Help me solve this dilema......
 

I swapped in a new motor over the winter and added long tubes and a blower. Im set to turn the key after 6 long months. Naturally I have an issue.

I bought Flowtech longtubes (I kno, I kno but they were priced right) I made sure to order the matching X pipe, even though I had to wait cuz it was on back order. Getting the X pipe on is the last thing I need to do, and it would bolt up in 3 spots, but it was off by 3/4in on the passenger side collector. That was too much for me to muscle in, so I took it to a muffler shop. I took measurments before and they heated it up and bent it while I measured. Its alot closer but still isnt going to work. I know Im not going to get it perfect this way.

Now, I am stuck and dont know what to do.

#1 Summit will ship me a new X pipe, but I have to pay return shipping on the one I have and the new one might not be any better.

#2 Tow the car to a muffler shop and have them fit it. This sounds logical, but I would have to tow it twice, to and from the shop. I havent fired my new motor yet and I have changed so many things on the car, Im not comfortable with starting and driving it the way it is now. This option turns my $100 X PIPE into a $350 chore Im sure. The other problem is its off road, most places around wont work on anything without convertors...

#3 Find out if Flowtech (Hooker,Holley) makes a H pipe for long tubes. If this were an H pipe I could have cut the balance tube and clamped on a piece of pipe and been done.

#4 Start my car with open headers.. I really dont want to do this but then I know it runs, I could tow it to a shop and drive it home ?? Neighbors will bitch alot if I do this and I really wont be able to hear the motor over the headers.

I guess these are my options. Im just thinking outloud here and dont know what to do. Maybe someone here has some advice ???

Thanks for looking !!!

Cant you manually bend the xpipe with it off the car? Put it on a hard wall and put some muscle into it. or you could put it against the wall and ground and push down

You could send back the x-pipe and buy summits universal H-pipe kit and use that and have a shop weld it up if you dont own a welder. If not that option i would go with having summit send you another one that hopefully fits better.

Well he said he took it to a shop and it still doesnt fit. I would of gone ot homedepot gotten one of there hand held propane or oxygen torches and heated it up myself and bent it but i dont know how off it is really.

he said its off by 3/4 of an inch. You could manually bend that to be correct.

Ah i missed that somehow, well yeah i would totaly go get a torch and heat it up and bend it over some then. Cost you i think 14bucks for one of those torches.

why not have a full custom exhauste setup from ur local shop?

Me and my dad tried heating it up with a propane torch before I went to the muffler shop. I could get it to spread the 3/4" but it return to its original shape after I let off the pressure. I was also worried about breaking the weld at the X pipe.

I did get in. It took alot of F'n around, but I have all the bolts in place. I just need to install the gaskets and tighten it all down.

good work. pics or die

Is your motor brand new? I remember when I got my headers put on the directions and stuff said to not put headers onto a brand new motor. It said the motor should be broken in first. I don't know if this is necessary or not, but maybe someone else could chime in.

I have heard that same thing too. This is not a brand new motor, its a 25K mile aluminum 4.6 from an Explorer.

That's only for ceramic coated headers since it can damage the coating.