Exhaust rattle on tunnel brace fix your take?

[axis]

Originally Posted by jtzako

For what, exactly? (other than racing situations) I cannot tell a difference with it on vs off for normal driving.

It adds lateral stablility across the tunnel. It's not only for racing but hard cornering as well. I've never run without it but I have friends that can definitely tell a difference when cornering. GM put it there for a valid reason. Considering that several suspension companies make a version of it, I think even they think it's necessary.

[jsharp]

Yeh good stifner for that tunnel to prevent flex. That is also why they offer additional stifners on each side of tunnel brace aftermarket.

[sasquash1984]

Damn, I wish I could get that mbrp by itself, there's has a dip in the middle

[JDP Sales]

Yeah, typically you have to loosen all the joints then push the exhaust into place, then tighten them all to get the exact fittment you want.

A stronger tunnel brace is a great thing to have if you do any spirited driving. It adds stiffness and rigidity to the whole chassis, resulting in tighter curves and more fun; and really, isn't that the reason we have these cars?

We have the beautiful Elite Engineering plate, CNC machined billet aluminum, black anodized to prevent oxidation.
It strengthens the chassis, drops down in the center approximately 3/8 of an inch to allow larger exhausts in the tunnel, and is super easy to install, just 4 15mm bolts.

Call for the best prices!
- Jeremy

[dcarlos55]

Originally Posted by Sales@JDP

Yeah, typically you have to loosen all the joints then push the exhaust into place, then tighten them all to get the exact fittment you want.

A stronger tunnel brace is a great thing to have if you do any spirited driving. It adds stiffness and rigidity to the whole chassis, resulting in tighter curves and more fun; and really, isn't that the reason we have these cars?

We have the beautiful Elite Engineering plate, CNC machined billet aluminum, black anodized to prevent oxidation.
It strengthens the chassis, drops down in the center approximately 3/8 of an inch to allow larger exhausts in the tunnel, and is super easy to install, just 4 15mm bolts.

This is exactly what I did with mine. The Elite tunnel brace is a nice piece. I no longer have clearance / rattle issues.

[sasquash1984]

Originally Posted by Sales@JDP

Yeah, typically you have to loosen all the joints then push the exhaust into place, then tighten them all to get the exact fittment you want.

A stronger tunnel brace is a great thing to have if you do any spirited driving. It adds stiffness and rigidity to the whole chassis, resulting in tighter curves and more fun; and really, isn't that the reason we have these cars?

We have the beautiful Elite Engineering plate, CNC machined billet aluminum, black anodized to prevent oxidation.
It strengthens the chassis, drops down in the center approximately 3/8 of an inch to allow larger exhausts in the tunnel, and is super easy to install, just 4 15mm bolts.

Call for the best prices!
- Jeremy

That's nice

[Mark's SS]

Hey jsharp,
how is that exhaust holding out?

[thenaz]

JSHARP:

I have American Racing Headers long tubes with highflow cats through Noweeds exhaust cutouts to stock mufflers. No resonators. I received some big aluminum spacers (looked like washers) with either the headers or the cutouts ( I can't remember which) that I figured would go between the crossbrace and the tunnel to increase the clearance. The holes in the spacers were to small for the bolts so I drilled them out to fit. With all the pieces loosely in place I held it up as high as possible and tightened from the front working to the back. It has held up fine but needs to be looked at again since exiting a steep driveway. The bottom hit the high point of the drive and drug on my Noweeds and exhaust & I get a little rattle every once and a while now.

[jsharp]

Doing great still! I would be lying if i didnt say i have went over a few "*u*k" bumps and steep drives scratching as well. I have a small audible pop when driver side diverter opens but it even got better when positioning exhaust this time. Now i want some drag radials and need to install my rear cradle inserts! Oops and trans cooler now that this issue is fixed!

[mlee]

If you haven't seen this... it's an interesting read...
http://www.camaro5.com/forums/showthread.php?t=105015

[jsharp]

Yeh scary and i know mine was doing it. U can feel the power loss!

[cmb74656]

Originally Posted by Sales@JDP

A stronger tunnel brace is a great thing to have if you do any spirited driving. It adds stiffness and rigidity to the whole chassis, resulting in tighter curves and more fun; and really, isn't that the reason we have these cars?

It is if you have an SS.

[flowmann]

Originally Posted by jsharp

Ok so i am highly tired of hearing my exhaust hitting my tunnel brace. So first i tried washers/nuts to space it out;it still hit. Second i padded my brace with exhaust wrap; worked but looked bad and i smelled burning after a while and took it off assuming it was that well it wasnt i had wire looms close to headers melting. So i was to lazy and displeased with that so when i sent it back to livernois i had them try. It lasted a few spins hitting again. After further research i find since i have noweeds diverters i had to cut the original piping and bolt them in place which is causing the exhaust to sag at that point therefore resting my resonator on the tunnel brace. After trying bmr brace and having no more clearance as pipe size is not the issue i came up with a new idea and want some advice.

Idea: take a 1/2 inch to 3/4inch bolt weld the head of it to the resonator pointing down. Drill a whole thru center of bmr tunnel brace. Put a nut on first then slide tunnel brace over bolt and secure it with 4 original bolts, then put a nut on the bottom of new center bolt and tighten the one on top and bottom and adjust height and seperation with two nuts.

My question is not if it will work but if it will effect drone due to stiffness and is there a more efficient way to do it?

Jsharp – Bolting your exhaust to the brace will introduce a lot of additional noise to the body. The exhaust also needs space for expansion and contraction from heat. The amount of expansion and contraction depends on the steel it’s made of. For instance T304 stainless steel expands much more than T409 stainless steel. This is one of the reasons we build our systems from T409.

Bolting the exhaust to the brace can cause problems by not allowing your exhaust to expand far enough when it does heat up. This is why exhaust systems are attached with rubber hangers. They allow expansion and isolate noise from being transferred to the body.

[DarkMaroSS]

Anyone has been able to get fix for this without buying a modified piece of metal?
I went through this after removing my resonator box and replacing it with an X-pipe. It wasn't until I found this thread and a few others when I realized that the nuts used as spacers by the muffler shop wasn't covering the same pressure area as the tunnel brace used to by itself on heatshield.

To fix this I used new M10-1.5 40mm hex flanged bolts (class 10.9 just like the stock ones), two 1/2" x 2" washers per bolt (big enough to cover virtually the same area of the heatshield as the tunnel brace used to) and polyurethane sway bar bushings to isolate any vibration from metal to metal contact. The result? It worked really good and removed minor stock vibrations when the A6 tranny shifted into 2nd gear at low speeds.