[Shop-talk] Adjusting exhaust

[Steven Trovato]

An exhaust shop could use their bender and dies to increase a bend, 
but I don't know how that would help when the goal is to decrease a 
bend.  I could walk in with a pipe and ask for "a little more bend 
over here", but it is an iterative process.  The car is on jack 
stands in my garage, so minor tweaking would be easiest if I could do 
it right there.  I could always bring the whole car and system to 
some professional and pay him to make it all fit, but I'm not 
prepared to surrender just yet.  The sand is a known technique, but 
it is quite a project, and I don't know anyone who has done that to 
make a minor adjustment on an exhaust pipe.  Spring is a known 
technique as well, but finding the right spring is near 
impossible.   Trying to get one into place in a bend in an already 
fabricated pipe seems like quite the challenge as well.  Using some 
kind of a form is good advice when making or increasing a bend.  I 
still think a torch and a little pressure is a reasonable approach 
for minor adjustments.  I was just wondering if anyone had any other 
special tips for doing that effectively.

-Steve

At 05:26 PM 3/14/2010, Pat Horne wrote:
>Since you can't send it back, at least contact them to see if they 
>have any suggestions.
>
>Next, find an exhaust shop and have them do the tweaking, they have 
>the dies for it.
>
>If you have to do it yourself, I've used sand to keep smaller tubing 
>from kinking when bending it. Just pack the tube tightly with dry 
>sand and heat the pipe up. The sand will help keep the pipe from 
>collapsing, but it will need more heat than an empty pipe.
>
>You can also make a metal shoe to fit the diameter of the pipe to 
>help keep the tube from kinking, or find a heavy spring that will 
>fit the exterior of pipe similar to the tubing bending springs used 
>for copper tubing (without heat).
>
>Peace,
>Pat