i'll try to make this brief:

* experiencing a lot of leakage between the exhaust flange and midpipe flange.

* still leaks after new crush gaskest installed.

* exhaust piping is a welded on 2.25 pipe from the oem to a universal exhaust.

* the b-pipe is the cattman 2.5 diameter.


brian from cattman told me he has heard of many people running this kinda setup with no issues... as far as leak goes...
i checked the flange squarness, flatness...well i just quickly eyeballed it, but it still seems pretty good. but it still leaks above and bottom of the two flange connections. so it rasps a lot in the high band. anyone ever experienced this??????

 

so noone leaks or rasp w/ a 2.25 connected to a 2.5?

 

not sure what you mean by "exhaust flange" theres like 3 flanges throughout my exhaust system not counting the down pipes from the Y pipe. But I will say YES i get taht annoying *** f*cking rasp from my budget ypipe and always have and have changed out all the gaskets many times as well as my headers.
I am going to be cutting off all the flanges and connecting the exhaust with exhaust clamps/overlapping tubing. I cant take the leaking anymore.

and i'll be getting a universal cat as well, i think my B pipe is 2.25 inner diameter and i'm not sure about the Y pipe outlet inner diameter. its budget though.

 

the exhaust muffler flange and the midpipe flange. where the two connects.

i think the reason why its still leaking is due to the larger diameter piping on the b-pipe overcoming if that makes any sense the smaller diameter exhaust pipe, thus its not a flush i would say seal, despite what Brian told me and even with a new gasket.

i uninstalled it, reinstalled about 3 times, making sure everything lined up, torqued properly and i can still FEEL all the air leaking out b/t the two flanges.

i was thinking about getting a 2.5 flange, cut the 2.25 piping off, weld on a 2.5 pipe along w/ the flange and see if that resolves it.

 

stock b-pipe is 2.25 diameter and budget y should be 2.5.

also, your gonna "cut" your flanges? i wouldn't recommend that. i mean, as long as the gasket is good and tightened, should be no leak. and what kinda overlapping tubing were you thinking? never heard anyone do this before.

 

mine used to leak right there too and i had to sandwich 2 gaskets together so it would stop leaking.
What i'm talking about doing is simply what they do on alot of american car exhaust set-ups. It basically makes it so there arent flanges or gaskets.
something similar to this

My biggest problem is with where the y pipe connects to the cat and the cat connects to the B pipe, i dont feel like thats making a good seal and if im gonna replace it I might as well just get a universal set up and connect it easier with the clamps. The thing is, like you said, the y pipe has a bigger outlet than the greddy b pipe inlet.

 

huh didn't know that. i wouldn't mind doing that to solve my problem but i think cutting through the SS b-pipe might be tough lol.

but do you even have enough room to connect that on the cat side?

and your greddy pipe is 2.25!? why would you even go w/ a 2.25 for aftermarket? mine as well upgrade to a 2.5 you know...

 

oh you know what...i'm not positive on that diameter I think I was just kinda repeating what you said or just talking out my a$$. I will measure it again when i go out there haha.

And i know what you mean, I had to cut my Y pipe since the downpipes didnt line up with my piece of **** aftermarket headers ...but it HAD to be done for it to fit...you gotta figure, thats all exhaust is anyway just a buncha welded together metal haha.

 

yeh, the greddy should be a 2.5. dunno if they even offer 2.25 for aftermarket.

and let me guess, do you have the older obx or stone racing headers?

i would of gone w/ cattman headers despite the cost cause you know there quality is good.

 

lol. yeah i donno...i bought them off ebay as "custom" headers made for some guys race car RWD project 3.5 thing and he said they would fit. Well..i put them on my car (they look identical to the ssautochrome headers) and they just barely dont fit the downpipes on the y pipe. But then again, my y pipe has been bottomed out on and **** so...who knows.
I would like cattman headers but just cant justify spending that kind of money. I have the 3.5 motor btw.

 

and plus, if you really wanna get rid of the rasp, cattman y-pipe is the way to go. i have that rasp from my warpspeed as well but i read on the cattman's the turbulance flow isn't as harsh due to the piping design compared to others, something like that i dunno. but right now, most of the rasp is coming from between those two flanges for sure which is annoying and embarressing.

 

yeh, no offense, but those ebay headers, you gotta watch out for them. but i heard the newer version of the OBX headers have improved somewhat as far as fitment goes.

and lucky you for doing the 3.5 transplant. i would love to do that, plus the 5 speed swap. but too much money and too much time lol.

 

no offense taken . I just needed something to put on the 3.5 and didnt want to put those old crappy headers back on there...they were only like 100~ bucks so no huge loss.

I might get a cattman y pipe in the future, probably used though since i'll be cutting it to adapt to the ssautocrap. An exhaust leak can really kill a driving experience..i feel your pain.

 

I just put my cattman y-pipe on and it has some rasp to it...not happy

 

you make sure the gaskets all lined up? crush rings all placed in, and everything tightened right?

place your hand near the connections during idle see if it leaks.

 

hmmm i just started a thread...and i think you answered my question.

 

good, then delete your thread lol.


as for the exhaust leak, found a shop in columbia that sells individual flanges.
just gonna get them to fix it. hopefully that'll help some...