Forcedvert

Running around on the street (pretty hard) and this is what happened.
Car is 383 stroker, ported heads, cam, A4 3400 stall, A@A v3 si with 3.4 pulley, lg long tubes 3/4" and X pipe with factory TI's.






Axle back burned through trunk well and caught carpet on fire, is this simply too close or is it getting too hot for some reason? I will tell you it is close, I just got car back and the exhaust needs to be adjusted. My mechanic is being a little defensive about the pipes being too close and is kinda harping on the discoloration on pipes and muffler showing it gets really hot. This never happened before this last time the TT was out.

He has agreed to take care of repair so I'm not worried about that. I just want to know if any of you guys with much higher HP on factory TI's have ever seen this?
BTW it was about to happen on the driver side also the carpet was starting to melt.

SBCGENII

Nope never seen it. Got pictures of the discolored exhuast?

Quickshift_C5

New one for me as well.

Forcedvert

I will try to get pics, somehow didn't think about it. I seemed like the muffler spot is where it dumps into the first chamber.

It has to be a location problem if no one else has seen it. I also forgot to mention that while looking for the new knocking noise the X pipe was really close to the trans and axle back to the cradle, I could see where it had hit in both places at times.

Forcedvert

The longer this thread is up and no one has seen this before....I guess I should be more upset, since I saw it before it actually burned and pointed it out to the shop mechanics. I'm actually kinda pissed at myself for accepting it so easily.

stevieturbo

Is the exhaust touching the body at that point or something ?

typeav

never seen that before

the closest thing is when my dad's smoking habit burn the car seat or the house carpet

Forcedvert

Well on the lift it looked like it did, at times, touch but not touching right then, close though. In retrospect I should have made them adjust it, they told me it was "normal" the marks I saw.
I really can't believe I'm the only dummy this has happened to.

How far away should it be?, I think it was too far back and may have moved even further back under load and started touching. I just don't want it to happen again or have him try to blame something other than the install. I believe he (the shop) will take care of it but is waffling a bit with the "looks like it was really hot" comments.

stevieturbo

I wouldnt like a hot exhaust any closer than say an inch, although that kind of also depends exactly where it is, whether there is airflow around it to help keep things cool etc.

Many areas of the exhaust on mine are very close, but I'm aware of this so would always ensure a cooldown drive if I'd been going hard before parking up.

Quickshift_C5

The shop that originally installed my full exhaust had the rear tips/pipes at the very end too close to my rear bumper. The plastic literally burned/melted just above the pipes. That's the only time I've seen it. I didn't notice it until many months later and I have moved across the country by then. Still though, having it burn through the carpet area is a new story to me.

Good luck, hope it's handled properly.

C5Natie

Yup happened to me. My custom exhaust was a bit too close to the fiberglass compartment and started burning the insulation. Painted the the fiberglass and the mufflers with ceramic high heat paint (wasnt visible from outside the car) and that seemed to take of the problem.

Forcedvert

Thanks for replying. How close was yours? I think treating area for heat resistance is a good idea but mine was really close to where it looked like it touched at times.
It definitely needs to move on mine.

BLOWNBLUEZ06@RKT Performance

There is far too much room available back there for an exhaust system to ever be so close that this occurs. Not sure if you mentioned which cat back system you have. I'm wondering if it's sectioned together in a way that some parts were allowed to get too close. If that's not the case and assuming any recourse you might have is gone, I think I would be cutting and welding it back up in a way that it provides the necessary clearance. I would wrap it in the basalt fiber heat wrap for good measure too.

Forcedvert

It is stock ti’s, on LG long tubes and X pipe. Something is not right, I could see where it hit the cradle and touches trans also. The part that annoys me is I pointed out how close it was to the floor and that it was making a mark and was told that it was normal. This was while looking for a knocking noise. The shops owner was not there and I'm pretty sure he would not have agreed, although he is putting some blame on how hot it is getting because of the blueish tint. He has agreed to take care of the damage but I don’t like his waffling about the clearance. I should have trusted my instincts and not these guys...... live and learn

BLOWNBLUEZ06@RKT Performance

Is it higher at the front compared to the rear? If the rear mounting hooks aren't compromised in some way, the only cause that comes to mind is if the mid pipes are pulled up too high by the mounts in the rear of the mid pipe. That's great to hear that they're standing behind their work.

C5Natie

Same here, pretty close to touching. So close I wasnt able to wrap the muffler with header wrap unless I removed it.

Forcedvert

Ok so after looking at a Z06 on a lift he could see what I was talking about.....The pipes ere way too close to the bottom of trunk. The problem was it was too far back and where the axle back goes over rear axle it needed to be moved forward putting it over an inch away from foor. He also tack welded to keep it from moving apart. Funny he still insists it got too hot based on the color of pipes and mufflers but I think this may be normal on a boosted car being pushed hard for a long time. I will take pics and post when I get a chance.

Thanks for all the replies