Well, as an update: it turns out that the weld didn't rust - it just broke. In cleaning it up I noticed almost no rust - just a broken weld. I wire brushed it and got the dremel out to clean it up and give a nice steel finish to JB Weld it back together. Two coats later and it purrrred like a charm. Unfortunately now three days later it broke. Apparently JB Weld is a little too brittle for the shaking/vibrating of a '97 Civic exhaust...at least in the winter. ANyway, now I have the un-enviable task of grinding/chipping it off so that I only have to pay for a new real weld, and not for the muffler guys to torch the JB weld off as well. Any suggestions for how to get the JB Weld off in the easiest way?

BTW - whoever suggested the sleeve or fitting to splice the muffler back together, that wouldnt' work for my case since the weld broke exactly right at the muffler so there's nothing attached to the muffler to slide a coupling over top of...just a hole. Thanks for the idea tho.

 

you might want to check out your local parts store. those flanges are fairly standard and you should be able to get a peice of pipe with a flange already welded to it, then you could cut of the end of your muffler and use the clamp method to attatch the flange and pipe to your muffler.

 

For some reason, my exhaust system has no flanges - the entire thing from the catalytic converter back is all welded as one piece. I took it to a shop and they said that the broken pipe couldn't be welded back to the muffler since it had rusted "inside" the muffler - and the casing of the muffler is too thin of sheet metal to weld to - it would be really weak. So I'm going to likely buy a muffler from Advacne Auto parts - they have one that's only $50 by Maremont, and it looks like it has enough pipe for me to hacksaw down my old pipe enough to get these two to snugly fit together (in fact, the picture actually looks like it flanges out a little so i could fit one pipe inside the other.) My question is though - do I have to weld the two pipes together, or is there a permanent way of sealing them off and just clamping them together, with a pipe used as a coupling or directly? I know that the seal is important for back pressure and all that crap - but is a weld the only way? Any product suggestions?

thanks again

 

It might cost a little more right now, but I would try to get that flange welded back in there so you can use stock exhaust components. If you plan on keeping the car for a couple of years this will be the best thing to do. other wise you be back here when the B pipe rusts out trying to figure out how to replace that part of it. Someone did a ghetto repair job and now you have to deal with it.

But if I can't convince you, yeah can you get a sleeve and two clamps and that should do fine Back pressure is not an issue, it will just be loud if there is a leak before the muffler./

 

Not that you can't convince me - it's just that the shops I took the car to to get looked at suggested that it would be around $50 or so for the one weld - so adding the cost of the flanges and two welds, I'm looking at more cost in the welding than for the new muffler itself. But, would it work equally well to get a coupling adapter (1.75" inside diameter) that fits nicely over the 1.75" outside diameter exhaust pipe and muffler pipe and use muffler clamps to secure the two pieces together that way? If in the future then I needed to replace the B-pipe or resonator, I could just unclamp the sections, replace the B-pipe and reclamp them down? Solution?

Thanks

 

Okay, so the new muffler arrived today, and the place where it connects actually splays out a little so that the OEM exhaust pipe very snugly fits inside it - NICE! The two pipes overlap by about 1.5 - 2". My question is - should I use one exhaust clamp in the middle of the overlap, or two clamps each about .5" from the end of the overlap. Perhaps a more important question too - how tight should I tighten down these clamps? Should they just be "very tight", or should I be trying to crimp the metal pipes together?

Thanks

 

get id WELDED....dont be cheap...exhaust clamps are GAY!!! shouldnt cost but $50 at most to get it welded up...if even that

 

I wasn't asking if exhaust clamps are gay or not - i don't really care what they are as long as they are functional, and it seems that they are. I don't care to spend an extra $50 just for the hell of spending an extra $50. Plus if I get it welded, then if in the future I have to replace another piece of the exhaust I will have to cut and reweld again - whereas now, I can just undo the clamp and have my exhaust apart. Thanks for answering the question tho...nice of you.

 

exhaust clamps can and usually do leak over time...thats why i say they're gay....its a ghetto/cheap route IMO....though they are used fairly common so maybe im alon on this