Low exhaust

[1969Camaro]

I bought my roadster from a gentleman in Ohio that was 99percent complete. My wife told me I was too old, had too many health concerns and nearest help to work on car was 6 hours away. She was correct on all counts, I am 77 years old, have cancer and not able to do things I was able to do even 2 years ago. Bought the car had it shipped to me, took it to Ken Pike for paint and body, he did a fabulous job, brought it home and worked on getting g the car completed . I have only driven the car four times but the main concern I have is that the side exhaust scrapes going over the slightest bump or pulling into a driveway. I measured the height of the exhaust, the front is almost 4 inches high but it slopes down towards the rear where it is less than 3 inches from the ground. My question is how do I remedy this situation, is this a common problem? Are there angled wedges to use between the exhaust collector and the side pipes ? Any and all help would be appreciated, there are many knowledgeable people on this forum, the forum is one of my daily reads. Thanks in advance for the help.

[gbranham]

Tell us about your exhaust headers. Do you know if they are the FFR-supplied headers with the ball flange, the j-pipe setup, or straight 4-into-4s? Maybe a picture would help. If they are the ball flange or j-pipe, you should be able to loosen them where the sidepipes connect to them, and rotate the rear of the pipe up away from the ground to level them with the body. Also, do you have the sidepipe hanger connected to the frame, about halfway down the sidepipe? It connects under the car.

Greg

[kirby]

Where are you located?

Breeze automotive sells wedges. I had a similar issue on one side of my car and had to use his wedges to raise the exit. It worked really well

[Blitzboy54]

There are a number of fixes. If you could get some pictures we can help you to get it solved. Under the hood where the exhaust meets the header would be ideal. Also a shot from the outside

[MPTech]

When looking from above, are the sidepipes parallel with the body or does the gap narrow or expand going front to back? (If they are not parallel, then you will need the wedges (as previously mentioned), but these will not address your sidepipes drooping in the rear.
Need to know what kind of headers you have, to advise how to raise them.

[1969Camaro]

I will take some pictures tomorrow and post them. The sidepipes don’t stay parallel to the body, I believe they are the quiet pipes, because they aren’t that loud. I will look at the invoices and build sheets also, thanks for the reply’s already.

[MPTech]

Need to know what kind of headers, not the sidepipes. Are they the older, straight headers or the newer ball-joint style?
There are solutions for both.

[rich grsc]

As Mark said, wedges will not fix the pipes not being parallel with the ground.

[Railroad]

You might correct the angle by changing from 3/8" to 5/16" bolts in the 4 hole flange. You will need a good washer under the head and nut to improve clamping.
good luck,

[1969Camaro]

Someone asked where I live, southern Oregon, Roseburg. I took some pictures of both sides top and bottom, haven’t posted pictures before. Well that was a fiasco, I’m not very computer literate, only have an IPad. Could not figure out how to post pictures. Trying to send pictures to my daughter or son so they can post them for me…I looked for info of how to post pictures on this forum, found no answers.

[PNWTim]

Someone asked where I live, southern Oregon, Roseburg. I took some pictures of both sides top and bottom, haven’t posted pictures before. Well that was a fiasco, I’m not very computer literate, only have an IPad. Could not figure out how to post pictures. Trying to send pictures to my daughter or son so they can post them for me…I looked for info of how to post pictures on this forum, found no answers.

Since I grew up in Ashland I thought I would try and help out a fellow Southern Oregonian. I am not sure how this works on an iPad but it should work:

1. Put photos on hard drive, whatever is easiest. I download directly from Google Photos;
2. When creating a post and ready to embed photo, click the "insert image" icon and choose the "From Computer" tab. Then select "Choose File". Once the file/pic has uploaded, you then have to single click on the un-gray shaded/un-outlined "Upload File(s) directly beneath the Choose File button. I typically only do one picture at a time simply because that's what I prefer;
3. It takes a couple of seconds but once embedded in your post you can double click on the thumbnail and choose your picture size - I always choose "large". No need to resize in advance.

