How long will this last? Exhaust flange.

[nickb21]

Kinda funny that there have been a couple, recent threads related to this.

 

http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/showthread.php?t=111381

http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/showthread.php?t=110512

 

My question is; how little is too little? I had an exhaust leak appear at the axle back joint, I assumed that the flange was completely toast so I planned on just trimming things down and welding in a permanent one of these (so long gasket):

 

 

However, after grinding/punching the bolts out there does appear to be a "decent" amount of flange left. My question is, I have no idea how this compares to the stock amount.

 

Your thoughts on just bolting this back together, will it last a month or two, a year or two maybe?

 

Cheers and thanks,

Nick

[Fairtax4me]

Wow that looks thin. Might just be the pic but it looks like you could bend it with your bare hands. Those flanges are usually about 1/8" to 3/16" thick when new. You can try it if you want, but if the gasket is thicker than the flange you're probably better off to cut it and clamp/weld a the section of pipe on there instead.

 

If you can get it perfectly clean (no surface rust at all) and spray it with a high temp primer it would probably last a decent amount of time as far as rust is concerned. But being that thin, it might bend or twist and end up breaking.

[nickb21]

Hehe, definitely does look thin. Probable has to do with my low-light outdoor "garage". A quick measurement in the dark says it's a tad under 1/8" i'd say maybe it's 3/32. Not quite as thin as 1/16. Definitely can not bend it by hand, in fact i put a good amount of heat into it with a torch when i punched the bolts (or what what was left of the "bolts") out.... Hmm, might have just answered my own question.

 

Good idea on the high temp paint. On a side note, the rest of the pipe is solid, why can't the make the flanges that good?

[Fairtax4me]

I've never understood why it always seems like the flanges seem to rust out faster than the rest of the pipe. I'd also like to know why they don't make stainless steel spring bolts for these things so they won't rust so bad that you can;t get them apart if you need to.

If it's more than 1/8" then it's probably OK.

[CNY_Dave]

I had a situation like that but quite a bit worse- I stuffed a silver metal exhaust donut into the gap and slathered it with that hardening exhaust-repair goo (which is actually contains the stuff they put into the clunkers to ruin the engines).

 

A softer composition exhaust donut would probably not even need the goo.

 

If the flanges are toasted by the time you have to re-do this, those flange savers are like magic.

 

 

Dave