First generation reproduction SS ANASA versus current mild steel ANSA

I may not have my dates correct but I believe in 2005 I bought one of the first stainless steel reproduction US-style 246 GT mufflers made by ANSA from Dennis McCann. It fit perfectly but to my ears, it has a much more subdued tone then what I recall my OEM ANSA had.

I have owned my '73 GT since 1974 and my dominant memory was how deep the exhaust tone was at idle and on cam. I used to drive for hours at night -often with the airbox cover off- just to experience the exhaust and air intake notes.

I was excited that ANSA decided to reproduce the muffler at just the time that I needed one. I assumed that aside from the outer heat covers which were not included with the new repro, that it would have the same deep tone and rumble as the OEM because the main two chambers of my US OEM muffler were also made from stainless steel.

By 2005 when I bought the SS ANSA from Dennis, the mild steel tubes/chrome tips were almost rusted off my OEM. It was about that time I took my Dino off the road to completely restore it in my garage so I did not hear the new ANSA until I finished my restoration. It took me about 10 years to get back on the road and on my first drive all I could think of was the sound was not right. It was way too quiet at idle and never got much louder than the gear and chain whine. It starts to speak with your foot deep in it at about 5K on up.

The tone has never changed over all these years of use-it remains pretty subdued. I now regret having tossed it after a few years of hanging on to it.

I see now that ANSA is making the US-style mufflers out of mild steel rather than stainless- not sure why. I am wondering if they did so for a better tone-- even though the US OEM were also made from stainless and it had a great tone.

Has anyone installed the new mild steel ANSA muffler and have thoughts on how it differs in tone from the OEM muffler? I am tempted to just buy and try- but at $4400 I would appreciate anyone's opinions and thoughts.

 

Karting- I put up a few of my restoration photos. I hope they will give you a flavor of why the restoration took so long.

For the bodywork phase, a friend of mine lent me space in his restoration shop. I made all of the replacement panels myself and welded them in. Did all of the pre-final paint bodywork but did not trust my 40 years of solo restoring 356 --I paid the shop's prime painter to do the color coat. I also converted to Euro turn signals because I prefer that look. I did save the US turn signal sheet metal for the next caretaker. The motor was done in my basement. The transmission was turned over to an expert. That is the only big mistake I made- I should have done it myself. He had me buy a new matched drive gear and ring gear due to acid etching of the original teeth. He set the backlash to .008 rather than the specified .0012-.0016

During my 10 years of restoration, I only encounter a few surprises. One surprise I had, was how difficult it was to fabricate the Euro turn signal sheet metal. For It turned out to be more of a challenge then I thought after I examined a Euro Dino's turn signal sheet metal. It looks dead simple-and I felt my fabrication skills were more than adequate for this job. Hah---I now have more respect for the factory's panel beaters. My second surprise was when I was attempting to blend in the front nose's accent line by using measurements from the floor up to the accent line- almost drove me crazy. I finally set up a few lasers and I found out that the left side was about 1/2" lower than the right side. I had to blend in the accent line by eye to make it look right- but was easier then my first attempts because I knew what I was dealing with.

The last photo shows my garage in 1974 and how I stuffed my toys into a 1930 single car garage. During the reassembly phase in this narrow garage- I had to duck tape foam on the walls because the garage was so narrow that I could not fully open the doors. The foam was my last line of defense. And I still chipped the left door edge as I was installing the side glass. The timing was perfect for this little disaster--I accidentally hit the door open-with speed -with my knee as I was contorting myself into a new position, just as the foam dropped off of the wall. I banged my head on the wall for a few wacks- but these disasters happen during the final assemble. You accept-repair if possible-and move on
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Thank you for the kind words Jamie-- you do what you have to do. Looking back, I am surprised that it turned out as well as it did. I was just one of many on this forum who have tackled restoring their Dino's themselves.

 

Karting--

From your experience, it appears that by installing the new mild steel version of the ANSA muffler I will get to have the deep exhaust tone that I am missing with the early SS version.

Did you switch from the SS version to the mild steel version because you also felt that the SS version lacked the correct ANSA sound?

 

jnk--

I considered buying the Time Valve before I found that Dennis was selling the ANSA. I picked the ANSA because I thought it would be an exact reproduction including the fit and the sound. I also had doubts about how the Time Valve would fit based upon a few photos I had seen at the time. It appeared that the exhaust tips seemed to sit much lower from the body then my OEM muffler tips. It could have been the angle of the photos, but it gave me pause.

I have not seen any recent photos of how the Time Valve muffler fits- are the tips positioned in the same location as the OEM muffler tips?

 

Karting-

Thank you---I appreciate your thoughts on how the motor sound can change with different cam profiles and ignition curve changes. I removed the air pump and all of the plumbing on my US 246 when I first bought it. The carbs had the stock jets and I rebuilt the distributor to the stock advance curve at the same time. The factory forgot to install one of the springs in one of the advance weights so the little mushroom head post got cocked so there was no change in advance. I still use the stock OEM ignition system which has not failed yet- never had to switch over to the backup coil system.

I had this setup from 1974 until I took her off the road in 2005 for the total restoration. All that time the original muffler was on the car and the sound was deep.

When I rebuilt the motor in my basement I did have the cams rewelded by a noted cam shop because at the time I could not find NOS stock cams- but the profile was kept stock. I am still using the OEM ignition system and headers. Cam timing is spot on per manual.

This leads me to believe that the early SS ANSA may be my issue. The fact that you are using the later mild steel ANSA and you feel that it compares favorably to your original OEM muffler gives me hope that the later ANSA has the sound I want.

Thank you again

 

I am sold- ---put in my order to Time Valve today.

I spent an enjoyable 20 minutes talking with the owner/fabricator. He certainly loves and is enthusiastic about what he does. He worked for Time Valve before he bought it from the original owner.

He told me that when he bought the company he worked hard to make all of the exhaust systems he fabricated to be as close to original as he can.

Had some good stories about to what lengths he went through to make that happen.

He said that he is behind by at least five weeks. Good for him-

 

It fit exactly- just slipped past the axle and bolted it up. It lined up perfectly at all junctions and bolt holes.

The sound is exactly how I remember when I first drove my Dino in 1974.

Also- it solved my backfire/popping on down throttle issue. After I installed the Timevalve the down throttle backfires/popping disappeared. While the Dennis McCann muffler was beautifully made with beautiful tight TIG welds- it did not sound correct and it would backfire no matter what I did to solve it.

 

I believe that the main two chambers and interior baffles on my original US ANSA muffler were fabricated with stainless. Only the four exhaust exit tip tubes were fabricated from mild steel and they would rust out pretty quick at the welds if you drove the car in winter as I did.

The Euro version mufflers may have been fabricated from mild steel but I believe the US EPA required air injection system may have convinced the factory to use stainless steel for the US mufflers. I believe that there was a requirement that the pollution control system last 100K miles.