Does anyone know what the round football-size muffler is at the end of the exhaust manifold is? Is it a resonator muffler? A cat converter? It sure takes up a lot of space. Should I remove it? It is located under the carb. Is this why the carb has a heat shield? Thanks for your help.

Probably a catalytic converter.

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With best regards

Al

This is a thermal reactor. These things were all the rage in 1975 and 1976 as they allowed you to burn leaded gasoline and still be in spec on emmisions.

The bad news: New ones are about $1600. The good news is that unless you live somewhere like California you can easily swap this out with a manifold and tail pipe system from an earlier car. Federal emmision systems did not have thermal reactors.

These are full of a ceramic substance enclosed in a stainless body. When it breaks down, and it will, it will burn the paint off your hood.

By the way, a lot of Mercedes from that era had them. The 280 SE and the 450 SL are two that I have seen with these on them. Porsche 911's had them as well.

These are normally found only on California emmision cars. If your emmisons plate is green then you have a California car.

Look for a Federal manifold and downpipe to replace this with. If your state allows you to do this then just plan on it and get the parts. Set aside a full day for this job as the bolts under the reactor are tough to get at.

Pooka