EXHAUSTing Adventure!

[mikemover]

MAN!

OK, about 10 days ago, the "flex-pipe" part of my exhaust on the SD broke...Was making a noticeable noise, but I put up with it for a week or so, while I ordered the part, waited, picked it up, and procrastinated putting it on for a couple of days. If finally broke completely and got REALLY loud, so I bit the bullet and tackled it yesterday, and it was a BIG pain in the a$$!! Took me all day!

Removed the air filter housing, bracket, and the associated hoses, etc. I think it was the original, 23 year old pipe, so of course the nuts were completely baked onto the studs! I managed to get it off while only rounding off one of them, and only breaking one of my deep sockets! I was prepared for the rounded nut, I had a couple of spares on hand.

So far so good...By now the "flex" part of the pipe was completely broken, so the upper half of the pipe is off. So far so good. The lower part, still attached to the rest of the exhaust system, WOULD NOT come off! It had been cooked together by 23 years of heat! I had the car on jackstands, and was underneath, beating the thing to death!! Still wouldn't budge. Ended up having to take the whole exhaust system off the car, drag it out from under the car, heat the flanged part with a torch, and bang the old pipe mercilessly with a large hammer to FINALLY get it out.

OK, old part is off, put the rest of the exhaust back under the car, several of my neighbors are now outside, wondering what all the banging and cursing is about..."Oh, it's just Mike, tinkering with that crazy old car again..."

So, the new one should go on easily, right? Well, sort of. I put it in place, attached it to the back of the turbo, attached the bracket that braces it against the manifold, attached the other bracket below, and everything's looking good.

Then I get under the car to attach the bottom end. Uh-oh. Old exhaust pipe has a flange. New pipe has a flange. WTF?!?!?! Same size, no way they are going together! Whose idea was that? The "flex" part of the new pipe is an upgraded design, with a flexible braided "pipe", instead of the old style multi-section flex hose. Very cool, looks like it will last a LOT longer than the old design. That I'm happy about. The unexpected flange on the bottom end I am VERY unhappy about!!! Why would they change that, so that it will not mate up with the rest of your original exhaust?!?!

After much thinking, tool-throwing, and more cursing, I ended up tying the exhaust pipe/muffler assembly to the bottom of the car, driving down the street (slowly and carefully, and loudly!) to a muffler shop to have them cut the flange off the exhaust pipe, and weld the exhaust pipe directly to the new part.

Now it's a very solid and clean installation, but A LOT more work than it should have been. Sucks that they changed the design so that it's not compatible with the rest of the exhaust...I guess they just want you to buy and ENTIRE new exhaust system! The rest of mine is fine...probably has another 6-8 years in it, at least, so I was NOT going to do that! I still saved a lot of money doing it myself, but I was very angry that it would not simply bolt up, and I had to spend an extra $30 at the muffler shop, and a lot of extra time under my car!

Oh, well...Problem solved. The SD was "very loud" for about a week, now it's back to "moderately loud."

Just thought I'd share my frustration, and maybe it will be a heads-up for anyone else who needs to replace one.

Mike