Hi guys,

I want to try and go ahead and go with my original plan of making all my joints slip fit connections. Where can I buy some good exhaust piping expanders? my piping kit was meant to have most of the pipes butt welded together, but I need something to expand some of the pipes so it will slip right over the other one. Can I get good pipe expanders at Autozone, or do I have to go to Harbor Freight? I need to be able to do 1.5"-1.75" MS and 2.5" and 3" exhaust SS piping.

Thanks

 

The tubing expanders that you can pick up at AutoZone or HarborFreight suck, even using an impact gun. Just run down to the local exhaust shop and have them expand it for you, cost is free to a few bucks depending on how nice they are. Stainless tends to tear when you expand it if you're not careful so make sure they grease up the insides of the piping before hand and go slow at it.

 

Cool thanks, I'l just have a nearby exhaust shop do it for me.

 

the cheapies are nothing but a headache.

 

if you put an oxy/acet torch over the pipe then used the cheapies, wouldnt that be good if you heated it up enough>?

 

Not really, it would melt the rubberbands that hold the expander together.

 

aside from that, would it work?

 

Aside from one big problem it might.

That's like asking if shooting a bullet at your face would kill a mosquito on top of your head.

 

that made no sense, but anyways, i can overcome the rubberband problem, will the expander work with a torch is what i want to know. (pretend the rubber bands arent even there....)

 

Pay the $10 and find out. I have a Bend-Pak hydraulic rotary-draw bender/expander at the shop so I've never needed to use the POS expander. Honestly, what's so difficult about going to an exhaust shop? If someone dropped by here and needed a couple pieces slip fit I wouldn't charge them anything and I know that other exhaust shops would do the same.

 

just an annoyance

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by hybridvteceg &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">if you put an oxy/acet torch over the pipe then used the cheapies, wouldnt that be good if you heated it up enough&gt;?</TD></TR></TABLE>

Clamp a piece of steel bar in a vice. Heat it untill you can bend it easily. It will usually be cherry red before it bends. The challenge for you now is to apply enough heat to keep your pipe cherry red all around while you expand it.
HTH
chris

 

Don't waste your money on the cheap expanders. I bought one and the threads just stripped as I was tightening the nut. it didn't expand the tube at all.