Cracked Exhaust Pipe

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G'DAY ALL,

Over the weekend after hearing a strange "phut phut" noise i found a crack along the weld line of the left hand pipe, after removing the pipe the crack opened up considerably.

I am going to silver solder it and get it rechromed, i know that this is a high stress area because of heat and engine vibration but is this a common occurence.

Recently i have noticed this pipe has been coming loose at the head so i have tightened the nut by a couple of lugs to take out the movement which is what i achieved but it has now cracked.

I was wondering whether the pipe had ever been fully tightened up by the P.O. and was floating rather than being pulled up hard against the washers.

Mike.
 
If it were I.... Stripping the chrome at a platers for both pipes. Then a TIG welded repair (steel rod)with channeling and holes at each end. Lots of sanding followed by copper plating and more sanding then back to matching chrome pipes. Once brazed a good repair becomes much more difficult.
On the large bore pipes it's not uncommon to see flange come off. But cracking of the pipes is not common.
 
If these are non-oem cross-over style pipes, then yes, cracking is quite common due to the misalignment caused by the strain from the crossover. If they are non-crossover, then it's probably because they were loose or a bad fit.

Non crossover pipes are plentiful right now, and the ones from EMGO are quite inexpensive. I have a couple sets that I haven't installed yet, but the workmanship appears good and the plating decent. This might be a better choice than to repair and re-chrome.

Anyone have any bad experience with the EMGO pipes?
 
Mine cracked too...kept tightening the nut...but the pipe still wiggled, finally found it had a hairline crack at the point it was welded upon assembly, just where the smaller diameter pipe fits into the larger sized pipe at the top of the exhaust....if yxou can picture that.
Anyway....the crack wasn't too far gone so I did a trick and drilled a bunch of holes into the outside of the pipe...up under where the exhaust nut would hide them, and made sure the holes didn't go through the inside, smaller pipe...just through the outer, larger diameter pipe. Then welded into the holes to get at the inner pipe and attach it to the outer pipe so the two pipes were welded together at several points instead of just at the area that had broken in the first place. That is a design fault, that one ring of welding where the towo pipes overlap.....too much lever action, and a loose exhaust nut will give it all it needs to crack there. The crack is still there, but the pipe pieces are now welded together at several other places...instead. Advantage was that the new weld points are up under the exhaust nut, can't be seen, and I didn't have to weld up an area that still had good chrome and screw it up, appearance wise....maybe you can understand all this loony explanation...maybe not...but it still holds now, after about a year. Stupid that the pipes broke like that, being new and unused... :wink:
 
It appears that the nut may not have been adjusted right up otherwise i would not have been able to tighten it as i did, which means to me that the pipe may have been floating in the head.

By tightening the pipe right up it may have restricted any movement, which, if the pipe was ill fitting, would have placed stress on the pipe therefore leading to a crack in an area that has already been stressed by welding.

There is no balance pipe between the two pipes and i can buy a new pair for $350 Oz. They are apparently British made, and, he tells me, good quality, but i don't know the brand.

What concerns me is preventing it from happening again, i will try a couple of copper washers and pay attention to the tightening up process and see if i can eliminate any undue loading on the pipes.

Thanks for the input.

Mike.
 
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