Drilling Holes In Mufflers

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srduster340

srduster340

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Should I drill holes in my mufflers for for moisture to escape? If so, where is the optimum spot?
 
srduster340 said:
Should I drill holes in my mufflers for for moisture to escape? If so, where is the optimum spot?
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Wouldn't that cause an exhaust leak and also make it sound odd? Dont know much about this so somebody should chime in that knows more though.
 
Guys used to do this, in fact I believe that some mufflers even came.with a drain hole. The idea is if the car only ever makes short trips it never has a chance to burn off moisture (water is a combustion by product) out of the mufflers, where it accumulates and rusts the muffler out prematurely. This doesn't seem.to.be as much of an isssue nowadays......better steel being used? At any rate all you need is an 1/8 hole at the low point of the muffler. An exhaust leak......technically yes, but so minimal you would not hear or notice it.
 
you my not beleave this. but i have heard that for every gal of gas you make all most a gal of water. gas has hydrogen and carbon. water has hydrogen and oxygen. when gas burns the hydrogen combines with the oxygen you get H2O. and all or most acids that you dont want in your crankcase are water based.
 
Use stainless steel mufflers. If your concern is them rusting out. The hole would be a good place for rust to start.
 
All combustion creates water, it's called "mixing hydrogen and oxygen." Water is H2O so ANY hydrogen based fuel makes water.

Running the exhaust "hot" helps that is not doing short trips in cold weather. I've seen holes in manufactured mufflers. "Other chemicals" such as from cat converters may be a factor as well.
 
I drilled holes in several places in my brand new TTI exhaust pipes and Dynomaxers, back in 1999.At every low spot. No rust anywhere yet. Cant say the same for the collectors. They've been patched several times, and need some more weld globbed on. I think I'll just buy new collectors.
The holes in the mufflers are a little larger than normal so that water condensing in those big cans will actually drip out. Water has a pretty good surface tension, and doesnt always run through a small hole.
Its impossible to hear them leak with 3 inch pipes all the way out the back.You can see the piddle on a cool or damp day tho.
 
Lelo Dart said:
Use stainless steel mufflers. If your concern is them rusting out. The hole would be a good place for rust to start.
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That was a concern as well but I'd rather the moisture runs out of the muffler than sit in it. The mufflers are Dynomax Ultra Flows. Not stainless steel.
 
Stock 340s had holes in mufflers, holes in low spot of tail pipe in front of tip, and in the lowest point of the tip. I always drill them in non-st. st. mufflers. Lowest point of the muffler is good place.
 
AJ/FormS said:
When the little holes rust, the little holes get a little bigger. When the muffler rots out, its an immediate long line, along an almost non-repairable seam.
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With the holes drilled the mufflers may last just a little longer. The lesser of two evils.
 
Many muffler manufacturers today use what they call "internal drainage" technology. The internals are designed to allow the muffler to heat more uniformally and discipate moisture out the endcaps without much notice or exhaust leakage as a drain hole may cause. Seems to have worked quite well over the years for our product.
 
I use cheap thrush turbo mufflers. They sound good, and when they rust out I'll just spend 50 bucks and put new ones on. Lol 5 years and 50,000 miles on my truck and they still look like new.
 
Just changed my exhaust , the dynomax super turbos still looked new , no rust after 5 years . I never take short trips under 10 minutes , minimum run time is 1 hour highway , think that cuts down on the water collecting in the mufflers or collectors .
 
I'll be driving my car every day to work. ....5.5 miles each way.
If it needs to be replaced in 5 years, I guess that's the cost of driving a bad *** 'Cuda all the time!
 
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