Ugh! My Exhaust Fell Off!

[Dome]

Yep, you read that right, my entire exhaust system, from the cat back, fell off today. Back during the Carnage Canyon run a few months ago I really banged up my exhaust and quarter panel and broke _all_ the hangers off my exhaust. Its been supported by a coat hanger for the last few months now until I could get the bodywork done on the qp (the bondo all broke so there is some gaping holes into the back of my truck) but it finally gave up the ghost today and the cat fell out of the y-pipe, landed on the ebrake cables and melted through it. So currently my exhaust system is sitting on the balcony of my apartment.

So anyways, my plan now is to finish the quarter panel work as fast as I can (I plan on trimming off about 4-6" from the quarter panels, up to about the line even w/ the top of the stock bumper, so the exhaust can exit a little higher) and put a new exhaust system in (the current one is pretty crappy anyways, bad muffler, cat that doesn?t really work anymore, and a bent/rusted up tailpipe).

So, here it comes.... should I stay w/ the 2.5" pipe (and get a high flow muffler/cat) or go to a 3" system? I have heard some of you say that you loose out in the low end. I guess I would rather gain in the low end (or at least stay the same) rather than get more horsepower. I can pass going uphill and I don't need to be going faster than 65 or 70 anyways with the big lift and wobbly steering.

Oh, and to top it all off, my water pump is leaking live a siv so I have to replace that before Moab too!

[derf]

I'd say stay with the 2.5" exhaust but get a flowmaster muffler and quality stainless pipes. It will cost you now but a flowmaster will take a beating and so will the stainless pipes.

[Bob Barry]

I've done the quarter-panel bob, and it won't let you raise the exhaust because the low-point is still the rear spring hanger (you can see this on the body page for my Cherokee). My exhaust-pipe has kind of "self-contoured" itself, by banging against all sorts of rocks and shelfs, and apart from a 3" body-lift and running the pipe OVER the framerail, I don't see a good way to improve the situation.

Of course, if you do a shackle inversion, you can run the pipe out between the frame and the spring which provides plenty of protection.

[redneckd out]

Blake and I went with 2-1/2" pipes back from Edelbrock's tes-6881 headers--kept the air tubes that way in order to comply with Atlanta'a gestapo smog rules. Then, we added a high flow cat and flowmaster muffler. Only drawback to higher flow system is less back pressure, which sometimes makes the smog stuff work less efficiently. But we have not noticed any appreciable loss of low end power--this thing will climb anything we can put it through in low range. Headers about $300, cat and muffler about $300, and pipes/installation about $300---not cheap, but a relatively bullet-proof solution. Take it easy, and thanks for all your hard work keeping this site up and running so well.

CR (Blake's dad)

[porkchop]

<blockquote>quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by Bob Barry:
Of course, if you do a shackle inversion, you can run the pipe out between the frame and the spring which provides plenty of protection.<hr></blockquote>

Thanks Bob! I was trying to figure out where to put my exhaust after my inversion that I am working on. You dont think that it will get crushed on extreme compression of the springs?

[Bob Barry]

Then it becomes your bumpstop! Double Duty!

Seriously, if it exits right in front of the inverted shackle at the rear of the spring, then the spring would not be able to flex into it, unless it was broken!

Either way, it will be a more gentle ride for that pipe than if it was hanging back there getting crushed when landing hard on rocks that the rear tire passes over.

[testuser]

i'd stay with 2.5"

there's a company called iron tuff that makes kewl mufflers. fairly cheap too, and they sounds great. didn't lose any power at all.