[T3] leaky doughnut gasket
Jim Adney
jadney at vwtype3.org
Sat Oct 25 12:45:55 PDT 2014
On 25 Oct 2014 at 13:29, Dennis Stiefel wrote:
> I finally got the muffler that I got back in the summer on Clementine this
> week. Now I seem to be having problems getting the doughnut gaskets
> sealing off between the muffler and the ends of the heater boxes. There is
> a ticking sound from the leak around there. The driver side is worse than
> the passenger side.
If you look at the heat exchanger pipes before you mount the muffler,
you will probably see that the OD is necked down where that doughnut
has to seal. This is simply due to years of use and corrosion. I wrap
that section with alum flashing and/or heavy alum foil before I slide
the doughnut on there. Copper is more expensive, but I suspect it
would work just as well. Try to wrap the foil as tightly as you can,
and make it large enough that you can just barely slide the doughnut
over it.
It's also important to straighten the flares on the ends of the
muffler pipes before you install the muffler, because those have
almost always been bent up in storage and shipping by the time we get
them.
BTW, I find that those 2 lower pipes into the muffler, the ones that
are part of the muffler, are often the first things to rust out. I've
found that I can carefully cut pieces of alum flashing that almost
perfectly cover those pieces. Then clamp them tightly with a pair of
hose clamps on each side. It seems like the galvanic difference
between the alum flashing and the steel muffler keeps those parts of
the muffler from rusting out. Since I've started doing this, my
mufflers always rust out somewhere else first. Once you've made those
alum bits, you can reuse them on the next muffler, so it's a great
investment in your time.
> I remember they use to be a white paste in a tube to help seal exhaust
> leaks if I can find it I was thinking about putting this around the
> doughnut to see if that may seal it.
Muffler paste. I've used it in places with good results, but it
doesn't work well if the 2 parts are free to vibrate with respect to
one another. So it will work on those joints only if you've managed
to get the doughnuts to seal pretty well already. That's never worked
for me. YMMV.
> They was a big rat's nest in this muffler and it blew it out the tail
> pipe. I'll have to post the photo of it later. The smell when it warmed
> up was not good but I figure that will fix itself.
The same thing happened to someone who bought a muffler from me
recently. It was a muffler I had bought out of someone's barn and I
had no idea that there was a problem inside it. Like yours, it was
fine once all the little bits and pieces of mouse and mouse nest had
been expelled. I was apologetic and he was very nice about it.
> Also on the elbows that go between the upper heater boxes and the fan
> housing the one on the driver's side has an extra fitting on the top
> for a hose that is smaller than the one on bottom. Where does this hook
> to?
That little port on the top is for the hose that runs to the charcoal
cannister that's mounted above the tranny. It's probably not doing
anything anymore, so the best thing to do is to just plug that port.
--
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Jim Adney, jadney at vwtype3.org
Madison, Wisconsin, USA
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