Gardner exhaust

[chads454Ls6]

I was wondering if anyone has had any promblems with the head pipes being too close to the crossmember? I called Eric at gardner and he assured me they were bent correctly,and after going over things i had a hanger on backwards,but after correcting the hanger,the headpipe is still too close. i went to my storage and got an original and it fit fine with plenty of clearance. A friend mentioned having someone hold the headpipe center,while another guy snugs it up. Tried that too but did not make much difference. attached is a few pics. The original has quite a flat spot were it clears the crossmember,but Eric says he has not had any promblems. Any suggestions?

[chads454Ls6]

Here are the two pipes on top of each other

[JoeG]

NOTE:--I'm not telling you to wack that pipe with a mallet and wood block..I'm just tellin you most of the cars back then had exhaust pipes and headers that were given a good wack to gain some clearance.Just some old info-- Why don't you consider sending your new pipe with the Original to Gardner and let them make a nice neat adjustment..Of course I'd call them first.......

[YENKO DEUCE REGISTRY]

I had a similar issue with mine, the advice was to rotate the pipe on the donut gasket at the manifold in order to 'center' the pipe in the crossmember relief. It worked, and did not leak. Other deuce guys had the same issue, while others had a perfect fit. For us, it could have been the repop exhaust manifolds.

[SS427]

Chad already tried that.
"A friend mentioned having someone hold the headpipe center while another guy snugs it up. Tried that too but did not make much difference."

In addition, the muffler on one side had yet to be snugged down and was not hanging parellel with the floor pan from side to side. By leveling it, it only made the already tight crossmember gap even tighter. Gardner makes an excellent system and I have never had problems with them but this one is giving us fits. I will be ordering two complete systems in the next few weeks but this does not help Chad. I think the only solution is to take the header pipes to a custom exhaust company and have them flatten down the area in question more than it already is. Time is the issue here so I don't think Chad has the time to ship the header pipes back to Eric and get them returned in time.

Maybe Eric could remake a couple of header pipes for Chad with a more crushed area like the photos show and ship those out right away while Chad is returning his back to Eric. At least he will be able to get the car to the show on time with the Gardner system installed for all to see.
Rick

[Donnie]

looks like your original head pipe is a little longer from the bend up to the gasket.

[JoeG]

If it's not the angle of the photo--Yeah it does look like the bend was started early from the flaired flange....

[Postsedan]

Chad and Rick,

Glad to see such urgencies for what I assume is getting the car ready for Chevel-Abration.

Great work....keep up the intensity. I`m sure Gardner will make it right. Show them this thread.

Dan.

[L78steve]

It looks like the orig.pipe is for w/o heat riser valve and Eric's pipe is shorter for the heat riser.

[chads454Ls6]

same length just sitting funny.