lookforjoe
True Classic
Looking good! No creaks, groans or rattles from the exhaust I hope?
My Car So Far...
- Thread starter Ben Louis
- Start date
Dr.Jeff
True Classic
One way to improve a slip-joint on an exhaust is to use a band clamp over the joint. There are two styles. One is flat and offers a lot of clamping force without crushing the pipes (so it can be removed again in the future), and the other is stepped to overlap the joint (providing a secondary seal):
dllubin
Don
I used the type in the first photo for my Volvo exhaust and they worked quite nicely. You get a good seal, and not damage the pipes so they can be easily removed. I'll likely go that route when I put together an exhaust for the X.
Dr.Jeff
True Classic
That first one is also intended for a butt-joint between two pipes. In other words no slip joint (no overlap) of the two, just end to end. Personally that seems a tad questionable, for fear of them separating. But in reality they don't due to the great clamping force of these, so I guess it works. If you have a slip joint with "slots" along the sides of the outer tube (as with many aftermarket exhaust systems, shown below), this type of clamp holds them together and seals the slots.
dllubin
Don
I seem to recall mine sitting on top of slip joints with slots, and it compressing the slots. Definitely was not a butt joint. Not sure you would get a gas tight seal with a butt joint because the clamps are not sealed.
Rod Midkiff
True Classic
simi-truck's use the first clamp on their exhausts and they work well (though a larger version)
Dr.Jeff
True Classic
There are some band clamps that are a single layer and some that have multiple layers. The single layer ones might have a slight gap along their length where they close (see photo below). The multilayer ones are what Karl refer to, same as what Bosal offers (also available from other makers). The will seal because there is no gap, even along the closing seam (also shown below). Either type is available in both styles (flat and stepped).
Blue arrow = single layer. Red arrow is the closing seam, which potentially might not seal (although they do in my experience).
Yellow arrows = multi layer. Black arrow shows no gap at seam.
Ben Louis
True Classic
Ive now put a couple hours of drive time on the car after finishing up the exhaust. I put together a video of me farting around the neighborhood repeatedly revving up the engine way more than it needs and annoying all my neighbors. But hey this is an exhaust test is it not?
Ben Louis
True Classic
Overall the exhaust is preforming very well. It's a bit loud but it does use an aftermarket muffler, which doesn't actually seem to muffle that much. I cut out most of the cruising from the video but actually it's very live-able at cruise. I spent a pretty decent amount of time trying to find the exhaust buzz that appears every once in a while but I've come to the conclusion that it's not actually part of the exhaust system but rather something else on the car vibrating so for now it will have to wait.
Having driven the car a fair bit with less problems other things become noticeable. For instance 3rd grinds, it's not horrible but as I'm trying to be careful with it I tend to miss that gear or it pops out. I've read that this is a fairly common problem.
There's also some other big news. Today I took the car to get smogged. Yup that's right... this whole time I've been putting in all this work (and $$) without knowing if I could even register the car for the road once I was done. So, there's good news and bad news here. The good news is that emissions wise the car passed with flying colors thanks to the fact that I integrated a new and modern CAT. Hooray! Like seriously it wasn't even registering by 1985 emissions standards. Max NO for '85 is 1200 and I had 54. Max CO is 0.91 I had 0.06. So that's the good news. Ready for some insanity served up nice and hot CA style...?
I failed because I used a modern OBD2 CAT that is '96 and later. Yup using a better more efficient CAT which significantly reduces emissions over an older style and is also much cheaper is a fail!!! W T F man?!!
I remain hopeful however because I still have the smog Referee to go to and I've been told that they are pretty lenient with this setup especially when you are posting such low emissions numbers. But, only the referee can give you that super special sticker... so we'll see
The other silver lining is that while they were trying to figure out how to check the timing (they could have just asked me
) they let the car sit at idle for like 20 min, that is after they had already ran it for 10 min to warm up and preformed the emissions test. And guess what? The hottest the water temp at the head ever got was 223. Then, when I pulled away to go back home it dropped from there back to 200 in about a minute or two and stayed there as I drove the 20 mins to get home. So after my own drive time and a bit of abuse from the smog techs she held up. Also of note, it was 90 plus all day today here in the Cali bay.
