[T3] leaky doughnut gasket

[Dennis Stiefel]

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.

--
*******************************
Jim Adney, jadney at vwtype3.org
Madison, Wisconsin, USA
*******************************

Well I may have to wait a little bit on either taking the muffler back off
or the lower heater boxes off. Going to be busy here in the next week or two
and need it going again.  My master cylinder has gone out on my truck so got
to work on that next.  I may try the paste first too see if it will get me
by till I have more time.  The exhaust leak is not a big deal for now just
more annoying than anything. It probably leaked with the other exhaust set
up just didn't noticed it because it was louder than this stock one.  The
rats nest didn't surprise me as I figured it had been setting up for a
while.  Not an issue for me.  It also had a lot of media in it left over
from the media blasting my son gave it before we painted it and put it on.
I did noticed when I took it out and drove it that it seemed to have a
little more bottom torque than it did with the Monza exhaust but seemed a
little harder to install than the Monza was.  Here is a photo of what was
left of the rats nest.
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10203134247133281&set=a.129472976456
9.2038351.1120060951&type=1&theater
Since I done away with the charcoal canister when we put your gas tank kit
on then I'll do as you say and just plug that on that elbow.

Dennis          


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