Jamie C <jamie12ga@gmail.com> wrote:
> Is this normal for this truck or was it compressed afterwards?
Yes, that is a factory crimp. I'm not sure what it is supposed to
clear, but my '96 2wd has it also. I replaced my stock Y pipe with an
ATR Y-pipe which is 2.5" to 3", stainless steel, mandrel bent.
Unfortunately, ATR is no longer in business - their primary market
was the Turbo Buick/Grand National I believe.
> Is the stock y-pipe a weak link in the exhaust system? The only mods are an
> M1 Intake and larger throttle body but I may upgrade from the cat back in
> the future when the rest of the exhaust goes.
> Walker makes a y-pipe and it looks like in the pituree that there's no
> compression in the area discussed:
> http://www.amazon.com/Walker-Exhaust-40235-Front-Pipe/dp/B000JZYSU4
> They use compression bends too but overall it look like it would flow better
> then stock (again, if my mild mods need "better then stock" exhaust)
Hmmm, that Walker Y pipe looks a bit iffy to me. Granted, its
less than $60 shipped, but I suspect you're going to get what you pay
for there. Besides the compression bends, it doesn't look like any
effort was made to protect the pipe from corrosion after it was
welded. True, they started with aluminized pipe, but that is
completely burned away wherever they welded, so I'd expect it to rust
up pretty darn quick. If I were going that route, I'd be tempted to
have an exhaust shop just fab something up, perhaps using 2.5" legs,
that way even if they use compression bends, you're still going to
outflow the stocker. Even better if they can do it with stainless
pipe. If you went this route, you could have them piece it together
using off-the-shelf mandrel bends.
If you do get the Walker, be sure to apply some sort of corrosion
protection, especially to the weld areas, such as some high temp
exhaust paint. There are more exotic coatings out there, but probably
not worth the money or effort to use on a $60 part...
The stock exhaust actually uses a pretty decent quality of steel,
so it usually lasts a good long time. If you were concerned about
that crimp, one option might be to try to remove it, either by
drilling a hole in the other side of the pipe, then heating the crimp
area and using a punch through the hole to push out the dent, or by
simply cutting out that area and patching over it. Either method will
compromise the corrosion protection of the pipe though so you should
probably hit it with some high temp exhaust paint at a minimum if you
do that.
Another option is to just run it as is, and once you decide to do
something with the exhaust, just do something custom from the front to
the back, like having a shop build a true dual system for you.
--
-Jon-
.- Jon Steiger -- jon@dakota-truck.net or jon@jonsteiger.com -.
| '96 Kolb Firefly, '96 Suzuki Intruder, Miscellaneous Mopars |
`-------------------------------- http://www.jonsteiger.com --'
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