welding up true duals

**99 WS6KID** · 05-24-2006, 07:37 AM

I've seen true dual X-pipe kits from summit and jegs for around $100. I was wondering if anyone has welded up there own or should i just order one already done. I,ve done welding and metal work before but never on exaust. Any tips sugestions would be helpful

**BlinkFan0072** · 05-25-2006, 07:07 PM

well i'm no expert but when i got my silverados exhaust done i took it to a shop got to know the guy told him what i wanted and he made a 50 state legal exhaust that sounded mean and it cost me 500 bucks from the collectors back all welded that was two years ago and it still shines up like new. the ones you buy in jegs are nice don't get me wrong but i prefer the custom approach to exhaust.... just my 0.02

d james · 05-28-2006, 12:37 PM

I've done it several times without any problems, its very easy if you already know how to weld. I think the X kits work well, but they cause more ground clearance than without the X when you just run true duals straight back. If you run the X just make sure you jack the rear of the car up as well because the torque arm will lower down some with just the front tires off the ground, this will cause the pipes to hang much lower when the car is off the jacks-I found out the hard way. If you can get an extra hand it will make things go much easier as well. If not just use jacks to hold up the exhaust and tack them in, then lower the car and make sure evrything is sitting whereyou want it, and then jsut take them off and weld them up. Take your time. You can just buy some straight 3 inch pipe and just angle them and cut out the excess metal and weld them. This is what I did in these pictures, The pipes where like 20 or 30 bucks for a 10 or 12ft section and I had plenty left over to make my own cutout for each side. I used the stright through designed cherry bombs for mufflers, they fit up real nice in our cars. The bullet mufflers are the same design but much smaller and much louder and will give crazy drone, so choose wisely. I also used some small standard shaped mufflers which worked really well. The welds in the X pipe are pretty bad-I couldn't get the welder to work right, it ended up being the electrical chord was bad, so the power wasn't constant and my welds were bad. On the stright pipes you can see the weldds were easy to do, and the bends in the pipe was very minimal-those are cats as well on them. I prefer having no X as the ground clearance is better by at least another inch. You can save money by just buying the stright pipe and flanges instead of spending 100 bucks on that whole kit. Its up to you. The X will give you more power 5-10 horses more than not having it since it lets the gas pulses from each side combine and even out. Let me know if you have any questions. Check ut both pages for all the pictures. I'll send pics in your PM, I need more posts to actually post them in this post-some rule for this board

d james · 05-28-2006, 12:42 PM

by the way forgot to mention putting together the X pipe system is much harder to do sicne you have to do both sides at the same time, since they are hooked together, what I meanis you have to keep jacks under the whole exhaust to make sure its all even and fits togeter. On duals without crossover you can do each side seperate, and so it takes much less time.

**99 WS6KID** · 05-28-2006, 01:40 PM

thanks man i was just about to give up and just get headers and a y pipe. I already have a flowmaster catback, sounds nice but no real power gains. I,m going to get pacesetter headers and try it out. I shouldnt have any problems since i have a lift a work and plenty of help. oh yeah what about the hangers and were i should put them.

d james · 05-28-2006, 04:08 PM

the only hangers I used were in the back, just your regular standard black rubber kind with series of metal holes that costs a few bucks. I Think I used the existing bolts that hold the back seat down or some bolts that were already there. There was one bolt on each side. I needed someone to sit inside to hold the bolt from spinning. You really don't need any more as the collector bolts in the front hold the majority of the weight. Yeah I thought it was pretty simple to make some pipes. Those shops that make exhaust must make decent money, since its not real time consuming, providing you've done enough of them.