Pypes H Pipe install question

Khyron

Khyron

Member
Oct 20, 2006
68
0
6
Lincoln, NE
#1
Hi everyone - this weekend I installed my Pypes H Pipes from Brenspeed. First of all, WOW they sound awesome. However, I have a question..

At the front most part of the exhaust, where it connects to the stock exhaust manifolds (maybe headers for some of you).. I fear that there is some exhaust leaking at that connection point. I can feel air movement if I put my hand behind the front tires. Is there some sort of a gasket I should put in there or just give the nuts a couple more cranks?

I was suprised to see the metal on metal connection of the H Pipe to the exhaust manifold, but that's the same way the stock one was.

Thanks in advance!
 

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#3
Make sure the shoulders are tight, the studs aren't cross-threaded, and you should be fine without additional gaskets. I helped a friend (bigcat on here) and we had no issues like you describe.

Off-topic: Good to see a "local" Stanger on here. :)
I work in Omaha during the week.
 
#4
O/R H?????? i thought you were doing gears? :rlaugh: did you already do the gears?

for the H, you need to tighten a little bit on each side of the flange at a time. this makes it fit properly. did you have your hand around the pipe and felt the leak? that should mean it needs to be tighter. personally, i think it would be best to loosen the connection again, and try again, that way you can be sure it is evenly tightened.

did you grind out the material in the H connection point? when i did mine over a year ago, i needed to open up the pipe inside the H connection on both sides. it was not 100% open, just a small hole they used a plasma cutter on after the H section was welded on. a die grinder took care of that pretty quickly.
 
#5
bigcat said:
O/R H?????? i thought you were doing gears? :rlaugh: did you already do the gears?

for the H, you need to tighten a little bit on each side of the flange at a time. this makes it fit properly. did you have your hand around the pipe and felt the leak? that should mean it needs to be tighter. personally, i think it would be best to loosen the connection again, and try again, that way you can be sure it is evenly tightened.

did you grind out the material in the H connection point? when i did mine over a year ago, i needed to open up the pipe inside the H connection on both sides. it was not 100% open, just a small hole they used a plasma cutter on after the H section was welded on. a die grinder took care of that pretty quickly.
Click to expand...

Hehe.. Good memory Bigcat.. I had the gears done 2 weekends ago and just did the O/R H this weekend.. :) (I also installed some new BMR LCAs this weekend and of course saw your article AFTER the fact!)

I did not have my hand around the pipe to feel the leak. It's entirely possible that I have everything connected fine, but what I noticed was when I got back from a 20 minute test drive (one of the reasons I didn't grab the pipe!) there was an excessive amount of air flow coming from under the front of the vehicle. Could it be possible that the engine fan was just blowing that strong?

I looked inside the H connection point because I remembered you telling me you had to grind yours out. They must have started making the hole bigger because there was only about 1/8" lip all the way around, which I thought was fine.

Btw - that upper-most O2 sensor on the passenger side is a pain in the @$$ where it is located!
 
#6
Khyron said:
Could it be possible that the engine fan was just blowing that strong?
Click to expand...
It's possible.

Another thing: if the leak is as bad as you say it is, you'll be more likely to hear it (and how terrible it sounds) more so than feel it. Exhaust leaks sound like crap.
ack.gif
 
#7
timeless2 said:
It's possible.

Another thing: if the leak is as bad as you say it is, you'll be more likely to hear it (and how terrible it sounds) more so than feel it. Exhaust leaks sound like crap.
ack.gif
Click to expand...

Would the sound of a leak be apparent at all times or perhaps at certain RPMs only? Reason I ask, is because I did notice a bit of a raspy sound right around 1500 RPM, but it goes away as the car accelerates higher. I just figured it was the way the new pipes sound. Hmm..
 
#8
Khyron said:
Would the sound of a leak be apparent at all times or perhaps at certain RPMs only? Reason I ask, is because I did notice a bit of a raspy sound right around 1500 RPM, but it goes away as the car accelerates higher. I just figured it was the way the new pipes sound. Hmm..
Click to expand...
A leak will exist at all engine speeds. It will be more pronounced at certain speeds, given the turbulence and acoustic levels of the exhaust flow.

It is, however, natural to hear somewhat a "whooshing" sound with an off-road pipe, given that the catalytic converters are gone. You sure this isn't the case?
 
#9
you should hear the leak all the time, at least i have in my experiences. i would check for the leak when first starting up, before it gets hot.

there is more noise at a certain rpm with the O/R H. mine is around 2200, also depends on the load.

(did you have tony install the gears? also, the LCA article was just up on friday.)
 
#10
That's definitely what I'm going to do tonight then. I'll start it up and grab the pipe before it gets hot to see if I can feel anything. Hopefully, all is good. I'll be sure to let you guys know what I find.

Ahh.. I'm glad you asked about the gear installation. I meant to make a post about this before. I ended up going with a shop here in Lincoln and I *highly* recommend it to all you guys. It is Brett's Automotive. Brett did an awesome job. He took his time and made sure everything fit perfectly within the appropriate specs. When I picked it up, he explained to me the best way to break them in is to drive it (no burn outs!) for 10-15 miles, then let it sit and cool for a couple hours - then repeat for a good 200 miles. Best of all.. he's a Mustang guy too and has a '67 Fastback sitting there.

