Bad heat exchanger/exhaust line-up

[Mags]

I've been rebuilding my engine whilst my bus is being painted, I'm kept my old heat exchangers and bought a new standard exhaust from VW heritage which looks fairly decent. The alignment from the exhaust to the O/S exchanger is hopeless and there is no way I can get the clamp to fit on this side. I've spent plenty of time on the heating system, lagging the pipes etc and I'm not going to mess it up on this piece!
I'm pretty sure I had the same problem with my last exhaust which was a gen VW beetle one, I pulled the engine ages ago and junked the exhaust so can't be sure but I'm thinking the exchanger is rubbish, pics below: (ignore the flexi pipe, I was hoping I could use this instead of the default clamp to bridge the gap, but no luck.

Ideally I'd replace the exchangers but as they are generally OK I can get another year or two out of them. I was thinking I just need to pull off the heater box on the exhaust and bybass this with a hose direct from the fan housing. This is what I had previously but doesn't the hose tend to split where it has to contort around the rear exhaust?

Mags

 

[lil_azza]

My beetle one is the same and that had original exhaust and exchangers :/ rubbish is an understatement

 

[mike202]

I had a lot of problems trying to get mine to all fit up properly. In fact one side has come apart again and its something I need to look at before the weather turns cool. So sorry I can't offer much help except to say I think you just have to 'make it fit' any way you can.
I wouldn't leave out the heater pods (if that's what you meant) with the stock exhaust as there is a connection between the two.

I didn't think I would have to hammer the pipe stubs into the heater pods through the tinwear, until I saw a helpful video on the JK website!

 

[Happystamps]

They're pretty much all like that unfortunately. I used some sheet steel wrapped around the whole thing with a couple of big jubilee clips- not ideal but works. The standard clamp isn't large enough to cover the big bloody gap.

 

[gvee]

On my old bus they never lined up either.
I did what you have done: used the heater tubes that go from shroud to pods to connect. Needed a longer length than expected to make the curve, but it is doable!

 

[Red Bus]

Used a cut up coke can and firegum to bridge the gap....so far so good!

 

[Mags]

Thanks all. Using some thin tin to bridge the gap sounds best, will give this a go.

Mags

 

[RePhil]

Hi, Just a thought - the exhaust looks nice & painted. Do the top parts rotate/jiggle about the exhaust pipe to give you some articulation, or are they possibly "glued" by the paint? Mine needed a lot of jiggling before I could finally get them to line up. The standard joining strap had very little overlap when fitted.

Hope this helps.

 

[Mags]

Yeah they do, in fact I have been pretty brutal In whacking them to try as get them to line up to no avail.

 

[Rob Letts]

Ha, well I’ve been agonising over the same problem for a week now, did you get it sorted? I also came up with the same idea of tubing to bridge gap!

 

[mike202]

Hi Rob, not sure if you realised this thread is from 2014? Hopefully they got something sorted!

 

[Rob Letts]

Hi Rob, not sure if you realised this thread is from 2014? Hopefully they got something sorted!

ha! Let’s hope so!