Hey all, I'm in a but of a pickle. The flanges I was given to use with my 1999 Chevy pickup V8 manifolds are wrong. Can't find anything online. Any ideas? Thanks Drew
I mean the ones for the downpipe from the flange on the manifold.... Three holes for the studs and goes around the downpipe
Try going to a local muffler shop they should carry them. A few months ago I needed some andI found them on eBay as well
The walker is 2.5". I am gonna try the muffler shop. If anyone knows where to order one or what to order at, say, napa, let me know. Thanks.
Muffler shops seem to have a monopoly on strange size flanges. Our local muffler guy capitalizes on this. A 2" muffler clamp in a white generic box cost $9.50 last summer. I happened to ask NAPA across the street about a 1-5/8" clamp...it was $1.05!!! My .45 auto was lookin' for some of the muffler guy's windows...
Ha! Yea when people take advantage of the "we have it and you don't" it sucks. I have built much of my parts for my car from sheet steel because online they are hundreds. Also believe in local shops outside from this example. Once I needed an o ring for an axel bearing. $15 at the karts store. $0.47 at a hydraulic shop and they didn't charge me cause it was under a dollar. 54 I need the 2". Bringing my manifold to a muffler shop today
try this http://www.rockauto.com/en/tools/exhaust,pipe+flange,pipe+flange,5824 . you do know this takes a flare pipe and donut to make the pipe it doesn't bolt flat to the manifold .
Yea I knew that… didn't quite have a plan yet for making that flare. Thanks for the info. The proper flange isn't listed there… its got to be the 2" pipe hole with 3" from the center of each stud to the next. Odd, right? I may have to make them if I can't find them
This has turned into quite the predicament. Those flanges don't seem to exist. Yet General Motors made how many million cars with these manifolds?!
A lot of the late model stuff have metric studs, and odd sized flanges. You may want to remove them from a truck in a yard. Should be easy if the engine is already out. I am Butch/56sedandelivery.
That's a good call, too. Man I was JUST out near the yard (normally 40 minutes from me) today for an appointment. I will shoot out there and see if there are any thank you
just to let you know the down pipe on the vortechs was 2.25 I.d. ( 4.3-5.7 are the same ) there was no 2" pipe so the hole will be about 2 5/8" dia in the flange . and I looked at the price of the replacement flanges , the lowest I could get ( my pricing from my business) was $110 a pair , your better off going to the salvage yard and remove the whole pipe ( flange and down pipe ) as its stainess and $$$$
Wow! That's outrageous. I will be checking the salvage yards. I am fairly certain thought that the inner most part of the bevel was 2". I am running 2" either way, so I'll have to run a reducer I guess
Ok this is getting ridiculous. I am committed to the 1999 truck manifolds cause they clear stock steering components which is a TOUGH task with v8 swaps into stock 49-54 Chevys cause of the pitman arm coming off the steering box 90deg from the column unlike other cars. There has to be another option... I will make the flanges if I have to... REALLY don't want to. I just can't believe there isn't a walker $7 part that will work and flair a pipe with a torch and a trailer hitch ball. Now I am wondering if 2" pipe is the wrong move is the manifolds are 2.25" but I doing true dual.... Advice here would be awesome. $138 (and that's per side) simply isn't an option.
^ of course I don't mean the conversation when I say it's getting ridiculous - I mean the difficulty/cost of finding what should be simple.
you could do like what they did on some O/t cars in the early 70's and make a head pipe of 2.25 for the first 24" then neck it down to 2" it allows it to flow better thru the 90* curve and acts like a torque tube on a header , it won't hurt anything as it allows the motor to breathe a little better . and if your running a 350 2.25 is about as big as you want unless its a H.O. motor then you should find a tube style header to fit
What a prodigious pain in the butt. what in the world was wrong with normal flanges that they had to engineer this? I initially didint see the link to the $135 part. I like the ones that have one pipe that slides into another and two flanges meet. Pop a gasket in between, a little wrench action and done for 100,000 miles. Perhaps I can do something similar here but instead of the flanges meeting flat, the one on the pipe is flat and the donut site on it, while the pipe goes up into the manifold a bit and the donut gets crushed a bit by tightening?
If memory serves me wright the vortec exhaust doughnut has a steel sleeve inside and a flat side that fits the manifold and the taper side to the pipe.
the donut acts like a bearing as the motor will move ( rotate ) from side to side on the mounts and it keeps it from breaking or crimping the exhaust pipe ( the stress implied on the pipe will cause it to fatigue and fail quickly ) , you do not think it will but it does . and most people forget about this movement there should be springs on the flange not a tight fixed together connection to allow for the movement but keep it sealed
Ok… so like many other things on my build that I couldn't afford to buy, i just decided to take my best shot at making a solution. I used a MAP torch to heat the pipe edge and used a crescent wrench to flair the edge out. This made a bulge in, which I used a 1 7/8 (can't find my 2") trailer ball and a hammer to fix. Using the ball in the pipe and the base off the ball, and a stirring motion, that smoothed out the flare. As for the flanges, the 2 1/4 ones I have on hand fit the flare nicely. I added metal to the outside edge of the holes for the studs with my welder and will "move" the holes by bringing outward and filling with weld on the inside. I am thinking I want to use a length of pipe inside the donut that is as long as the donut is thick, that way exhaust goes THROUGH the donut and is less likely to burn it or find a tiny imperfection in my (less than perfect) home made parts. I am gonna copy this to my build thread (in my signature) and post photos there
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