Exhaust Reroute

Well alrighty then. Thanks!!

 

Exactly what I did. He did not like the way it was routed in the pic. Too close to the transfer case controller actuator thing. Worried about heat affecting it. And no flanges so the exhaust would have to be cut out to remove the transfer case if ever needed.

So he routed it a little differently, put flanges on it and a heat shield on the controller. $200 labor and materials.

 

That was a good idea. Best one I’ve seen.

 

I was at a local off road shop and they were hesitant to do the exhaust reroute for the following reasons:
The exhaust is stainless and they didn't have any stainless stock there to match, thus degrading the quality/how much that exhaust would be worth. The longevity of the non-stainless sections. The diameters were different in a few places, thus they would have to widen or flange some of the connections and the stainless doesn't form like that that easily. How close you would have to cut and weld next to the catalytic. Has anyone else considered these? If so, how did you mitigate the concerns? Or are they overblown?

 

I would look for a different shop.

 

The only concern my shop had was that the reroute would void the federal manufacturer warranty for the catalytic converter because it was no longer and straight bolt-on bolt-off. They did comment cutting close to the cat but would not be a real issue.

Honestly with that kind of work, I would find a shop that wasn’t hesitant.

 

I went to an exhaust shop that I knew had done a couple other members in my area. Told them what I wanted and showed them a pic of how it needed to end up from this thread. I let them do their thing and get it done. I think they used stainless to keep the material the same but really have no clue. Heres a pic that shows my reroute and how close they got to the second CAT. Looks like they matched the larger dia by the CAT and made the smaller DIA where it rejoined the stock again work.

I agree. Go to an different place like an exhaust shop that is used to doing jobs like this rather than an offroad shop that doesnt have the right materials/tools to do it right.

 

I would put a heat shield between your exhaust and the 4x4 actuator if I were you. My guy expressed some concern about that and put a heat shield on. He also used flanges so the whole thing could be removed without needing to be cut out in case the transfer case needed work.

 

Is the stock exhaust pipe really stainless? It sure doesn't look it.

 

Bake enough mud onto it and it won't.

 

I'm not worried about it. I thought about adding a heat shield but plenty of people run it like this with no issues. I have checked it a few times over teh past 1+ yr and theres no signs of any heat affecting the actuator. Flanges would have been a good ideal but its been this way for over a year so until theres a problem I wont worry about it. I think you may be able to unbolt the front of the secondary CAT and drop it with the exhaust if you need to work on the transfer case. Both are good ideals to consider with the reroute.

No clue. I realized I'm not even 100% sure the shop I used went with stainless(but I'm pretty sure they did, it was a well known exhaust shop that does a lot of custom exhausts). I just blindly trusted them since its what they do and I needed it done to get my skids installed.

 

I wonder if there's a way to test if it's stainless or aluminized steel because now I'm curious.

 

Magnet? SS is non ferrous I think, while aluminized steel is regular steel with iron under the aluminum electroplating.

 

Guy that did mine (and another mechanic I wanted to use, but didn't work out) said that stock one is stainless steel. Unfortunately he didn't have stainless in Stock, plus ss should (or has to?) be mandrel bent, or something. After some initial hesitation I opted for aluminized one, to get it over with...

 

Thanks for the confirmation. I was curious due to me wanting to weld in my own new muffler with flux core, and thought I couldn't weld stainless. Looks like it'll be fine though.

 

Your rerouted pipe looks exactly like mine, at least on the photo (that include bends as well) . Mine is not stainless ....

 

Mine before



and after

 

No issues with mine so far and it is definitely aluminized.

 

Same here.

 

I just unbolted mine and re-hung it. $0. Throttle response and overall performance increased.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oVKAha6xugQ&t=70s