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supercrackerbox
01-27-2008, 04:38 AM
My Charger has a 3" downpipe and a 3" catback system, both from TU. They do not line up with a straight pipe due to the shifter, I need an offset pipe. Does anyone know offhand how much I need to offset the pipe to connect the two, or how I can go about measuring it to find out? With the 27" gap between the two, it's kinda hard to guess.

Marcus86GLHS
01-27-2008, 05:21 AM
same thing happened to me a few years back when i purchased the 3" L-body exhaust (my downpipe is a TU unit and the catback is from FWD Performance).

if i were you'd i would take the car to a good muffler shop and have them fabricate that intermediate pipe that will snake around the A-525 shifter base and connect the downpipe to the front of the cat-back pipes. this is what i did and it came out great.

johnl
01-27-2008, 03:03 PM
Go to our vendor here - Racing Solutions and buy one of their aluminzied 3" 180*s, and maybe a 90*, or maybe one of their complete bend kits. They are cheap and ship instantly.

As Marcus says, a good muffler shop can do it too, beware, most shops do not stock mandrel bends, that's why I say get a bend or two or a box of bends from Racing Solutions.

The 3" pipe kits are really for the cable shifted cars. Would be better if the vendor explained that. As you have found, the early L bodies are rod shifted and the rod shifter hangs down right where that pipe wants to go. So . . . you have to throw a little loop into the pipe to get around the rod shifter. Or, you could convert the car to cable shifter - but that is more work than putting the bend into the pipe.

You will also find, if you are taking the 3" exhaust all the way to the back that some of the bends in the kit are close but not exactly dimensionally correct for the L body and you have to cut out a piece here and add a piece there, especially if you want a perfect fit - snug up in the exhaust channel but not going to hit the body/suspension/gas tank either. If you can get your thumb between the pipe and whatever it might hit/knock against - that's perfect.

Marcus86GLHS
01-27-2008, 03:57 PM
excellent points. none of the L-body 3" systems i have seen are true bolt-in, they require a good pipe-guy to make several adjustments.

the transition pipe to snake around the shifter consists of a 2-3 very shallow bends, about 15 degrees, so even if the shop uses a conventional bender the change in pipe volume will be very small since the bend is so small.

supercrackerbox
01-28-2008, 03:13 AM
I was just hoping since I work in an exhaust factory, I could make my own if I could figure out how far to bend it. The downpipe is very snug, but fits and ends right between the shifter and the heat shield. Then of course the cat-back system comes straight up the middle of the exhaust tunnel, 26.75" back. Because of where the downpipe ends, I'll need to use one of those band clamps, a conventional U-bolt clamp will not clear the shifter.

Turbodave
01-28-2008, 01:02 PM
I've got a 2.5" JRB exhaust for an L-body sitting in the garage. It's got a bend to clear the shifter if I remember correctly. Let me know if you need me to measure it Adam.

supercrackerbox
01-28-2008, 01:07 PM
If you could, that'd be great.