exhaut clamps not holding

[jim97gst]

I have an O2 eliminator downpipe, high flow cat, and cat back (2 pieces) all held together with exhaust clamps. There is 1 clamp on either side of the cat and 1 towards the end of the catback. When I first put it together I didn't torque the clamps down super tight because I didn't want to deform the piping at all. Everything was fine for about 2 months, which included an autocross event. The last autocross event I attended, on my first run I got some wheel hop and then heard really loud exhaust. I came back to find that the downpipe had disconnected from the cat. Luckily nothing was damaged. I drove it home (boy did I get some stares), put it back together and really torqued down the clamps good. Less than a week later when accelerating pretty hard over some bumpy pavement it came apart again!

The clamp was still tight and in place both times but the downpipe had just slipped out. I try and put the clamp as close to the end of the cat as I can because I don't have a ton of overlap in the slip fit connection.

I'm sure if I drove like my grandmother everything would hold together fine. But what fun is that?

I like the ability to be able to take everything apart pretty easily. Is there another kind of mechanical connection other than flanges (I think that would cost a good bit of money) that would hold better? Should I just get the whole thing welded together? Maybe just some spot welds so it would still come apart fairly easily? Ideas?

Thanks

 

[dsmnate]

I just made an exhaust flange this weekend with my uncle's help. It took about 3 hours to do.

Get a piece of steel that is about 1/4 inch thick and use a metal saw to cut a flange piece out of it. Then drill two holes for the bolts and use a 3" hole saw to make the piece slide over the exhaust pipe. Then weld it in place, but a $2 gasket and bolt the two pipes together.

It took me 3 hours because I spent an hour die grinding the circle large enough to fit over my exhaust pipe. My uncle didn't have a 3" hole saw so I had to die grind about 3/16th of an inch away around the circle.

 

[92TALONAWD]

Try the easy seal clamps. Extreme sells them but they are designed for diesel trucks so you may be able to find them cheaper. To get them to seal well you need to really hit them hard with a half-inch impact.

Good luck