It's prob a good idea to take a moment and go back to the copper re-pipe I detailed here. As of now there has never been even so much as a weep. Trust me I've checked again and again. And, as far as I can tell cooling capacity is as good or better. There's also no holes from rot, which I'm sure helps too.
Having driven the car a fair bit with less problems other things become noticeable. For instance 3rd grinds, it's not horrible but as I'm trying to be careful with it I tend to miss that gear or it pops out. I've read that this is a fairly common problem.
There's also some other big news. Today I took the car to get smogged. Yup that's right... this whole time I've been putting in all this work (and $$) without knowing if I could even register the car for the road once I was done. So, there's good news and bad news here. The good news is that emissions wise the car passed with flying colors thanks to the fact that I integrated a new and modern CAT. Hooray! Like seriously it wasn't even registering by 1985 emissions standards. Max NO for '85 is 1200 and I had 54. Max CO is 0.91 I had 0.06. So that's the good news. Ready for some insanity served up nice and hot CA style...?
I failed because I used a modern OBD2 CAT that is '96 and later. Yup using a better more efficient CAT which significantly reduces emissions over an older style and is also much cheaper is a fail!!! W T F man?!!
I remain hopeful however because I still have the smog Referee to go to and I've been told that they are pretty lenient with this setup especially when you are posting such low emissions numbers. But, only the referee can give you that super special sticker... so we'll see
The other silver lining is that while they were trying to figure out how to check the timing (they could have just asked me
) they let the car sit at idle for like 20 min, that is after they had already ran it for 10 min to warm up and preformed the emissions test. And guess what? The hottest the water temp at the head ever got was 223. Then, when I pulled away to go back home it dropped from there back to 200 in about a minute or two and stayed there as I drove the 20 mins to get home. So after my own drive time and a bit of abuse from the smog techs she held up. Also of note, it was 90 plus all day today here in the Cali bay.It's prob a good idea to take a moment and go back to the copper re-pipe I detailed here. As of now there has never been even so much as a weep. Trust me I've checked again and again. And, as far as I can tell cooling capacity is as good or better. There's also no holes from rot, which I'm sure helps too.
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Ben Louis
True Classic
Looking at your exhaust pic again I noticed that the little metal 'lip' on top of your frame rail is bent down like mine where the stock down pipe sits. Dang I thought this was a custom feature, guess not
kmead
Old enough to know better
Congrats on successfully getting it back on the road. Thanks for the video, sounds great.
Sounds great, bummer on the emissions approval but good job on choosing parts that helped your car hit such good numbers. I don’t recall which cat you chose, I think the one on my 87 is toast and though its tempting to just dump it, I personally prefer to have one. So which one did you spec?
Looking forward to the next steps along this path. Congrats on this milestone.
Sounds great, bummer on the emissions approval but good job on choosing parts that helped your car hit such good numbers. I don’t recall which cat you chose, I think the one on my 87 is toast and though its tempting to just dump it, I personally prefer to have one. So which one did you spec?
Looking forward to the next steps along this path. Congrats on this milestone.
Brad Garska
True Classic
Congatulations on the progress - Nice '72 H2!
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Ben Louis
True Classic
Ill have to look at the serial number/ model of the Cat for you. Off the top of my head its a 2.5” Autozone special (wagner maybe?) I chose it because it fit well with my slip on exhaust and its multidirectional which gave me a few more options to work with as I was figuring out the layout. I prefer to have one too because then you can show up places without smelling like a tail pipe. Plus Im willing to sacrifice 2 hp to help out Ma nature a bit.
Im sure my good numbers also had to do with a bunch of other things Ive done like new injectors, plugs, correct timing, and AFM tuning esp at idle.
Ben Louis
True Classic
The H2 is equally frightening as it is cool. Its actually my dad’s bike. Ive put some miles on it and all I can say is that theres a reason it was nicknamed the ‘widow maker’ back in the day. Waaaayyyy too much power for that paperclip of a frame. Can you say speed wobbles and snap high-sides? Having said that Im a big 2t fan and theres nothing quite like that hit when coming on pipe