A friend used two of them when he routed his dual exhaust pipes through holes he cut in the rear part of the car's body instead of running the exhaust in the usual manner underneath the body/rear bumper. They had just enough flex to allow for slight misalignment and any body movement. They worked fine, i.e., they did not leak and were quality parts.
we use them a lot on the tugboats and heavy equipment and some semis , I used to work on and they are on lots of modern FWD cars its not anywhere like the stuff that Jc whitney used to sell ,its a bellow pipe inside with the braided cover to prevent it from crimping .
Just replaced one on mt wife's '01 daily driver. Not traditional but as noted could be handy for certain applications
Ran 2 of those flex pipes last year on my fleetline. Put them in the pipes before the mufflers ,and mounted the exhaust system solid to the car . 3500 miles last year they still look like new ,no vibration or obnoxious exhaust sounds Posted using the Full Custom H.A.M.B. App!
You can get what appears to be the same thing on Rock Auto for about half the price --- Search on Google: EASTERN CATALYTIC Part # IO250Y Malcolm
Never used one from Jegs but I have used them. They are handy as hell on a unibody car with a tight fitting exhaust. Tight as in little or no clearance. And a high torque engine, high torque as in flexes the unibody even though you have installed sub frame connectors. If you are mounting a close fitting rigid exhaust and solid hangers as opposed to a loose fitting exhaust and rubber mounts a flex coupling is a must.
I used them in the exhaust system that I built for my F100. The exhaust tips pass through a fairly tight opening in the running boards and I used the flex joints to allow engine movement but allow the tips to be mounted with restricted movement.
yes it s a bellow shaped pipe inside kind of like a universal radiator hose . and they take the constant movement better than the coil wrap style pipes which break at the overlap joints . the tug ones are 6-10" in dia . but the ones on the petes we used were 6" and they are mounted under the cab and the mufflers are mounted on the cab and move 3-6" up and down with the cab. and being they were one piece pipe they do not leak unless they break but you should limit the movement to a minimum , the manufactuerers have list on the limits ( walker did on theres )
Thanks. What i'm trying to do is adapt two downpipes to an existing dual exhaust system---SBC to 4.3 v-6 and the manifolds don't exactly match up. Close, but not quite. So, i'm thinking these couplers could make up for any minor misalignment. And, just out of curiosity, how much bend can you get out of these couplers?
On very low cars I mount the exhaust solid to the frame as tight as possible with these just behind the headers to handle engine vibrations. like most new cars are done now. Works great
These come in lots of sizes, and lots of prices, and lots of variation in quality. NAPA has them at some pretty high prices. They are OEM equipment in a lot of newer cars and lots of the "Tuner" vendors carry them at good prices. Always get stainless (both inside and out, not just the braid) because the innards are pretty thin and can rot out quickly.
You can buy these at Advance, Autozone, NAPA and about any other parts store for $30 or less. Like Anthony said, they do not bend much. Most to take up vibrations.