Stock Exhaust Replacement - Center Section

Nothing exciting to see here, unless you need to repair your exhaust. I've been running the factory exhaust since I got my truck (wow...more than two years ago now!). Lately it had begun to blow in several spots, so I knew the end was near. I got the first wake up call when the down stream O2 sensors started throwing codes. The nuts had rusted into dust, and they started to leak at the gaskets (or rather where the gaskets used to be).

More recently it began to make noise, so I crawled my butt underneath to see what was going on. On my model the two cats connect onto individual pipes, which combine just upstream of the resonator, and exit from a single pipe into the muffler. This picture shows the new part:



It was leaking at both flanges, and from the center of the resonator. (and a bonus leak later discovered from the exit tube on the driver's side cat). Before I decided to go OEM on the replacement I went to visit my local Magnaflow guy. Although he had lots of solutions, there was nothing even close to stock. I know many of you are fans, but at the end of the day I wanted it to sound stock.
We discovered that the flanges on the cat side were wafer thin (think Monty Python "The Meaning of Life" when you say "whaffer thin"), meaning some welding was in order regardless of the ultimate solution.




So muffler guy agreed to reflange the existing cats, and fit my OEM resonator. "Kinda like bringing your own eggs to the diner" I said, but he said "It's your truck, I'll do it however you want". I paid for a couple hours time and materials. This is the result.







The weld on patch below shows the bonus leak we found while doing this.


Results:

1. Everything is now more or less stock. One day I'll have to get the cats off, and/or maybe the manifolds. The solution I have is bolt on, allowing me to use factory parts going forward.
2. It's really quiet...just how I like it. Not Lexus quiet (many times I would try to start my Lexus on the realize it was already running!), but quiet.
3. The bonus leak - I've been driving around for year hearing the classic "ticking" sound, dreading the day when I'd have to replace the steering seal or the manifolds. It doesn't "tick" now...gone! Dodged the bullet! At least for now...

OEM parts ~ $250/free shipping. I could have got an aftermarket Walker muffler and parts for ~ $100, but I'd be doing this all over again in a few years. (Side bar: I once had a Honda Accord. When the muffler failed I had it replaced at Midas with "Lifetime Guarantee". I had it replaced for free under the lifetime guarantee...twice! Not a testament to their great product, but rather their bet that that 99.99% of their customers would sell their car before the muffler failed. Hondas last a loooong time). I paid muffler guy ~ $250 for a couple hours of his time, expertise, and misc parts.

 

Where did your guy source the flanges? It looks like you didn’t use the Toyota O-ring gasket with it.

I looked into doing this once before but no O-gasket flanges could be found to mate with the tundra v8 exhaust system.

I actually went to a machining company and the guy told me he could create the die/mold to match the tundra with its O-gasket flange, but the upfront cost was $300 and $20 for each set of flanges made.

 

Good point...his flanges are flat. So flat gaskets instead of O gaskets (and maybe a bit of exhaust glue). I said more or less stock. The only time the flanges will come apart, however, will be when I need to change the cats, in such case they'll have the right flange and I can use the O gasket. On the muffler side it came apart OK, so we used the OEM clamp and O gasket there.

 

I thought for for sure I'd get a comment about "wafer thin"...

 

I always wondered what happened to Mr. Creosote from TT aka "cereal killer". I'm thinking he must've gotten trapped in the tar sands of Alberta never to be seen again.

Either that or he sold his RCSB Tundra.

 

I need this same thing done. Where in MD is this shop located?

 

Same here! Him with his emoji use. I fear he may have got a 2nd gen or worse... an American truck.