For most experienced exhaust welders and mechanics replacing or modifying a 4WD exhaust system is going to be a piece of cake. For someone who wants to do this on their own for the very first time, however, an installation manual won’t be enough for an effortless first experience. Installing your new 4WD exhaust can be a little tricky, but with some simple tricks and tips, you will be able to finish quickly no matter how challenging it gets. Remember the more experienced folks I was talking about in the beginning, well they’ve decided to share some tricks that they have picked up over the years working on 4WD exhausts. Below are some of the most useful ones.
Sometimes you will come across a part that’s bent or is missing from the packaging that the exhaust system came in. I know that the smart thing to do would be to send it back to the manufacturer or ask for the part to be sent to you ASAP. If you are in a rush and you need to put the new 4WD exhaust a fast as possible, however, you will have to repurpose parts that are in good shape from the old one. With 4WD exhaust systems, these parts are usually the hangers which can be put into good use if you have bought the corresponding exhaust system.
A lot of times you will need to make some more advanced modifications to your exhaust system and this will mainly involve the front driveshaft. This will require you to cut the stock Y pipe so you’ll be able to rotate and move a pre-cat in order to add a crossover pipe. If you don’t want to be adding multiple parts afterward, you will need to cut at the arrows and then fine-tune how the tubes are connected together.
If you are someone who is interested in building a fully custom exhaust then mandrel bent kits are perfect for your needs. These kits offer dual 4WD exhaust systems which are a great source of parts. They are also universal which means that they will include very long pipes to satisfy the needs of bigger vehicles, such as trucks. However, you won’t need very long pipes and thus you will be able to have some spare parts laying around in case you need to add some or just use them for another time.
Flaring is usually done by exhaust shops but oftentimes they won’t be willing to do it for you because you had tampered with the exhaust before. In this case, your best bet is to buy a cheap flaring tool that will serve you for many years to come. I am saying this because you won’t use it as much as an exhaust shop. It’s going to be even easier to flare back an exhaust pipe, as you will only need to insert the same flare tool and then tighten the black driver part with either a wrench or a flat. When it is tight enough, you will just need to hit the black driver part once or twice using a hammer.