muffler tape

The cheap muffler tape is a temporary repair at best, but if you go with HEADER WRAP, it seems to hold up better.

Dad's 2000 Chevy 2500 has been trouble for the last couple of years, as the joint at the catalytic converter has fatigued and broken. He has had it welded a couple of times but it breaks again within a month. A new converter costs more than the truck is worth at this point, so that's a non-starter.

He saw this header wrap tape on a TV show and had an idea. This header wrap is an insulating tape that you wrap on your header tubes to keep heat out of the engine compartment.

We also know that it seems to work as a semi-permanent muffler repair too. The truck has not sounded this good in years, and it has held up for a couple months now anyway, way longer than the weld.

mich800 wrote:

This would have also worked in VA.

LOL
In actuality, I'm pretty sure it was a Busch beer can. I didn't have the dough for Budweiser, back then. I thought the Inspector was trying to be nice by saying Budweiser.
That butt-ugly, yellow truck was so rusty, you could literally poke your finger through it. The gas tank had so many holes, I wouldn't fill it more than half way. Water would splash up from the softball-sized holes in the floor, until I screwed some discarded street signs over them. I paid 500 bucks for it, worked it for two years and sold it with a blown head gasket, for $250. The guy gave me quarters for the last 20 bucks of the two-fifty and drove it away.
Ahh. Good times.

I just spent $450 on an exhaust pipe that the flange cracked on....was a "dealer only" part. Great to tell the OP to just replace the pipe but not all of us have a bunch of cash lying around. Sometimes you gotta do what ya gotta do...replace the pipe eventually but maybe not this week.

Carb Cleaner wrote:
I tried the beer can/muffler tape trick about 20 years ago on a '77 Toyota pick-up. I thought it worked pretty good, making the exhaust sound intact. When I went for a State Inspection, the inspector looked under the truck and, while under the truck, said, in his Central Virginia Southern accent, "That Budweiser can ain't gonna cut it." I promptly received a pink sticker, then went home and replaced With a Pabst Blue Ribbon. I had a friend with me during the inspection, so he heard the inspector's comment, too. We laughed about it all the way home. For the past 20 years, when we notice something that's been creatively engineered, one of us will say, "That Budweiser can ain't gonna cut it".

This would have also worked in VA.

I tried the beer can/muffler tape trick about 20 years ago on a '77 Toyota pick-up. I thought it worked pretty good, making the exhaust sound intact. When I went for a State Inspection, the inspector looked under the truck and, while under the truck, said, in his Central Virginia Southern accent, "That Budweiser can ain't gonna cut it." I promptly received a pink sticker, then went home and replaced the pipe. I had a friend with me during the inspection, so he heard the inspector's comment, too. We laughed about it all the way home. For the past 20 years, when we notice something that's been creatively engineered, one of us will say, "That Budweiser can ain't gonna cut it".

I knew I should have patented the beer can idea......

Bedlam wrote:
They sell band clamps that will patch a hole about half the width of the clamp. If the hole is bigger than that, it is time to replace that section of pipe.

These are $7-10 depending on width and diameter needed:

Muffler tape can be an OK short term fix, it will buy you a few months if money is tight right now. In college, I used muffler tape on my old Fury, then would cut open a beer can and wrap it around the pipe over the muffler tape and secure it with a few wraps of safety wire. The tape would provide a good seal between the can and the pipe, and the can provided a stiff backer that kept the exhaust pressure from blowing the tape out.

As was noted, it's just gonna get worse so a new pipe is in your future when you are ready to spring for it.

cdru wrote:
Thanks for all the replies. Guess I will bite the bullet and get it replaced. I just spent $420 on a new muffler. Good ole Minnesota salt!

Maybe a muffler shop could do it cheaper?

Thanks for all the replies. Guess I will bite the bullet and get it replaced. I just spent $420 on a new muffler. Good ole Minnesota salt!