Beginner Exhaust Cutting and Replacing

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Aug 27, 2004 | 02:03 PM

Wakeboarder141

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From: Medford, OR

Beginner Exhaust Cutting and Replacing

I want to replace the rear one of my cats with a piece of pipe and am looking for some tips. This is my first time trying any exhaust work. Not having a plasma cutter, would a sawzall be the next best thing to cut the cat out? What would be the best type of clamp to install the new piece of pipe? Can I just get a piece of pipe that fits in the cut out section or should the pipe be crimped on the ends to actually be inserted a bit into the pipe. Any tips would be appreciated. Thanks.

Aaron

Aug 27, 2004 | 02:36 PM

bronco5.8

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From: New York

Plasma cutter may leave the surface a little choppy, sawzall will be excellent for a clean cut. Your best bet would be to weld that piece of pipe in, much better than clamping. If that's not doable then have a muffler shop expand the piece of pipe so it can slip over the existing pipe and use u-clamps.
If you do weld that piece of pipe in make sure that the positive and negative cables are disconnected. Good luck.

Warr

Aug 27, 2004 | 03:14 PM

Wakeboarder141

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From: Medford, OR

I don't have a welder so I am going to need to clamp it in, at least temporarily. So, there aren't any clamps where I can just clamp two equally sized pipes together without putting the ends inside the other pipe? Or, is that just going to leak like crazy? Thanks.

Aug 27, 2004 | 03:25 PM

bronco5.8

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From: New York

There's stainless steel band clamps from Dynomax that may work temporarily but they run @ about 10 bucks a pop. This may seal the pipes because the torque specs on these bolts are 70ft.lbs. You can get these from Jegs or your local speed shop.

Warr

Aug 27, 2004 | 06:33 PM

Wakeboarder141

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From: Medford, OR

Are there any other options? Can you buy pipes that are already expanded or would I have to take the pipe down to a muffler shop to have that done? I'm just trying to decide if this is going to be feasible for me to do or if I am going to need to make friends with someone who has a welder and knows how to use it.

Thanks.

Last edited by Wakeboarder141; Aug 27, 2004 at 06:36 PM.

Aug 27, 2004 | 08:51 PM

kwanderi

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From: Buckeye, AZ

Head on down to the parts store with a sample size of pipe. You can find many kinds of adapters that join different or same size pipes together.

If you use clamps, the pipes must slip together for a leak free fit.

Keith

Aug 27, 2004 | 11:29 PM

Wakeboarder141

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From: Medford, OR

It is 3" pipe, would I still need to take a sample down or would the size be listed on it? A place like Autozone would have stuff for that? Thanks.

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Oct 5, 2004 | 07:35 PM

Wakeboarder141

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From: Medford, OR

Well, I bought some of the band clamps from a local autoparts store for $7 each. They weren't a name brand I recognized. After putting in the pipe I don't notice any leaks from the clamps so they seem to be working well. I am very dissapointed with the sound difference I got from removing one cat. I was hoping it would be louder, but it really didn't change much. Man, did it sound nice running just the Y pipe with one cat and no muffler though! If it didn't rob me of torque I would just run that. I still don't understand why I can't get hardly any sound out of a 40 series Flowmaster. I am starting to think either that first cat and Y pipe deaden the sound a heck of a lot, or I am going to have to go with true duals to get any decent sound out of this beast.