Okay, it's been a while since I have done ANY exhaust work. To date, I have replaced ALL of the pipes from the manifolds back with a set from my fav junkyard ($65 incluinding a junk cat and cat hanger), replaced the donut gaskets twice each (keep cracking the damn things), replaced my Flowmaster 80 series and tailpipes with a Thrush turbo 25" muffler and 18" chrome tip, and most recently, replaced my leaky-a$$ catalytic convertor with a new direct fit one. Now that I have all stock parts, I cannot get the pipes to line up to save my life. If I get the intermediate pipe so that it does NOT hit the heat shield and rattle like heck, I can't get the y-pipe aligned so that BOTH donuts will seal at the same time, no matter how tight I make them. I also am having a lot of trouble keeping the y-pipe high enough off of the ground that I can get the front arm of a lift on the front frame rail without having to lift the side of the car.

Any pointers? WTF am I doing wrong? This exhaust is making me

 

i had the same problme on mine the driver side donut was leaking so i droped the y pipe and got 2 new donuts.well the one on the driver side just wouldnt seal no matter what.

trick that works pretty good is to coat the donut inside and out with antiseize and reinstall it.also u have to tighen both sides of the flange equally.go 3/4 to 1 full turn on each side back and forth until u get it tightened down.if u tighten one side of the flange first then try to tighten the other side the donut will never seat right and wont seal

 

yes, make sure, make VERY SURE that the y-pipe flanges are fully seated & equal on all sides.

 

That's all fine and dandy, but how do I keep the correct alignment on the rest of the pipes? I do NOT have a transmission hanger, the one I had was garbage (the rubber split in half) and I can't get a new one from GM. I am assuming, of course, that I have to remove all the pipes from their hangers (y-pipe flanges and the hanger I have at the tailpipe union), loosen the joints, and then go from there, but how do I keep the alignment?

The system that was set up in the car when I bought it was simple: NOTHING COULD MOVE. Everything was welded together, the middle joint of the y-pipe (because he smashed it), both ends of the replacement test pipe (used in place of the cat, which is why I had to replace said cat TWICE), the intermediate pipe to the Blowmaster muffler (I don't think that came out right, but that muffler sounded like a$$), and the tailpipes to said muffler, which were badly aligned so that I couldn't slide my jack underneath the muffler on a LEVEL surface to jack up the rear end.

Is there anything I can buy or even fab up to keep the alignment?

 

I am guessing since these are JY units, the front sections, and rear sections are off different year cars. And maybe GM made some "tweaks" in there causing them to not be propper?

Just thoughts n ideas.

 

AFAIK, I told the guy I wanted the pipes from an 85 Berly with an MFI 2.8 and that's what I got, but he's screwed me b4, so I dunno... :wtf: