I developed a crack in the flange on the y-pipe on the drivers side so I pulled the piece off to get it welded. That involved snapping the heads off of 3 crossmember bolts and breaking the welds on one of the backing nuts on another. After getting the pipe off by breaking the 2 severely rusted studs at the downstream end by the muffler, I had to grind, drill and hammer out the remnants of the studs so that I could install bolts. Then I ground out the cracks at the flange with a cut-off wheel and got it welded. The place that welded it did a decent job, but the bead was a little fat near one of the bolt holes so the nut didn't sit flat. While trying to torque it down, the threads on the stud stripped. I replaced the stud but then while trying to get it torqued the stud pulled along with the heli-coil insert that had just been installed when the manifolds were cleaned up during my recent head gasket job. I installed a new stud with a new heli-coil but it didn't seen like it was going to handle the whopping 22 ft.-lbs. of torque so I will be installing a nice, $25 clamp-a-stud to seal the thing up. Stupid factory welds.


And I still need to screw around with the crossmember bolts to get that back in. Too much fun.

 

I have to do this same job...You give me great incouragement!! lol

Everyone who had there cracked y-pipe flanges welded up (on this forum anyway), say the welds didnt last? Keep us informed on your welds...

 

I'm hoping the fact that I wire-wheeled the area then cut into the cracks with a cut-off wheel will improve my chances but I'll keep everyone informed. I had it done with a true mig machine at a decent indy garage near me, not a flux core welder so it's probably close to as good as it can get. If it cracks again, I won't be out too much. Figured it was worth a shot.

 

Exact Same thing happened to me. I ended up purchasing a Davco unit. I'm currently on the hunt for a parts truck, and plan to reinstall the factory Y-pipe once I track down a suitable donor.