...tighten up the front exhaust X over for good.

[savagehenry]

Hey all, Since this topic rears it's ugly head from time to time, I thought I would give a follow up, (and Cudos to you, GF) on my turn at finally tightening my floppy front balancer pipe. I used the method introduced by Greg Field as practiced at his shop. It has worked perfectly so far. I have ridden over 1,000 miles since the fix. It has included way over 50 complete heat up/cool down cycles, since I ride to work every day and haven't driven my truck in over three weeks. Throw in some errands and a couple rides for fun. The pipe remains completely solid, checked it about an hour ago. This is what I did.

1. Bought two new exhaust manifold gaskets and two new balancer pipe gaskets. Total cost was under $60.00, with the fancy "graphite matrix" cross over gaskets being $50 of that.

2.Pulled the balancer pipe and both exhaust pipes as one piece, separated at the rear cross over. Took them apart, cleaned up all mating surfaces.

3. Put my gaskets in place, assemble the pipes loosely, and hang the exhaust, again leaving everything finger tight only.

4.Put a ratcheting tie down around the left and right exhausts, at the front balancer pipe, and SNUG IT ONLY. Not too tight, just snug. Now tighten the clamps at the X over.

5. Now move to the heads, and back, tightening in steps and checking for binding as you go.

It seems to be holding well, and was real easy to do with a few basic tools. The best part is it remains stock, and is the cheapest method I've seen suggested here in my research, short of simply dropping the balancer pipe altogether and capping off the two cross over exhaust flanges with a hose clamp and a piece of thin stock. S.H.

[Daniel Cooper]

I bought some of those stainless inserts and haven't had a problem since--say 7k miles ago.

[savagehenry]

A follow up post on this subject:

After 4,000 miles+/-, I have found my front cross over is flopping again. This time I went as cheap and easy as I could. I wrapped a piece of exhaust heat tape over the joint, and put the stock clamp back, and stainless tie wraps around the other side of the joint. It feels very solid, and I have posted a picture in a separate thread in search of my first of those elusive and highly coveted Bodge Points