Cosmo Kramer

I purchased the Motorsports X pipe without cats to put on my 85 32V. I started fitting it to the car last night and it appears to be too long. The X pipe overlaps the cat back by about 3" and that makes it extend over the smaller part of the exhaust when the flanges are lined up at the front. I scribed a line with a pencil and took pics as I pulled it off to show how far it overlaps.

Roger says these have all fit very well and it has him scratching his head. Does anyone here have an idea as to what it could be? My cat back is completely stock with no mods at all.

Mike Frye

Hey Ted,

I'm not sure how many Roger has sold without the cats. I needed to get mine with the high flow cats for emissions.

Looks like a job for Sawzall Man!

For the record, my crossovers from 928MS required a little 'persuasion' at the rear end of the cats and I could never get the clamps to hold for very long so I had the cats welded to the catback portion and used u-clamps on the front. JHowell37 has a much better solution, he welded a step-down piece onto one of the pieces because of the change in diameter and now it just clamps on perfectly fore and aft.

SteveG

I can't answer your question. I ordered a cat from another vendor for my '85, and it may not be the same system as this. It involved a number of clamps. I just didn't like that arrangement (clamps) so we never got to any fitment issues, YMMV, but I returned it and installed an X w/highflow cats from Mark Anderson. It was pricey, but it sounded wonderful, some bite + some reverb, I can still hear it. I have since sold the car, and you could check with Rick, but I think the sound of that car idling, not to mention adding some foot, was part of why he bought it.

Cosmo Kramer

How much should I cut off? Is it supposed to overlap past the slotted part of the cat back?

1985 cars in Ontario are emissions exempt. No power robbing cats!!

the flyin' scotsman

My X pipe is sans cats but I didn't cut the X or the existing pipe. I tried the clamps and pipe wrap that came with the X but couldn't get the seal to last.

I eventually gave up and had the joint welded.

Should add that the X came directly from the manufacturer in Utah.

billtool

I installed the x pipe on my 85 auto last Sept. I too thought it was long. I wasn't fitting the other end well to the front of the exhaust. Try lifting it up higher up front...I found it to be a real bitch to fit the front and shimmy the rear back in place. But it worked. My clamps supplied fit and seal great. Before you start cutting, why don't you ask Roger to take a string and measure front to back. If you cut it and it's the right length originally, as Roger would say..."YOU"RE F#$%ED!".

Ketchmi

It is possible that one slipped out of here a bit long. The factory cat back system also has some play in it, usually at least an inch. They are supposed to go about halfway back on the swedged (larger) portion of the factory cat back system. Our manufacturer may be getting a bit lazy...time to get out the whip.

BTW, as far as I know, we are the only ones manufacturing the crossover and resell them through Carl @ 928 Motorsports and through Roger @ 928'srus.

Glad you got that supercharger system working Ted, you could have just sent me a quick email and I could have helped you out on this too.

Cosmo Kramer

Thanks for chiming in Dave. It definitely is going to have to be cut down a bit so let him have it!

The S/C project is going well just have to work out a few more kinks. I managed to get rid of the PS pump pulley as a tensioner and I am running a dedicated S/C belt so happy about that!

Ketchmi

BTW, too long is always prefered to being too short...can supply references if needed.

Richter12x2

I just got mine from Roger about a month ago, and it fits like the second picture. With the seal and the clamp on, it doesn't seem like I have any leaks either, just sounds nice and has enough torque that I almost curbed my car trying to hurry up and turn out before the oncoming traffic lights turned green.

76FJ55

I just installed mine on my 85 auto a couple weeks ago. havent had a chance to fire it up yet, hope to get there this weekend. make sure you have the front fully torqued down before determining the length on the back. I thought mine was going to be to long as well, but after fully bolting up the front to the manifold I decided I could live with the length. It still seemed just a hair longer than ideal but I was satisfied I had enough of the larger diameter to clamp to. also I found in another thread the suggestion to use the aluminized glass sleeve avainable at Advance Auto Parts at the bonded aluminum helps hold the glass together and keeps it from disintigrating. It is made by Design Engineering and is part number 010403 in the 3/4" wide which is what I used. I devided the roll in half and used half on each pipe to build up the diameter. It still compressed a bit to a little bit smaller than the diameter of the X-pipe. If I where doing it again I would put pull the glass tape provided with the X into the aluminized sleeve before wrapping, and I think the diameters would match pretty well.

Cosmo Kramer

Well, it's on. I had to take 1 3/4" off to make it fit. All nice and tight no leaks. I used an air gun to tighten the band clamp and it is really on there. Revved it up in the garage and while about the same at idle it really starts to bark once the revs climb a bit. Should be fun!

JHowell37

Those clamps and fiberglass wrap are crap. The vendors think they're the best solution, and I can see where they're coming from when making/selling something that's one size fits all. The basic solution requires about $12 in parts. You will have to cut the x-pipe to make it fit. I won't comment on how much you need to cut out because there is the possibility of variations in the length. So I'm not going to say "cut off 4 inches", only to come back and read complaints that people cut off too much. In the photo I didn't use any of the stock clamps because I had misplaced one for a moment. But the stock clamps plus two 2 1/2" clamps will work fine. If you don't have a welder, you'll also need some 2 1/4" clamps.



This next photo is the ultimate solution IMO(especially on the '85/early '86 exhaust that still has the support at the front.) Those sections of flex pipe are about $25 each. I would have used shorter sections of flex pipe if I could have found some. Although I'm sure you lose a few HP, the advantage is that the flex pipe allows the exhaust and engine to move independent of each other which helps isolate some more noise, vibration, etc. To me it's a fair trade. To do this you need something for cutting metal, and access to a welder.



The x-pipe is 2 1/2" OD.
Both flex pipes are 2 1/4" ID.
2 of the couplers were 2 1/2" ID that reduce to 2 1/4" ID.
The other two couplers were 2 1/4" ID that reduce to 2 1/8" OD.

Basically, you cut off the excess material on both ends of the flex pipe. On the larger couplers, you cut of the 2 1/4" portion after it reduces from 2 1/2". Weld the 2 1/2" piece to the end of the flex pipe. On the smaller of the two couplers, you cut off the 2 1/4" portion just before it reduces to 2 1/8" then weld the 2 1/8 portion to the other side of the flex pipe. Then you just cut the length of the x-pipe to allow the flex pipe to slip in. Sorry I don't have any more pictures, or pictures of higher quality. I did this back in January and it was cold that night.

Some may question the longevity of the flex pipe. My 13 year old Infiniti uses one, as do many cars. It just started to fail a year ago. Even if it only holds up for half that time, it's not a big deal to go and make new ones. If you search you may be able to find one that is properly sized without the need for a lot of welding. I didn't go for that because this was more of an experiment then anything else and I wanted to avoid mail order and the associated costs as this might have been something I just threw away.

Imo000

Aftermarket flex pipes are constructed with only the wire mesh reinforcement on the outside and nothing but the flex hose on the inside. At least that's the case on my TDI. I've used the aftermarket ones on other cars and they don't last long at all. The torque of the engine will slowly pull the mesh apart, that's why it's a good idea to use as large of a flex pipe as you can. The long ones flex more than the little ones and last longer.

Imo000

You'll like the sound when under load too. Mine is an H-pipe not and X, but other than that, the two care are pretty much the same......will be interesting to see how they sound under boost!

I have access to an arc and mig welder if you need to weld them together. Or your local Mufflerman will do it for next to nothing. The one in Cambridge loves to work on unusuall stuff like this.