I noticed a rattle sound in my exhaust last week, and I immediately assumed it was my Flowmasters going bad again. Well, after beating around on the exhaust, I found that the rattling sound was coming from the entire H-pipe being loose right at the manifolds. I thought the nuts had just backed out on the studs, and a quick tightening would solve the problem and I would be on my way. Wrong! The nuts were as tight as they could be. The factory studs have a stop (which I assume is to prevent from over tightening) but they were bottoming out on the flange on the H-pipe before it could create a tight seal. I have had mine on since around January 05, so I imagine over time the flare fitting on the h-pipe has just become larger and relaxed from vibrations and everything. The problem was since the studs were bottoming out on the flange and not allowing a tight seal, it was leaking a fair amount and I could hear the leak along with the rattles. So I took it to this awesome exhaust guy who really knew his stuff, and he had the idea to just weld the flange onto the h-pipe, down about a half inch, so the flange wouldnt bottom out on the studs again. Then all we had to do was tighten down the nuts and it pulled it together nice and tight. It worked great!! It was sealed better than when I first put it on. I could tell a big difference in the sound and power. I think all this time I had a slight leak and didnt even notice it! The cool thing was that it dramatically reduced the 2500 rpm trumpet sound I had. It sounds so much sweeter now, and I am very pleased and it was an easy fix!
I dont know if anyone else has had a similar issue, but that is what fixed my problem.

 

Thanks for the heads up I'll keep an eye and ear open for it.

 

I've got the Pypes w/cats on mine but it's the same connection. Thanks!

 

I put a small bead of high temp gasket sealer on the lip of the flanges when I installed mine (I did the same where they meet the muffler pipe too). I don't know if that can harm anything or not, but I've had a great seal and no leaks since day one. Hopefully it will provide some adhesive/buffer that will prevent this from happening.

 

i think i would have gone ghetto and just used a good amount of thick washers on the studs to pull it tighter but the welding idea is better

 

I thought about that, but washers probably wouldnt work. If you put washers on the studs, it would still bottom out on the flanges. The flanges are just sliding up and down loose on the tubes, so they will only tighten up when they get to the top of the tubes. Since the factory studs are bottoming out on the flanges before it can get a tight seal....that is how it is leaking. So if you have the flange welded down a bit from the top, there is no way it can bottom out on the stud and it will pull it together very nicely. Or maybe just put different studs in there if you dont want to weld anything.

I think this will start to become more noticeable on the h-pipes once more time goes by. I just talked to another guy on here, and he had the same issue with it.

 

i have the same problem. i emained brenspeed about it as thats where i got the unit and they never heard of it.

 

the easy solution is to:

1)find out what thread the bolts are
2)get a new set of bolts
3) get a die that matches the thread
4) cut a thread on the remainder of the bolt

Typically long threaded studs have an unthreaded section because well the threads don't need to be that long. Since the pypes pipe has a different interface than the stock flange, it needs more thread. Just make more threads!

If anybody wants to buy a set of bolts and send them to me, I would be more than happy to lengthen the threads in my machine shop and mail them back to you free.

Also if I could see a picture of the bolt to confirm this, it would help out

I suspect it looks something like this, a shoulder bolt

 

Yep, that is what it looks like Dustin.

The flange is bottoming out against the shoulder before there is a tight seal between the tubing and the manifold.

 

cool, I can easily fix that then

 

where could we buy those bolts, because i might be ordering my H-pipe soon

 

local ford dealer

want to be the guinea pig? I plan on doing it myself but I won't until april when my SLPs go on

 

hmmm, maybe be, i will probly be buying my H some time next month or later this month

 

Same here. Post up the Ford part # if you get them from the dealer.

holeshot, got some audio clips? Or anyone else with the H and flows?

 

Clips of the offroad H and various exhausts:
http://www.brenspeed.com/info/soundfiles.html

This has both the Flows and the SLP clips!

 

Yeah, those are the only ones Ive heard. The more the marrier.

 

No sorry man, I don't have any clips. But the clips on brenspeed.com sound pretty close to the real thing. It just doesnt pick up the deep thoaty sounds you'll hear in person though. The clip with the o/r h-pipe and flows is sweet, because those mufflers were mine. lol. I gave them to Brent so he could make that clip. I am kinda famous! haha.

Either way, you wont be disappointed with the o/r h-pipe if you want a heck of a lot of sound!

 

Bump

 

Odd this topic comes up. For the first time in about 7-8 months it's nice enough to get under my car and check this problem out. I check my header bolts and all the nuts are tight. I grab the pipe with 2 hands and there's about 1/16"-1/8" of up and down play....I couldn't believe it. I think the best way to tackle this problem is loosen both flange nuts about 1/4"-1/2" and let the flange drop down. Using the bolts for alignment, tack weld the flanges to the pipe. Once you get a decent amount of weld, tighten the nits back up and that 1/4"-1/2" of extra stroke should fix it. Repeat for the other pipe. Going to do this this weekend or next with my friend's MIG welder. A muffler shop should be able to do this for you for cheap

I actually bought a whole new set of studs, $10 each for 4. There's no way you can add threads to make it tighter because the spacer in there is the hex head for header attachment.

 

That's exactly what I had to do Dustin. It makes a difference. Also, as you are tightening the nuts back up...bang on the pipe at the same time with your fist or a mallet. Once you dont feel or hear any vibrations, you know its seated tight onto the manifolds.