I was blessed with dual stainless exhaust in my hand-me-down 2000 MGM. It eventually developed an exhaust leak at the cat to H-pipe flanges, and the cause was the nuts rotting off. It seems Ford used regular nuts and bolts on a stainless exhaust. Unfortunately, the bolts were stuck in the holes, and I resorted to a BFH. After a crapload of pounding, the bolts came out, but I probably caused more metal to come off the bolt hole ears than a better method might have.
Fast forward to more than a year later, and I decided to take off the heavy dampers. Regrettably, more metal was flaking off the flanges. I know stainless isn't completely impervious to rot, but it's disappointing to see it that bad. I'm not sure how much longer the bolt hole ears are going to hold out. For the sake of planning ahead, can anyone shed light on what gets done to fix flanges that are too rotted to function properly? On a prior car, I recall using some kind of two-piece flange that bolted together to take the place of a flange. Is something like that in the cards?
On a related note, is there a difference between gaskets used on a stainless exhaust and a regular exhaust? When I did mine last year, I got two different types since that's what they happened to have. One held up fine while the other was crap. When I called about getting another pair, the guy at the counter said something along the lines of there being a difference between the gaskets for single and dual. I'm wondering if it's a matter of dual always being stainless and requiring a different gasket.
Fast forward to more than a year later, and I decided to take off the heavy dampers. Regrettably, more metal was flaking off the flanges. I know stainless isn't completely impervious to rot, but it's disappointing to see it that bad. I'm not sure how much longer the bolt hole ears are going to hold out. For the sake of planning ahead, can anyone shed light on what gets done to fix flanges that are too rotted to function properly? On a prior car, I recall using some kind of two-piece flange that bolted together to take the place of a flange. Is something like that in the cards?
On a related note, is there a difference between gaskets used on a stainless exhaust and a regular exhaust? When I did mine last year, I got two different types since that's what they happened to have. One held up fine while the other was crap. When I called about getting another pair, the guy at the counter said something along the lines of there being a difference between the gaskets for single and dual. I'm wondering if it's a matter of dual always being stainless and requiring a different gasket.
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