2.5 exhaust home brew

[1st Gen]

Made a little progress today.

[Mazda_Powered]

looks like a nice tight fit! should plumb nicely...how are your welds turning out? many pin holes?

[1st Gen]

Maybe you can help me. I have this weird problem with the stinger pushing back against the wire. I'll start out just fine. Puddle is hot and moving nicely, then it acts like I'm loosing juice or something. The wire starts pushing the stinger back in my hand. Then the bead gets funky. The voltage is turned up all the way btw.

Other than that, yea, I have lot's of pin holes. My best strategy has been to run as long a bead as possible at one time and make sure I keep a keen eye on the puddle. The flanges are the hardest since their so thick, the flex pipe was easy peasy.

I plan to wrap the bare pipe in thermal tape, then to the flex pipe for the under the pan tunnel. I'm not too worried about heat transfer after that. Oh, and I need to paint the welds.

[Mazda_Powered]

Make sure you're using a chip/weld type hammer so you can break all the slag and get a good contact area.

When my feed starts pushing back on me, usually means the contact isn't good, or the ground isn't close enough to the work spot. Or you're welding straight on. I always go about 45degrees so it pushes the welds into the butt ends of the pipes I'm welding.

Another thing, if your voltage is cranked, that's another issues too lol, I'm running a 120 welder myself, and the dials don't go past 1/3 on both scales, when I'm welding exhaust...just keep experimenting on loose pieces til you get that bacon sound you want.

[1st Gen]

I'm down too the last bend pretty much. I must be getting tired because I'm hedging about putting that last seam in. I don't know where it goes OEM but I think it probably goes in from of the suspension.

[Mazda_Powered]

coming along nicely man. That rear bend shouldn't be too bad if you have some mandrel bends left over

[1st Gen]

Been thinking about it and have decided to add a few after market hangers. This system is probably twice what the OEM one weighed so some extra support will help keep it from moving around too much. That will also keep those hangers I have already made from resting against the drive shaft after they're attached.

[Mazda_Powered]

good call, less flex, less issue lol

[1st Gen]

Got these hangers coming. They're just to help with unwanted movement. They don't have to hold the weight of the whole system.

Thinking about something like this to wrap that little piece going from the flange to the flex pipe.

Have also been thinking of trying out a new idea, spraying the inside of the heat shield with some type of heat reflecting material. It's still early in the process so not sure where that's going to go.

[1st Gen]

I got some work done on this today. Some of it looks good. Some looks like poo on a stick. Those darn 3/8" mounting bars I'm using are proving hard to weld to the pipe. I had welded them but one broke loose while disengaging it from the rubber hanger. When I saw that I took a hammer to the rest of them and they all came bouncing off. I welded them again but, yea. Maybe they'll be okay. I didn't like the looks of the old mounts anyway so maybe I'll change it up a bit.

[gambit686]

What welder are you using?? Your spool is set too fast. Thats why its building so bad and not getting even penetration. Make sure your tip is clean and your feed is nice and free, No sticking or binding.

Once your speed is down take your time with the it. Are you on gas? What metal is your spool made of? If you are pulling maybe try pushing the puddle. People will have different results depending on skill level and what your welding. So take your time with it. On mild just set your spool low, Let it penetrate and sweep the tip slowly in a c shape. Mig is relatively easy. The biggest part is setting up the welder for what you are doing.

[1st Gen]

I think this is good advice. I found that a pulse was better than going at it in nonstop. And yes, I've been having problems with the wire pushing back. I'll attend to that before I make another attempt. I should have changed the setting before I started work today. Working on this once a month is making it hard on the learning curve.

I'm using a Lincoln 140 with 35 flux core wire. No gas.

[gambit686]

When you run shielded wire you get spattering as you have probably noticed. Im willing to bet that your tip is starting to clog. The spattering is somewhat combated by slowing the feed and bumping up your heat/volts. If your unsure before you start just preset on a piece of scrap. Make sure your pretension is good on your rollers also. They get out of adjustment after a while.


I would suggest a bottle of mix next time. It is cheaper than most people think. Welding with gas will give you stable clean strong welds. But you also have to match your gas mix, Or pure depending on what spool material you will use and what you will be welding. You will love the results having it properly set up.

[1st Gen]

This welder came with all the fitting for gas. The problem is I don't have a cart to put it in. I came across a shopping cart the other day and am thinking of trying to make it work for my needs. It's too big though so am still looking for options.

I had kind of settled for the flux core wire so hadn't looked for gas at all. There are just so many other things to use that money on right now that I was just going to make do. If I find something for a good price, I may jump. I plan on having this welder for a while so gas would certainly be a good compliment to the rig. I've only run 1 1/2 spools through it so far so I don't know how out of adjustment it could be.

[gambit686]

Did you buy it brand new? The tip unscrews, Pop that thing off and brush it out and make sure there is no blockage. The wheels grip the wire and can ease off after a while. For instance if you want to weld aluminum you need tight rollers to feed the small wire and grab onto it to push it through. You'll get a birdsnest in there if that tip gets clogged.

A good gas setup is ideal. It opens up alot more opportunites to weld all different kinds of material. I wouldnt buy a cart just build one. Hell all you need is some stock and scraps. You already have the welder, Build all kinds of cool stuff.