Installed a set of jet hot coat long tubes and tsp true duals 4 months ago. All was fine until Monday night when I began to hea and exhaust leak. I figured it was a collector gasket. Checked it out and found it to be coming from where the #1 primary tube is slip fitted together around the steering shaft. Has anyone expierianced this problem? Was going to try a 1 3/4 exhaust band clamp, but have not been able to find one. Any advise besides welding the S.O.B.

 

this is a known problem by Jethot, the solution can vary depending on the severity of the leak. It's important to also know this so called leak is actually sucking in oxygen, fooling the drivers side pre-cat 02 sensor into thinking you need more fuel to compensate for the extra oxygen, which of course is false and will affect your engines performance because of what the PCM is trying to uncecssarily trying to correct.

The best method is to have it tig welded in it's natural fixed & installed position, one could do this by doing three good tacks, removing the headers, full tig welding the tacks, ship it to JetHort or your choice ceramic coater, re-install that header. Or you could just wirebrush and find the best silver high-temp paint out there to patch the Jethot coated heat damage. Of course who in their right mind would do that unless doing an overhaul, which leads to the next set of fixes that DO NOT LAST LONG:
A) Muffler Cement (hight temp steel in a tube), in a tube, Midas uses it, yellow tube of pooky that hardens (bout $10) and holds up to heat pretty good for about 2 weeks max.
B) Hightemp RTV, probably the absolute worst next best thing from the steel cement. The RTV will last a couple days, some may claim it lasts longer but it doesn't hold up to the high heat from the headers.
C) Steel putty in a jar (I've tried everything available at parts stores) we had stuff in the Navy that would have worked, some top secret **** but that was then this is now.
D) To do either method (RTV or liquid steel) above pull your primary, clean slip fit with some degreaser and apply light coating of whatever you decide to use, slip back on, tighten up and good luck.

 

Thanks for the ideas. I had thought about something like J B Weld or that steel putty and use a t-bar style clamp. Might try the clamp alone first.

 

I tried the Tbar clamp to no avail, didn't even budget it, couldn't find one small enough for the longest time. Someone could go to a good muffler shop, take off the #1 primary, tap the inside carefully with a steel cone to expand it very slightly enough to make it snug again, I'd be scared to use the hydraulic expander because it's not a very precise tool, I don't know man, good luck. You could always send them back to jethot for warranty.

 

Use sensor safe gold rtv thats what i use on my Hooker long tubes and it works great. load it up, slip it on, and wipe off the extra.