By the way, it is SOOO hard not putting my foot in it with the new 4.10s during this break in period!
 
#11
Found out something

Khyron said:
That's definitely what I'm going to do tonight then. I'll start it up and grab the pipe before it gets hot to see if I can feel anything. Hopefully, all is good. I'll be sure to let you guys know what I find.

Ahh.. I'm glad you asked about the gear installation. I meant to make a post about this before. I ended up going with a shop here in Lincoln and I *highly* recommend it to all you guys. It is Brett's Automotive. Brett did an awesome job. He took his time and made sure everything fit perfectly within the appropriate specs. When I picked it up, he explained to me the best way to break them in is to drive it (no burn outs!) for 10-15 miles, then let it sit and cool for a couple hours - then repeat for a good 200 miles. Best of all.. he's a Mustang guy too and has a '67 Fastback sitting there.

By the way, it is SOOO hard not putting my foot in it with the new 4.10s during this break in period!
Click to expand...

I ordered a Pypes h-pipe from Brenspeed & when I installed it leaked everywhere. Could not get it to stop even with different clamps. So I took my car
to an exhaust shop & had them weld the down tubes connecting to the h-pipe & weld the h itself. We found out that pypes had flared out the tube ends that connect to the headers or manifolds. Brennspeed confirmed this as well as pypes.
They are going to send some sleeves that slide in the down tubes to fix this problem. I can't even drive my NEW 2008 Bullitt & that pisses me off ROYALY.
I WILL NEVER BUY a Pypes product again!!!:mad: :mad:
 
#12
I installed my Pypes O/R H-pipe, and afterwards it leaked like crazy. I thought it was my fault so I took it to the shop for some help. They ended up finding out that the Downpipes were bent at different angles and were causing alignment issues. So they had to cut and modify the pipes.

I thought I had a unique experience, because a friend of mine installed his with no problems. But I see others experienced the same issues.

Sounds great now.

Also bought the Pypes headers, and they failed to tell me in the instructions that I needed a gear wrench to take off the 8th bolt on each side of the manifold so I went and got it 7/8ths off only to find out that I needed to put it back together to go to the store. I lost motivation and have not installed them yet.
 
#13
H-pipe problems

Pypes called me back today & told me that on some newer (2005-2008) mustangs that Ford installed some manifolds with smaller diameter manifold ends. He said that it's ford's fault for this problem & not theirs. Would you believe that? I cant even drive my car until I get these sleeves. beacuse it throws two trouble codes. 0139 & 0159. I need them now & they will not overnight them to me either. Sais it cost to much to ship overnight, but I was more than welcome to pay for overnight shipping. I told them that I will NEVER buy from them again.:nonono:
 
#17
bigcat said:
wow, i bought my h pipe 2 years ago and it it still in perfect order. too bad that they seem to be having some issues with them now. :(
Click to expand...

Well if you bought them a while back they were a different design I believe. Those use to be a one piece on the passenger side, and just a small half pipe on the driver side that met up with the rest of the assembly.

Now they just took their Off-road X-pipe piece that they sell as a cut-off system, and made two pipes to come down from the manifolds to attach to it. I can see why they did it, because it can ship in a smaller box, but the fitment issues with the kit were a pain in my sides, and apparently some other people's as well.
 
#18
timeless2 said:
A leak will exist at all engine speeds. It will be more pronounced at certain speeds, given the turbulence and acoustic levels of the exhaust flow.

It is, however, natural to hear somewhat a "whooshing" sound with an off-road pipe, given that the catalytic converters are gone. You sure this isn't the case?
Click to expand...

dont know how true this is but i was told it is not an exhaust leak, the car is running lean and pinings @a low rpm(1200-2500rpm) car needs to be tuned:(
 
#20
blbrchnk said:
I just placed an order with Brenspeed for mine. Reading this thread after the fact worries me a bit. Is it a hard install? What should I use to file down the end if I have to? Any other tips or install instructions?
Click to expand...


The install is actually fairly straight forward, the main thing to do is when you attach the down pipes to the manifolds make sure you leave them a little lose...then when you start to attach everything else leave all the connections a little lose so that you can adjust it all to the desired fitment, then you can start locking everything down.

If you take your time, and do it right it's not too bad. The worst thing for me was getting the top o2 sensor detached from the pipe on the passenger side. I found it was really easy to get to if you first detach the manifold from the down pipe, instead of trying to get the sensor off before you undo the manifold studs.


Also, be careful when you start the car up for the first time as there will be a ton of smoke emitted from the pipes from burn off caused by the new h-pipe. Make sure to back it out of your garage quickly and try not to breath in the smoke...it'll give you a killer headache.

Finally, the new h-pipe will sound sort of like it's got exhaust leaks, but this is due to the lack of cats. So the exhaust pulses reverberate around in the pipes a lot more. If you have a real leak you'll know it right away.

It's not the highest quality piece out there, but it is the best for the money by far.


Hope this helps.
 
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