Hole in Exhaust; Temp Fix?

[Sparky-Watts]

My exhaust downpipe was rubbing against my front drive shaft and wore a big hole in it. Now it's super-loud and I need to get it replaced. I'll be going with a high-flow exhaust, but in the meantime till I get the time and money to replace it, any ideas on a quick fix to quiet the damn thing down? I went to Advance Auto yesterday and got a package of muffler repair tape, but due to the proximity of the front drive shaft, didn't really have room to do it right, so when I fired up the engine to cure it, it just blew it to smithereens. I'm thinking I'll get another kit, pack on the nasty sealer stuff again, then pop-rivet a chunk of tin over it. Think that will work, or am I wasting my time?

Second question: What do you all suggest for a good high-flow kit? Do I need to replace the manifold or will just the system from behind the manifold back be good enough to get some benefit from a high-flow? Money is a bit tight since I'm changing jobs today.

[Bounty__Hunter]

A good muffler shop should be able to bend a new downpipe for less than $50.

I've tried a lot of bandaids on exhaust, with little to no luck.

[redrooster]

Sounds like you have a high flow kit now.

[Sparky-Watts]

Originally Posted by redrooster

Sounds like you have a high flow kit now.

Yeah, but it's a bit louder than I wanted. Not to mention the overwhelming exhaust fumes that come into the cab with me....

[Sparky-Watts]

Originally Posted by Bounty__Hunter

A good muffler shop should be able to bend a new downpipe for less than $50.

I've tried a lot of bandaids on exhaust, with little to no luck.

Don't know when I'll have enough time to do that, but it's worth looking into, for sure. I wasn't at all impressed with the repair kit. I'd never seen one before, so I didn't know what to expect. It came with about 2 feet of aluminum tape, and two feet of what appeared to be toilet paper soaked in papier mache'. Yeah, try wrapping two feet of soggy TP around an exhaust pipe with less than 2" of clearance between it and the driveshaft!

[yjdave]

You can use a pop can cut in half and clamp it with hose clamps. It will work but it is VERY SHORT TERM......

[black87yj]

2 cents....soup cans or those slim fast shake cans are heavier..not that i've ever dieted.....

[LVRockCrawler]

yea... make sure its a steel can... with overlap, sealer and a few clamps... and plan on repeating untill you get a more permanent fix....

[Sparky-Watts]

Yeah, I hadn't thought about a soup can! That would just about be perfect....at least temporarily. Right now I'm looking for anything to quiet the beast down, and that would work to some extent.

Great ideas!

[LVRockCrawler]

it'll do it = been there / done that - back in FL (with all the humidity and all it would last a few weeks) plenty of hose clamps (the more the better...) they seemed to work better than c-clamps since youre not trying to bind to pcs. together....

[Sparky-Watts]

Fixed the leak yesterday. I went and got another repair kit, only this time I didn't try to wrap the soggy toilet paper stuff around the pipe, I just kept it folded up, stuck it over the hole, held it in place with the aluminum tape, and used a piece of roof flashing over that with a couple of hose clamps to hold it all on. I drove around for about an hour yesterday (with the top down enjoying the weather and nice quiet exhaust) and it held fine. I already ordered a downpipe from O'Reilly's. I was surprised they even could get it, they never have anything I need for the Jeep. I'll get it at cost through my company, at around $40.

I got a "Fix-it Ticket" this week because of the loud exhaust. I came up on an accident and pulled off on a side road to turn around. As I was getting ready to pull back on the road, there was a State Trooper waving at me and yelling something about 100 feet away. I just figured he was telling me to go the other way, and drove on. A few minutes later, he was behind me with the top lights on and pulled me over. I can't believe he left an active accident scene with a head-on collision to write me a ticket for loud exhaust! I mean, yeah, I could understand if he was patrolling, but he was actually standing there directing traffic and left his post to chase me down. I've had one Fix-it Ticket before back when I was in high school for bald tires, but that was actually in a safety check lane on the highway, so I can see why they actually wrote it out, but the few other times I've been stopped for something like that (burnt out head or tail lights, bald tires, etc.), they've just given me a verbal warning and let me go. Oh, well, I've got a permanent fix coming, so the ticket won't be a big deal.

[Sparky-Watts]

Oh, yeah, I also changed my serpentine belt last week because the old one was all cracked and hard and starting to squeal. Well, I had forgotten to recheck it for tightness, so it was squealing again. While tightening it back up, I noticed a vacuum fitting broken on the front driver's side of the valve cover. Anyone know what that goes to? It had apparently been broken since before I bought the Jeep, but I never noticed it before. It was wrapped in electrical tape holding it together, but the tape had dry rotted off. Anyway, I couldn't find one at 4 different parts stores yesterday, so I used a piece of fuel line for a temp fix. My, how the Jeep runs better now!

[Captaintek]

I have also used a soup can with clamps for a temporary fix. Years ago, i used a muffler repair kit that had some kind of fiberglass tape that melted when the exhaust pipe got hot and sealed it. It worked pretty good for awhile. I don't know if is still sold, but you might ask.

Good luck.

Captaintek