How to solve side pipe rattle....
 

I purchased a set of side pipes from Shell Valley two years ago when building my kit. I had the pipes aluminum powder over ceramic coated inside and out, so the heat dispersion is tremendous and I am able to even put my hand on one right after a hot run. Unfortunately I think some portion of the inner baffling has come loose on my driver side side pipe, and it's rattling around when the car is at idle. At first it was no problem, but it's starting to make me nuts, and for passers by it makes the car sound more like a rattle trap than a well refined machine. I would like to resolve this but can't think of any way of fixing it other than cutting long thin hole in the bottom of the pipe where few would ever see it, re-welding the guts (praying that this won't mess up the exterior coatings) and then patch and paint the bottom back together.

My other idea is to try to locate the loose baffle by tapping a rubber hammer along the side pipe and then drilling a small hole into the bottom side of the pipe. If using an arch welder with an insulated rod I could potentially slide a rode down the hole, tack the rod to a piece of loose baffle and grind and well off the surface end of the rod, only needing to paint a small spot on the outside of the pipe.

Other ideas may include some use of a camera and high temp silicone down the end of the pipe, might try that first.

Would like to hear suggestions or what other people have done who have had similar problems. Thanks!

After you find the area that's loose, Drill a small hole through the pipe and the loose baffle. Drill the hole in the pipe slightly larger. Then pin down the baffle with a sheet metal screw.

This is what I was going to suggest or something similar, run a stainless sheet metal screw up from the bottom to hold things still. Probably cut the tip off so there is a blunt end then try to bottom it on the baffle.

I had the same problem and tried doing as suggested. Mine was so rotted out inside that the screw simply punched though the insert on the inside. Ended up having to cut if off then band it back together. The chrome band and silver ceramic just doesn't look right. I'm having Classic Chamber Exhaust delivered this Friday. Gong to start over just past the 4 into 1. Heard nothing but good things about the sound of the Classic Chambered exhaust. I'll find out next week

I'm on my second set of Shelly Valley sidepipes for this reason. I've tried this solution a few times on each set with varying results. From experience and discussion with Dana at Shell Valley, the "sweet spot" is to drill and run the screw about 1.5" back from the weld.

The other, and only permanent option is to retro-fit the sidepipes with Classic Chambered inserts.
http://www.classicchambered.com/classic/cobra.html
This is my plan. I'm done with this "whack a mole" game!

Why not just some glass packs.......I believe that's what the originals used......and they are cheap enough to replace .....but there is nothing inside to come loose ...

I thought I had a rattle in mine. I was surprised when I took the pipe off for another reason and found that there was a nut rattling around in there. I have no idea how it ended up int here. :JEKYLHYDE

coater
 

Where did you have the side pipes coated? Looking for someone to do just that here in the mid west.

Thanx

Hi Red Eye,
Be sure that you do not have any melted nylock nuts holding the whole thing together before you jump into surgery! It may be the whole assy. that is rattling... Sounds obvious, but an easy one to check off before going the distance : )

Mike.

Indianamoon; Unfortunately, I can't recommend the shop which did my pipes. What was suppose to be a 4 week process turned into a three month process and horrible communications from the guy doing the work. Additionally he was suppose to clean and grind the welds on the pipes before coating and this did not happen so I have ceramic coated weld splatter in some spots, not cool!

There's a few recommended across the forums here, I would give one of those a try. And I would absolutely recommend doing the full ceramic coating - that is really a nice feature for these cars, my feet don't over heat, the engine compartment is reasonable, and I doubt I would sustain a medical type burn if I were to accidentally brush against one getting out.

Thank you for the thoughts, I'll check this out.

Mine look very similar inside (finally got to use that old dental camera that was laying around to look at the insides of cylinders).

I think I'm going to try to use a screw first and see how that holds.

The center louvered tube expands and contracts at a different rate to the outside body. I have seen them snap the inners at one end and rattle. If it's at the back you can almost get a MIG stinger in there on some of them.

This is a reason expensive coatings on side pipes can be very risky.

I like VHT, cheap and easy to apply and touch up. Follow the instructions for heat cycles and it lasts really well.

For ceramic coating I've used NitroPlate in TN. They are known for nice work. I did have a problem with the semi-flat black I had applied to my headers but they re-did them and took care of the problem.

I've found that to be the trick, just work with a firm which will back their service. In my case, I was unhappy because they had use ceramic beads to blast the side pipes before coating. Ok, good. What was not so good is how about 500 of the ceramic beads shot out of the pipes when we first started the engine. They had failed to shake the beads out of the baffles. Can you imagine if one of those beads through back pressure or some act of god gotten tossed into a cylinder? An 800 dollar ceramic job would have killed a 20K engine. So yeah, I was not exactly all smiles.... :)