behind the car at tickover it has a slightly deeper growl. When you drive normally it’s certainly no different but when you put your foot down and really go hard it has a slightly harder note than before. Overall I’m happy with the result, I was worried it may sound tinny and scrappy and it’s not at all, but it’s definitely quieter than JKY’s. We both have all our cats in place. Next step will be to remove the pre-cats (to help me survive an Australian summer of course)
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