Exhaust leak

I have a bit of a leak at this joint. I asked the garage to take a look at last time it was in, and they put some paste on it as a temporary measure. That seems to have gone, so I will do the same.

Is there anything I can do more perminant?

A muffler shop may have a metalbestos gasket that you could used.  when I converted mine to dual down I used a flex that looked like


I had them weld it to my dual down, and left it Clampable for my cat connection.  I also used the solid SS band clamps.

You mean chop off the flanges and use the metalbestos gasket instead?

No, They make a crushable used to be called metalbestos gasket that goes between the expansion joint connection.

Right. Well, I think I have found said gasket…



The problem is getting the damn thing out. The exhaust can't get past the rear axle beam so I can't move it that way.

There is only one join which is between the flange joint and the centre resonator. I managed to slide it out a bit and move the back of the exhaust out a little. Now I need to slide it back into itself. Very stiff…

Got him!






The pipe it slides on to seems to have an ID of 2.25 inches. Is that a standard size across the pond?
***edit*** Actually, it seems to be 55mm

There doesn't seem to be a rim for the pipe to slot in to. Perhaps it wore away.

It has been years since I worked on exhausts.  I usually farm it out to my Muffler guy's.  I would think that if you remove all the pipe hangers and silencers that you could move it to the rear a bit.

I don't remember the diameters.

You could do what I have done in my MG days and make one out of Aluminum foil. But it is supposed to seal the gap, it look like your system doesn't have enough play in it and that gasket was getting hammered by the ening torque.

You may want yo shim your front valance Cup out towards the engine to prevent torque by using large fender washers between the valance and the Cup to limit the torque.

I don't know what a valance cup is. Searching didn't help.

The rear pipe can slide towards the engine and close the gap, if that's what you mean.

Would you suggest any sort of sealant with a new gasket?

You can try using a Muffler Sealer goo.  Let it harden before starting the car.

The Front Grille Engine mount Bolts to the starter, and the has a rubber bumper on it that is pressed on a ball end.

That ball end goes into a cup that is attached to the front Valance.



The Cup is number 13.

Number 15 is a M10X25 bolt that bolts in to the front valance or frame cross bar.  Between the cup 13 and the Frame use 2 large fender washers on each side to space the CUP closer to the engine.  It limits the Torque shift of the engine on acceleration.  Preventing the engine from Pulling on the Exhaust.

Oh, that's interesting - i"ll take a look when I'm fitting the donut.

The hanger rubber near the flange had also snapped, perhaps that also added to the stress.

Is the torque shift always towards the front?

On a transverse mounted front wheel Drive the torque is to the Front and back of the car.

On a Rear wheel drive conventional engine like the Rover 3500 MG's Toyotas, GM and Frog-eye, it was to the left and right of the car.  

I can remember my Brother chaining his MGB's Engine to a Bolt on the frame so he could get higher Torque on his wheels at speed starts.  

The only real thing that ever botherd me on my Midget, and Frog-eye, (besides the heater at -10F and frosted internal windows and side curtains.)  Was the Oil filter as it alway ran down my arm when I changed the oil…I grew to hate filter cartridges…

You had a Midget? Cool. I wanted an MGB Roadster.

The new donut didn't make much difference. It might be a bit quieter at idle, but under revs it is the same, if not louder.


I think you must be right about the lack of play. There is a clamp join between the flange and the centre resonator - I'll loosen that off and try to push the back section towards the rear of the car so there is some slack to allow it to move forwards.

What sort of gap should there be between the cup and the bung that goes in it?

When I loosen the bolts, I can slide the cup forwards around a centimetre before it hits the bung.

On my Pacesetter header that I had installed I made it force tight that is as tight as I could get it as I figured that the springs would allow it to flex on their own.

I had some issues with it hitting my power steering rack that a oxi-acetalene torch, and a pry bar resolved.   

On my second set of Cars, I used the g60 4-2 manifold and a TTtuning dual down on one then used the Down pipe off of a 95 or 96 GTI that had the g60, and the down pipe as the Down pipe had the flexures on it similar to the TTtuning dual down did.  I had my Exhaust Guys make the down pipe from the manifold down.

Oh, on the manifold to the exhaust I tried without going too tight, but it was still loud. I tightened them up quite a bit, and now it is much quieter.

I was wondering about the valance cup and the ball end.

As I was stating the Valance cup, if you place a couple of Large Fender Washers on each side behind the cup against the valance will cause the cup to press tighter to the engine, limiting torque.

Yeah, I have some arriving soon.

I was just wondering how much space there is normally as the engine is non standard.

For my automatic Cabriolets (digifnt 2) I used 2 washers each side of the M10 securing bolts, I can't remember the total distance of the shift over but I took most of the play out of the cup alignment.  Every time I had ever had to mount or un mount that cup I noticed that it spun freely, and that there was the distance gap when I had my engine lifted from the bottom or the top. when I replaced my rear engine mount for the 2nd or 3 time.

I also noticed that rubber ball was worn in one specific position that didn't make sense to me….

So I watched my engine when I had it off the ground on the front.  I was finishing some work, and had the front off the ground on stands wheels were about 6-to 10 inches off the floor.

I noticed with the new rear mount that under load the engine was rocking on the front mount more than I thought, and that was decreasing the life of that rear mount.

Ding Ding Ding from a thread I read years ago about folks racing these critters a solid mount for the front.

As I am the proverbial Cost Effective Illigetimant Son of my Mother.

Instead of sending my monies on a solid block of Billeted aluminium, for a teeth crunching ride, I opted to
Decrease the spast of the Front mount while keeping my
rubber insert. Less travel for the engine, and a bit of cushion for my teeth.

As I was rocking Auto's I had more torque less loss on the first and second shift of my transmissions. Less rattle of my exhaust.

Spin? If I remove the bolts it rattles around, spins, and can be slid backwards and forwards 10mm over the rubber.

I added a couple of M10x25 on each side, but they are quite thin so there is still quite a gap. Maybe I'll add a couple more.

It looks like this without any washers…




The flange issue is definitely sorted now. I got a new muffler which is supposed to be "ultra quiet" but is basically the same as the old one.

I can't fit a stock exhaust as it's a Corrado engine. Maybe I could add a short chambered thing to my ultra quiet thing.