Unlonging the exhaust system.

While I’m at it, I’ll break a tool along the way.

I found the parts kit that came with the Magnaflow stainless system and it looks like everything is still there.

One of the guys at the shop has a professional exhaust pipe bender. It’s an old school type that crushes the pipes just like the old OEM pipes were. It’s not a bragging point, it just is. This bender has a pipe expander on it which fits in perfectly with what I have to do.

I discovered that my headers are too long for the exhaust kit I’m using. The mufflers are being pushed back to where they’re nearly touching the axle housing. I need to take 5 inches out of the system somewhere between the X-pipe and the mufflers.

I was twisting on how to accomplish this. In a perfect world…well, in a perfect world, everything would bolt up great but in this case, a perfect world would have me cutting 5 inches off of the end of the pipes and slapping the mufflers on and Voila! Perfection! but in this reality, the most straight forward approach is to cut a five inches section out of each rear pipe and then weld the pipes back together again.

Mild steel would be simple but stainless requires a method called “back purging” which is creating a pocket of shielding gas inside of the pipe right at the seam that is to be welded. This usually is a must when butt welding the pipes. I’ve never welded Stainless Steel and it’s supposed to be a little more difficult than mild steel. Of course, I’ve never tried to back purge anything either, so I was very apprehensive to section the pipes.

After thinking about it for a day or so, I remembered that there are slip joint couplers. that are short lengths of pipe that have the same size inside diameter as the outside diameter of the pipes one would want to join together. No butt welds, just a couple of lap welds. I ordered the couplers and as soon as I hit "Buy” on the link, I remembered the pipe bender at the shop and the pipe expander built into it. I could make my own couplers.

I quickly ordered a length of 3 inch stainless 304 pipe and then cancelled the coupler order. No sooner do I confirm the purchase of the 304 pipe that my brain wakes up again and ask, “If I can use the expander to make my own couplers, why not just cut the Magna flow pipe and then expand one side. Then cut the other pipe to length and slide it into the expanded end. This way I’m dealing with a lap weld and I don’t need to back purge.

Big sigh. I cancel the order for the 3” 304 pipe.

Finally get to the shop today and work on a little sheet metal project I threw together weeks ago but couldn’t figure out how I wanted to finish it. I finally did.

I pulled some weeds on the side of the shop. I tell myself that I’m stalling and I am. I never used this bender thing and neither has the owner. I have the manual but that involves reading. The horrors.

Ok, no more dicking around. I get the muffler hangers out of the bag of part, grab the tape measure and crawl under the car. Hang a muffler off the end of the exhaust pipes and hold a muffler hanger up to where it should go. Measuring the distance between the hanger I’m holding up under the car and the one welded to the muffler and I find they’re off by 5 inches. My guesstimate was correct.

I unbolt the X-pipe from the headers and drag the exhaust out from under the car. I still have to weld the ball joint couplers to the intermediate pipes so I take them with the X-pipe to my welding table.

These will be interesting. The pipes are stainless steel and the couplers are mild steel. They can supposedly be welded together. We’ll see.

I stare at the X-pipe waiting for it to tell me what it needs. After 5 minutes it’s still quiet so I guess it’s up to me to figure it on my own.

The expander has a two inch depth.

I don’t know why I chose the side I did, brain fart I suppose but I decide that the exit of the X-pipe will be the pipe that gets expanded.

From the X-pipe back, I have a length of 25 inches. I have to take that down to 20. With a 2-inch depth to be expanded, I give myself an additional inch to play with so that gives me a short 3-inch pipe coming out of each end of the X-pipe. If I cut 3 inches off of the face of the other half and sink the now shorter pipe into the 2-inch expanded end of the X-pipe, that should give me the five-inch reduction in length I am looking for.

The pipe is marked and now it’s time to go to work.

I Couldn’t get the pipes to sit properly on the bandsaw so I broke out the trusty angle grinder. At this point a lot of care has to be taken. Stainless doesn’t like contaminants and this could happen if a grinder or cut-off wheel that was used on another kind of metal is used on the stainless steel. A brand new cut off wheel is mounted on to the angle grinder and the pipes are cut along the Sharpy line.

The longer pipes I can cut on the bandsaw. My knees are shot, I prefer standing at the bandsaw as opposed to kneeling on the ground with the grinder.

In short order the pipes are cut and the ends are cleaned up on my ancient disk sander. Yes, I replaced the sanding disc with a brand new one.

I did a few test runs with the expander. Again. I brain farted or more of a senior moment and even after I set up the expander properly, I still managed to make some ugly expanded pipes. Ugly as they were though, they did what they were made to do and accepted the longer exhaust pipes as planned.

Lucky for me, the expander waited until the very last job until the arbor broke.

Expander debris.

The arbor that is pulled through the segmented expander die broke in half during the final job. It looks as though the arbor had cracked or broke before and then welded. It wasn’t a very good weld.

I put the pipes together and tack welded them and then found out that one of the pipes had twisted a bit. I don’t know if it will make a difference but I want the pipes to be as square as possible. I’ll have to cut the welds on the offending pipe but it was getting late. I cleaned up and went home.