[Pluto]

On our way to Arizona, a few months ago, we had an exhaust leak on the coach which caused a small fire. I was able to patch the leak with an exhaust clamp, but it has been on my to-do list to properly repair it.

I removed the exhaust from the turbo back.  To remove the larger flex pipe attached to the turbo I had to squeeze back in there and cut the safety wire holding the exhaust blanket on.  I couldn't get the pipe out the back so I needed to remove the blanket and pull the exhaust out the bottom.

[Pluto]

A guy at work new a welder that would tig everything together if I had the parts so I ordered an 18 inch section of 5" flex pipe and a short section of 5" pipe.  After some research, I decided to go with 304 stainless on both the flex and pipe section due to it's superior corrosion resistance vs 409.

It took the welder nearly 1¹/² months go get it back to me but he did a good job.

Before attaching the exhaust blanket I wanted to clean up the original section of pipe and paint it to hopefully slow further corrosion.  I used a wire wheel to remove any loose rust, used a rust inhibitor on the metal, then coated with a high temperature exhaust paint.

After the paint thoroughly dried I reinstalled the heat blanket using 304 stainless safety wire.

It was not an easy task and took an entire day but with some help from Hannah,we were able to reinstall the exhaust pipe with the blanket attached from the rear of the bus.

[Richard]

I have to say your approach was clever as all get out, and this post will surely help someone in the future. For those of you who have not had the pleasure of dealing with an exhaust leak at the juncture of the turbo down pipe and the flex, it is in an impossible area to access. Taking the assembly out by disconnecting the turbo down pipe at the turbo was pure genius.

Well done!!!!!!!!!!!

[Jack Houpe]

1.5 months Wow! 304 is a better choice than 409, I have friends who will not use anything but 321 or Inconel but we don't have indy cars do we. Thanks for keeping us arm chair quarterbacks in tune.

[Pluto]

Thanks Richard! It was sure a tight squeeze to get back in there but I didn't know how else to get it out of there. I will say that reinstalling the v-band clamp was really challenging. Trying to line everything up and get the clamp seated over both flanges about did me in lol.

I popped the bottom safety wire off of the blanket when trying to get the pipe back into position. I wasn't going to try and pull the pipe back out so i had to retie it after the downpipe was installed. To wrap the wire around the hooks on the blanket and operate safety wire pliers with one hand while 3/4 of me is stuffed into the engine compartment wasn't fun.

[Pluto]

Yeah it took way longer than expected to get it back. Sometimes hiring "friends of friends" doesn't always yield the most timely results. It all worked out though so it's all good.

304 and 409 were the two options I was seeing besides galvanized. I don't think I could have talked Hannah into the necessity of having I full inconel exhaust built haha

[Latitude 28]

Great Job Tyler & Hanna!!  When I had the radiator out in 2019 at Richard's suggestion I opened the blanket up an inspected the pipe.  The pipe is right there with easy access....I knew I was not going to get myself back in there with everything installed.  In hindsight, I should have done a preemptive replacement of that pipe during that radiator change given the difficulty gaining access.

Again great job!