I hope this works for you.

[1969Camaro]

Here are pictures,hopefully , well this really makes feel stupid. Keeps asking forURL I don’t even know what that is

[PNWTim]

You need to choose the other tab which is for local pictures.

[1969Camaro]

Here are the pictures 213753

[1969Camaro]

Here it is 213758213757213756213755213754

[gbranham]

Those appear to be the ball flange headers. Not sure why they would've used wedges, since the three bolts that draw up the ball flange can be loosened and the sidepipes positioned up, down rotated in toward the car, and up or down relative to the ground.

[MSumners]

My pipe tips kept sneaking lower too. I ended up putting worm clamps around the rubber circled below to keep it from getting stretched. And had to re-tighten the mechanical lock nuts on the ball collectors. No issues since.

https://thefactoryfiveforum.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=213762&d=1747191855

[gbranham]

Oh, and consider replacing the ball flange nuts with brass, like this. They really hold well. I also replaced the bolts with socket head hardened bolts. Helps keep your sidepipe from sagging with heat cycles. In this pic, I hadn't yet replaced the ball flange fasteners, but you can see what I'm talking about on the collector to sidepipe fasteners.

213763

Greg

[Blitzboy54]

Greg's picture is your entire solution. First like he said you want to change over to brass nuts. The ones you have (even though they came with the kit) will essentially weld themselves together. The ball flange will sag no matter how tight you make it over time again because of the heat cycles. The best fix is the turnbuckle to create a hanger.

Car from what I can see looks great.

[rich grsc]

Remove one of the bolts from the bracket bolted to the side pipes, the other bolt just snug. If you don't, over time the bracket welded to the pipe will tear loose frame the pipe.

[1969Camaro]

Thanks for all the replies, sorry for the disjointed pictures, I had to send them to daughter who has a computer. I’ve only had IPad for the last ten years. I see what you are talking about, I was going to order a couple of wedges from Breeze also in case I need them.

[rich grsc]

You already have more wedges than needed

[Mike.Bray]

Oh, and consider replacing the ball flange nuts with brass, like this. They really hold well. I also replaced the bolts with socket head hardened bolts. Helps keep your sidepipe from sagging with heat cycles. In this pic, I hadn't yet replaced the ball flange fasteners, but you can see what I'm talking about on the collector to sidepipe fasteners.

213763

Greg

Definitely do what Greg is saying. I used these screws: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000CFS6NG?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_fed_asin_title

And these nuts: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000IZ49HC?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_fed_asin_title

[Jeff Kleiner]

Those are Gas'N pipes (which explains the use of a whole stack-o-wedges :rolleyes:) combined with FFR ball flange headers. You should be able to loosen the flange and rotate the end of the pipes upward as well as swing them into or away from the body to get them parallel. After doing so you'll probably need to reposition the hangers.

Jeff

[1969Camaro]

I’m at it again I replaced the 4 bolts in the ball flange and tightened up and tightened the bracket that goes from the body to the pipe. They are dragging again. Today I turned the wedges in the ball flange to raise the pipe.. it did raise it but now ithe pipe is on the body at the rear ..I saw that someone posted that I could loosen the 3 bolts that attach the headers to the ball flange and turn the pipe to the desired position. I haven’t tried that. Other than ordering more wedge shims, I’m at a loss,need to raise the pipe and need to get it off the body. Passenger side is good I put a metal strap where the rubber hanger is and it keeps it up where it needs to be. I will take a couple pictures and attempt to post

[1969Camaro]

Pass side216546216547216548216549. Then driver side

[1969Camaro]

More pictures 216551216550216552216553

[JMD]

It looks like you need to remove a wedge from the passenger side as it's causing the tip to pull too close to the body. If you pulled a wedge out I think that would open that gap up a bit since the wedges are angled with the thicker side toward the front of the car, effectively pulling the tip in closer to the body with each wedge. Double check that I'm understand this correctly before trying.