RockyTop
Enthusiast
I had the insulation in my passenger side sill catch fire like another poster on this board. Unfortunately, I had no way of jacking up the car where I was (too low) and just had to stand by with an extinguisher and pray. The insulation smouldered alot (discolored the sill) and went out. Whew !
The cause was a leaking band clamp that held a joint in my after-market exhaust together. All who have installed after-market exhausts with any such band clamps instead of welds (especially if upsteam of the cats) should absolutely inspect them. I just had the rear section of my exhaust replaced due to its getting crushed (more on that below)and the tech noticed that at least one other clamp had melted the metal (AL ?) spacer piece that fits between the clamp components. That one was a fire/exhaust leak waiting to happen !
Though the clamps are great for installing and removing exhaust pieces/test pipes, inspect them periodically or just have the joint welded.
Now for my crushed pipe. I had an early vintage SVS cat-back system on my GTS where they had designed it to route right under the differential - - not around it as on the stock system. The result was that it stuck down about an inch lower than the rear frame rail. Being the lowest point under the rear of the car, I crushed it on something. Might have been that hard, butt first dismount I did one time at Turn 7 of RoadAtlanta ! I just had it repaired by a shop here in Atlanta that is one of the few in the Southeast that can mandrell bend pipe for constant inner diameter. They did a great job. E-mail me at [email protected] if you want the name. For those with GTS cars, we could may be able to get them to do up a bunch of 3" cat-back or after-cat systems for less than many offer them. Who knows.
The cause was a leaking band clamp that held a joint in my after-market exhaust together. All who have installed after-market exhausts with any such band clamps instead of welds (especially if upsteam of the cats) should absolutely inspect them. I just had the rear section of my exhaust replaced due to its getting crushed (more on that below)and the tech noticed that at least one other clamp had melted the metal (AL ?) spacer piece that fits between the clamp components. That one was a fire/exhaust leak waiting to happen !
Though the clamps are great for installing and removing exhaust pieces/test pipes, inspect them periodically or just have the joint welded.
Now for my crushed pipe. I had an early vintage SVS cat-back system on my GTS where they had designed it to route right under the differential - - not around it as on the stock system. The result was that it stuck down about an inch lower than the rear frame rail. Being the lowest point under the rear of the car, I crushed it on something. Might have been that hard, butt first dismount I did one time at Turn 7 of RoadAtlanta ! I just had it repaired by a shop here in Atlanta that is one of the few in the Southeast that can mandrell bend pipe for constant inner diameter. They did a great job. E-mail me at [email protected] if you want the name. For those with GTS cars, we could may be able to get them to do up a bunch of 3" cat-back or after-cat systems for less than many offer them. Who knows.
