[3fastgtos]

I expand about two inches of the exhaust pipe and slide it over the header. Then I weld a tab on the expanded part that bolts to a tab welded on the header. No leaks, no worries.

[4dblnkldude]

It is lame. I bought a 31/2 x 3 x8 inch taper made by flowmaster. I then had a friend laser out a 3/8 thick collector. Basically a 3/8 thick 3 1/2 collector gasket. I then welded the taper to the 3/8 steel and use a band clamp to connect the two 3" pipe ends. Use a good copper gasket in between the two collectors and it will never go bad.

[Lee]

Originally Posted by 3fastgtos

I expand about two inches of the exhaust pipe and slide it over the header. Then I weld a tab on the expanded part that bolts to a tab welded on the header. No leaks, no worries.

That is how my Tribal Tubes Tri-Y's are made, and also a set of Headmans on an LS swap of mine.

They create a new problem - how to remove the header, it ever needed repair or to have a gasket changed out. There is not enough fore/aft movement in either the headers or the exhaust system. The engine would have to be removed in order to get the header out.

For the Tri-Y's, my exhaust guy installed 3-bolt flanges at the muffler (I think you can see this all in the picture, and the oil leak HAS been fixed and the stains removed!). With that, I can drop the exhaust there, then slide the entire mid-section off of the slide-on collectors. With an H-pipe or X-pipe, this would make it easier for transmission maintenance and such.

My old Falcon wagon's headers were ball/socket type. One side came loose once, but after tightening a bit more they never gave me another problem, and sealed very well. My only concern was if the design caused turbulence, and may cause a loss of flow.

[Formulajones]

Originally Posted by Lee

They create a new problem - how to remove the header, it ever needed repair or to have a gasket changed out. There is not enough fore/aft movement in either the headers or the exhaust system. The engine would have to be removed in order to get the header out.

Yeah I touched on that and why I won't use a slip joint for anything that has a need to come apart later. You're either removing the engine or you're removing the rest of the exhaust system to slide things apart. Turns something that should be a 10 minute deal into an all day job.
Looks nice, yes, but as far as maintenance goes, the slip joints suck.

Basically an entire exhaust system is made of slip joints. So what I do is strategically place a 3 bolt flange (usually fore or aft of the muffler) so the entire system can be removed in 5 minutes. Great for rearend work, transmission work, clutch changes, etc...