Hey Bob, your ideas on what to seal the exhaust with sound good to me; I certainly don't have any better ones. Only exhaust sealing I ever did (beyond just joining the pipes) was with "Muffler Bandage" to get our wagon the 800 or so miles back home. I think that heat-hardened rock-like stuff would have held the axle pipe to the rear muffler for a year if I hadn't just gone ahead and done the cat-back when we got home.

Since before Volvo stopped stocking the under-axle kits in favor of the resonators with the sharp upward turn behind them, I switched to Starla for all of our cars. I keep a kit on hand just so there are no exhaust emergencies needing to wait for a shipment. As I age (and as the Starla rubber hangers get stiffer?) the least loved part for me is getting the hangers hooked on both the front and rear mufflers.

But lying under the car enlarging those flange holes with a file? That would be masochism. I most definitely had it easier with the head pipe out and its flange in Vise-Grip jaws using an electric drill. The M8 hardware worked before, so no reason to suspect it won't again.



--
Art Benstein near Baltimore

A truly happy person is one who can enjoy the scenery on a detour.