Exhaust leak in y pipe, not sure what replacement to get

HylanderUS · Oct 7, 2014

Hi!

New here and all that, hello

I have 2003 RAM, 2500 4WD, Hemi. I noticed the exhaust getting louder lately, and found a small leak. Not sure if I'm using the right verbiage here, so let me describe it to make sure:
Coming from the rear, there's the cat, and in front of the cat, the two (what I would call) down pipes (the pipes right after the headers) join into one pipe.
The driver side one of those is where the problem is, the gasket where the "down pipe" joins the "main pipe" is half missing.
I was going to just replace the gasket, but the bolts there are so rusted that I just have no illusion that I would get that pipe off and back on again in one piece.
So, now the question

What do I need to buy if I want to replace the driver side pipe w/ flange that goes into that main pipe? I just can't find that anywhere. I found some packages that replace the whole cat and that come with the two "down pipes", but they're usually listed for a 1500 RAM, so not sure if those would fit.
Any hints where to get what I'm looking for, and what the hell it's called?

Thanks in advance,

Thomas

Redtruck-VA · Oct 7, 2014

Not sure what the 03 2500 exhaust looks like. But you can check Rock Autohttp://www.rockauto.com/catalog/moreinfo.php?pk=3382308&cc=1413504
or search eBay for Ram 2500 Y pipe. But it sounds like your pipe is ok and just need to change the gasket. Most likely the bolts will break so be prepared to drill and tap them out or change manifolds. And again I don't know if they are the same as a 1500 or not. if they are then there are spare manifolds floating around from folks who have tube headers.

MyOhFive · Oct 7, 2014

Gasket where the manifold meets the Y-pipe..? I can't picture this..

Are you treating this as an opportunity to mod? If not, sounds like it may be more worth your while to to just bring her to an exhaust shop and let them fix it.

xb1230 · Oct 7, 2014

My Y pipe joints were letting go as well when I bought my RAM a few months ago. Did not want to bother myself with dealing with all the rusty bolts and such and a good exhaust shop asked me for 150$ to swap the flanges on both sides. really not worth the trouble.

Just as a FYI, if you get to a shop where they say they have to swap the whole Y pipe with the CAT, just RUNNNNN. a good and trusty exhaust shop will swap only the flange part unless the pipes are just too rotted to be welded onto.

There are no gaskets per say between the manifolds and the Y pipe, but there are joining flanges which bolts into the manifolds.

Hope this helps.

HylanderUS · Oct 7, 2014

No no, not where the manifold meets the Y-pipe, that would be odd

It looks exactly like this down there:
More Information for EASTERN CATALYTIC 20406
The gasket I'm talking about is between the pipe that's not connected in the picture and the rest.
I guess I could just buy that part that I listed, but that's a complete cat with piping and all, just seems like a waste for a measly gasket. But there's no way I can get those two pipes apart without major breakage (MA weather... everything under the car is a sea of brown

)
I guess bringing it to a shop is an option... I just hate bringing my cars to a mechanic, my first instinct is always to fix it myself

But to replace a gasket/pipe, that shouldn't be too much of a hassle. Maybe I'll try and find one on the weekend.

Regarding upgrades: I wouldn't mind upgrading it at the same time, but it's not the primary target. But if there was an option for about <$600 that would fix the issue and also make more HP, I'd be all for it, sure.

xb1230 · Oct 7, 2014

Not the same location but as I said it is a flange, not a gasket. A good exhaust shop can weld a new flange if the rest of the tube is not rotted out. cheapest option in my book.

HylanderUS · Oct 8, 2014

Not sure I understand what you mean by "it's a flange, not a gasket". Where those two pipes meet, there's definitely a gasket in between, on my truck at least.
But yeah, exhaust shop seems to be the way to go, just couldn't find any parts that would not replace the whole cat, which seems like a waster.

xb1230 · Oct 8, 2014

What I mean by it's a flange is that if you have seen how Brake lines are flared, this is a similar mating principle. However instead of screwing over the flared area of the Pipe, you have 2 plates with screws pulling both of the flared ends of the tube together to form the seal. Where you see a gasket, is most likely the flared part of the pipe that is now missing because it rotted away.

Here is an example of what I am talking about :

This is an alternate flange design with a doughnut seal in the middle of the flanges:

I have rarely seen gaskets on an exhaust line other than between the manifold and the heads or a doughnut seal between the manifolds and the downpipe. I have seen this namely on Volkswagen cars. In this case they actually use this doughnut shaped ring to implement restriction on the engine. So if you had like a 1992 VW FOX and 1992 Golf, they had the same engine, but because of such a restrictive ring between the Manifold and the exhaust pipe, the Golf boasted 10 more HP than the Fox... but they both had the same engine, with the same Injection system where all parts were interchangeable.

Exhaust leak in y pipe, not sure what replacement to get

HylanderUS

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Redtruck-VA

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MyOhFive

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xb1230

Hobby Mechanic

HylanderUS

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xb1230

Hobby Mechanic

HylanderUS

Junior Member

xb1230

Hobby Mechanic

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