What do you guys think?

Should there not be any black exhaust marks on the vband clamp?

The V-Bands are made by

Clampco

Paid like 18bucks each for them lol, so I hope their not crappy quality =).

Is there a torque spec when tightening down the v-bands? Maybe I am not cranking them down enough.

 

They have part numbers on them. 4 inch is like xxx 400 or something. 3.5 inch should be 350. You can figure it out by looking. Anyway if you have the right size, just crank down on it. If its tight, they really cant leak. Thats why people like vbands. do the flanges sit flush maybe they got warpped when welded??

As far as clampco there pretty good. Its a ss vband, ive never had issues, and i know a couple shops that use them without issues.


Chris

 

how much am i soposto tighten v bands, it seems like they are really easy to tighten but seem to be tight

 

Is there a torque spec for v-band clamps? lol

 

The lock nut will get noticably harden to tighten when you have tightened it enough. Be cafefull because if you tighten it to tight it will strip the threads and or pull the t-bolt out of the clamp...

 

they have to get pretty tight but theres a possibility your flanges were warped during welding (as most do) and werent ground flat again after.

 

I've tightened down tight as hell and then tried to loosen it to reposition and the bitch broke. The threaded part snapped with the nut still attached. I'd think that torque specs would differ between each clamp company if there is even a spec. I paid 10 bucks a piece for the clamps, cant really complain I guess.

 

When there is leakage with a v-band clamp, 99.992% of the time the flanges are not meeting up straight.

 

Is there different types of vband clamps?

It just seems like the inside of the clamp is too big, so the 2 flanges are really being pushed together enough.

 

there are different sizes of clamps also. Not diameter but depths. It just varys betweens manufacturers.

 

Try hitting it lightly with a hammer all around the clamp as you torque it down, this will help get it positioned correctly and hopefully seal up. Usually they are warped though, need to be ground or next time have the two halfs clamped together and then weld.

 

I am thinking the dept for the V-band is too much.

I will try to get better pictures tonight to show what I am talking about.

 

The flanges are probably warped slightly from welding, it happens all the time. I would try bringing them to a local engine shop and see if they can surface the mating surfaces. To be honest that leak doesn't look all that bad either.

 

Should there be any leak at all?

 

Totally depends on the quality and fit of the flanges. If the leak is small, a small bead of RVT between the flanges can seal it.

 

Just put a little bit of High Temp RTV sealant on both side's and your problem is fixed! Let it dry before you crank it up.

 

I always put a small bead of the copper exhaust type RTV on my V-bands to make sure they seal up well. Never had any trouble that way.

 

Nice!!

Thats a great idea!

Thanks guys, going to try that =).

 

The one i have is a 995cs-0320

Its a little to big for a few of the pipes, so I think I need a 0300?

 

According to Clampco's website there are a bunch of different size v-bands for the inner diameter.

http://www.clampco.com/products/v-ba...p?action=Step3

Leads me to believe I bought the wrong v-band clamps.