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doing my own exhaust?

B

BranndonC

3/4 ton status
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Mar 18, 2002
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Location
Anaheim, Ca
i am broker than anything right now, and the exhause shop wants 300 to do my exhaust. what i want is basicaly a single exhaust. nothing fancy, just a tube coming from my passanger side, straight under the tq converter to a Y pipe and straight down the drivers side. How hard would something like this be to do with no bender? do exhaust shops just sell metal?
 
but i cant install my front drive shaft untill them, lol :( so i cant really offroad untill then either. and $300 could take me a couple months at this rate to save up
 
Go find a little mom and pop muffler shop. We have one pretty close to here that will do the exhaust from the manifolds back if you bring in the mufflers for $75. It isnt nice mandrel bent stuff but it is all new tubing, welded joints, etc.
 
Got an oxyacetylene set-up? I used to hacksaw and gas weld pieces of pipe together, now I chopsaw and Mig weld pieces of pipe together. How motivated are you. Old exhaust pipe can be welded together, I do it all the time but thats just me.
 
why would you need you drive shaft after? usually you need to build the exaust around the D-L because the D-L is stationary. D-L = drive line...
 
all i have now is a 3 foot tube straight off the manifold and a muffler clamped to taht. That is in the way of the front D-L. i was going to bend it and have it go across before the D-L would even think about hitting it
 
Making your own Y-pipe is difficult. If a stock Y-pipe will work, Walker sells them for a pretty cheap price. RockAuto.com sells Walker Y-pipes for about $50 to $60. The rest after that is easy. If your rig is lifted pretty high, then a factory Y-pipe will probably not clear your front driveshaft, and you will need to have a custom one made.
 
i have my brothers old y-pipe off his 2005 dodge ram, i'm going to see if its useable. thanks
 
I agree about finding another exhaust shop, a basic single exhaust if you just need something to get you by, should be pretty cheap.

Yes, horribly undersized for your engine, but 2.5" single tube run I can't imagine should cost anymore than about $200 installed. Again, talking temporary until you aren't broke anymore. :) I don't know what the going rate is for 3" pipe, I expect it's a fair amount more than 2.5" stuff. If the price is very similar, 3" would be the way to go though obviously.

If you've got stock pipe pieces that you can use to cobble together a system, Napa sells exhaust pipe bends and adapters in multiple sizes, so if you just need a few pieces to put some existing pipe together, it wouldn't be but $50 or so. But if you were trying to do a WHOLE system with bends over the axle and what not, that method would be expensive. You'd still need someone with a MIG to weld it all together for you.

I used the stock exhaust that was on the truck, four 45* exhaust tips, and two 2.5" ID to 2.5" OD adapters from Napa to get my system adapted to headers.
 
Make it!..If you can cut and weld,its not that bad..

Usually I just make my own exhaust systems..out of things like galvanized chain link fence posts(they last 5+ years easy,and yes,they DO have 3" available!--and its fairly cheap too!)..I've made exhaust systems from old swingset pipes,schedule 40 plumbing(heavy as hell,and strong enough to jack the truck up with it!)..even used 2" copper on one guys truck..solder wont work near the manifolds though,I had to braze and screw the pipes together there..anything thats free and cheap when I'm broke,which is always lately!

I've used the elbows and 45 degree angles from parts stores to make the bent sections nessasary around the T-case and shafts..once your past the T-case,the pipes can go straight out the back without any bends at all on most lifted GM trucks..even my stock pickups didn't have any clearance issues on the ones I ran tailpipes on..most of them I just used down spouts instead..

Maybe you can cut the original Caddy Y-pipe if you got one with the motor,to make dual exhaust....I've read that the stock GM small block pipes are nearly a bolt on to Caddy iron manifolds,other than the flanges being different..not sure how true that is...at any rate,if you can put a Caddy motor in your truck,I'm SURE you can cob a pretty decent exhaust together!:wink1:
 
a lot of shops that i talked to will sell you just the pipe. some will even bend it or flare it for you. exhaust is one of the things i hate the most to work with on vehicles.
the current exhaust i have on my truck was done with a HF pipe bender. i was broke like you are, bought a 10' peice of 2.5" aluminumized pipe for $30, took it to my buddies and bent it up. its not the nicest looking thing, doesn't fit very well, probably doesn't flow that well with all the kinks and what not, but it works. it has gotten me by for almost 2 years now. i havn't felt that i needed to replace it, yet (spring time im gonna do it right with new headers)
it is an option.
 
There was a guy who posted a few days ago and said he went through the muffler shops trash pile/dumpster or somthing and got all the pipe he needed. With all you have done (according to your vids) yourself :eek1: I dont see why you cant do your exhaust:waytogo:
Or can use all that torque and pull some fence posts out of the ground and use that:haha: :haha:
 
on a budget

on a budget hit up the local yard grab what you can and do it yourself it is not too bad even if you have no experiance - you can get the small pieces at you local auto parts store and as far as doing it yourself with new pipe you can just bring it to any local exhaust shop and they will bend it for you for next to nothing at least around here.
 
I used a stock y pipe and cut it to fit. Just take your time and cut it apart and weld it back together. Mine does just what your saying. Comes from the ps and gos to the ds and then straight back and comes out above the ds leaf spring in front of the rear shackle. Anything is possible just take your time.

good luck,
 
thanks guys, i'm not afraid of the work, and i have a mig welder, i just didnt know how to go about getting it done on the cheap. You've given me lots of ideas. Thanks!
 
Ive made mine a couple of times. All out of old pieces I had laying around from parting out trucks.
DSCN1756.sized.jpg

DSCN1757.sized.jpg


Those are the only pics I have right now. And I did dual cuz I didnt want the Y pipe in my way.
 
flex hose and bailing wire :confused: :bow:
at least that's what's connected to my old stock pipes...lol.
James
 
40$ at the junkyard is where mine is from. It was the down pipe from manifolds to the y then the pipe to the muffler that was cut off. The driveline was an issue so a local shop clearanced it for me for 35$. Just use the muffler you have. I dont like it this way but is was cheap and now its permanent.
 
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