I knew better. I knew that buying that Summit racing H-pipe was going to be a deal. I should have just spent the money and got the best but no, it is just an H-pipe right? Nothing to it, they have been making them for years. Heck, and unlike my old 5.0, these dont have those hangers that are required to slide into the rubber mounts while lining everything else up. Should be a walk in the park. Did it every two years for emissions for 12 years, took me less than an hour to do a solid swap.

No... Not this time.

juiced up the exhaust manifold flanges over an hour before attacking the beast, but yeah, I snapped the last stud. It broke with threads left, so honestly I cheated and slipped a replacement nut on the stud (temp) and it is reasonably sealed for about 2 days.

Of course the exit flange on the passenger side would not line-up/seal right with the factory flange that leads to the muffler. I loosened everything, tried shifting it around every way possible and cannot get that baby closed tight as long as the "H" part of the pipe is connected. It leaves the tiniest little hairline opening about 3/8 long at best. I am kind of pissed because I didnt want to be dumping money into the exhaust right now, I use a custom guy who does excellent work and uses great material, but dude isn't cheap. Now, my 150.00 h-pipe is going to cost me lots more unless I figure out a way to close that up.

Any ideas? It sounds fine, I can personally hear a hint of the leak, but other than that it seems "OK"

Curious - Are the 2 manifold studs threaded into the manifold? If so, does anyone know the size of those threads? Maybe I can just replace the stud/nut combo with a bolt instead if I can remove the current stud.

 

I know exactly what your going through. My $200 pypes x pipe turned into a $600 pypes/ oem x pipe. Mainly because the O2 sensors thought theyd be funny and strip out when I took them out. The of course the pipe had leaks galore. I suggest taking it to your exhaust guy to have it done right. Oh and yes, they studs are threaded into the header. My exhaust guy had to modify those aswell.

 

Dang man, I'm sorry to hear about that. My Summit H worked out well enough, it didnt meet up exactly with the (drivers side, I think) muffler, but not as large of a gap has you have.

Good luck with it all.. I'd also recommend taking it to your exhaust guy, just to make sure its 100% right

 

BUNGGGG!

 

this is what you need to replace the broken stud:
http://www.autozone.com/autozone/par...5_154474_4222_

just remove the broken stud and thread these in, very simple.

 

Yeah, I ended up getting it to line up when I did the manifold bolt repair. I used a dye and rethreaded the remaining stud, then use the 2 nut locknut trick to remove the stud. I was ready to stick a 60mm bolt through the flange when I decided to check Oreilly's up the street, they had a kit too. Same price.

Hey, How come my car didnt throw a CEL or anything? I didnt use MIL's for the O2 sensors. My 89 didnt come with post-cat sensors so it wasnt a problem. Is this OK?

 

This is a great link and should be a must have for anyone thinking of doing the H-pipe with stock manifold.

 

OK, well I filled up last night and within 10 minutes I got a CEL. Me thinks it IS the O2 sensors and lack of MIl Eliminators. I checked the standard stuff, like the gas cap and the gas I used "should" be good. I have been using 89, but this time it was a Chevron I havent been to with this car.

So does anyone have a link for the MIL eliminators? From Summit by any chance? I have a gift card for them.

 

Go to American Muscle.


MAC offroad H pipe FTMFW!

 

That sucks man. I know how it is when something so simple causes so much pain. That is why I spent the extra money and got the MRT unit. Fit was right on, but I paid for it.