Cracked Exhaust header? (now with pix)

    I was driving home last night when I hit a bump and my exhaust got louder. I just thought the hole where my exhaust pipe meets the muffler got bigger. Then this morning I noticed the sound seemed more to come form the engine than the muffler.


    With further investigation it sounds like the noise is coming from the exhaust hedder. I tried revving the engine and looking for fumes or smoke in the engine compartment but I could not see any nor could I see any visible cracks or holes.


    So I am guess either the hedder is loose (didn't look it and too hot to touch), crack on the underside (will crawl under tonight and try and see) or where the hedder connects to the exhaust pipe is loose.


    Is any of the above scenarios more plausible than the others and if any of the above are true is it something I need to worry about or is there anywhere else I should be looking (like some magical way the noise from the muffler sounds like it is coming from the engine compartment)?

    My guess is your exhaust manifold came loose from the engine. Take a 9/16" socket with a long extension and make sure all the bolts that hold it to the head are tight. They can loosen up from the heating and cooling of the exhaust. Also check where the down pipe hooks up to the header. A stock exhaust has a cone shaped donut that fits in between the two pipes and crushes to seal up the joint. They are pretty cheap.

    Member since 2000

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    I just replaced my header, cat, and muffler. The header had about 6 cracks in it. I also found out that someone had hollowed out the cat so I basicly had no cat at all.

    Found the problem. I will let the pictures do the explaining.





    I have now moved the downpipe into postition so *most* exhaust goes thru the pipe. I am going to try and wrap it with Al tape (eventhough there is not much left of the pipe on the flange).


    Trouble, this is a close as you can get to sounding like a V8. :rollsmile:

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