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Bad news. Not the donut.

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Guinn

Guinn

Jedi Warrior
Offline
Well, not real bad news but worse than replacing a donut. I found that the head pipe was burned off just behind the flange! No wonder it made such a racket. I hadn't driven for awhile and thought it might be sounding a bit loud, then maybe 50 miles later the whole thig gave way. I will order new parts today. VB is less expensive than Moss, even with the shipping.

By the way, my cat has been replaced with a straight pipe. My car is a 78B and the only non-cat, undivided headpipe is a 75, but I can't find anything showing a straight pipe anywhere. Just for curiosity, does the 75 have a straight pipe as OE? /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cryin.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cryin.gif

Guinn
 
HI Guinn, Why not just drop by a good muffler shop and have a new head pipe bent up and welded in. ?---Keoke
 
To ~almost~ quote a famous Army Officer: "NUTS!"

In the "best of all possible worlds," since the cat's already 'disappeared' this would be an opportune time to retrofit SU's and an early exhaust manifold... but then you'd be lookin' to get the compression up to 9.5:1, cam change, ....

oh, nevermind /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/frown.gif

Whadda pissah. Hope this gets resolved with dispatch.

_______________________________
"A man without a horse is afoot"
 
Guinn,
Is your exhaust pipe support that comes off the bracket where the engine and transmission come together, still in place? I've been seeing alot of premature pipe, flange and even manifold failures, when the support is missing. That support is rigid and makes the exhaust move with the engine.

David Deutsch
1973 MGB project
1973 Dodge Dart
1975 MGB
1978 MG Midget
1980 MGB
 
Too late. Keoke. The replacement is already ordered. But I am going to my favorite pipe shop for all new from the header pipe back.

Doc, I prefer the wife I have to what I might end up with if I poured much more into the B.

Dave, that is somrthing I had no idea existed but it sure is a good thing to look into. there would be a lot of leverage between the manifold and the head pipe. The support would probably save an early fracture. I will definitely check for the support.

Thanks all,

Guinn.
 
The proximate cause of the headpipe failure was RUST. Good old rust. It just disintegrated just behind the flange.

Guinn
 
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