I'm having a hard time expanding exhaust pipes to slip joint them together, and I definitely want to avoid butt welding.

I rented a 2 3/8" to 3 1/2" tail pipe expander from Autozone in hopes of expanding some of the piping ends for the slip joints. I tried it on my Hytech muffler section and it expanded it very little before tearing a seam into the end of the piping. That really aggravated me.

I don't think that's an effective way to expand piping anymore, so I'm asking if anybody else has recommendations on how to best get the job done.

I'm gonna try taking some of the piping to an exhaust shop tomorrow to see how they do it. If I'm really desperate maybe I'll bug Dave of SMSP, but he's a pretty busy guy, so I'd like to leave him alone if possible.

 

What is so bad about butt-welding? If the setup is properly hung you shouldn't have any problems.

 

I don't like weld penetration into the ID of the piping...especially with the way the people in this town weld. I couldn't find a weldor willing to TIG and backpurge the piping in this state even if it could save my life.

 

Why worry about backpurging. It is only exhaust, it is not structural. Although I am surprised you couldn't find anyone to do it, don't you have any aircraft fabricators in your area at all?

 

Hmm...I never thought to look for aircraft fab guys to do the welding.

Do I have to have a good reason for wanting to backpurge a butt weld? I'm just trying to promote good exhaust flow. Maybe I shouldn't worry about it much b/c it's just the exhaust I use for street driving anyways, but I know it'll annoy me to no end that I didn't do it the way I wanted to do it the first time. Not to mention that the gas MIG and TIG welding done by people in the shops I've got to thus far were far from spectacular. They got the job done, but I'm looking for a bit more this time.