Y Pipe not for sale anywhere - headers instead?

[kjmclark]

I have a 96 Ranger, and it's weird, but the Y pipe seems to not be for sale anywhere for that age of truck. It's the 4.0l V6. You can find Y pipes for late 80s and 90s up to about 92, and then for 98 and newer. But Rockauto, Oreilly, Walker itself, JCWhitney, and Google all say the the Y pipe isn't available for love or money.

Now, what is dead is the flange, of course. So, if I could come up with a replacement flange that fits the 3-bolt pattern used there, I could just bolt it back together (it's the flange that connects the back of the Y pipe to the cat.) But near as I can tell, they don't sell 3-bolt repair flanges to fit the odd pattern for this flange.

So, the other option is to switch to short headers. Pacesetter makes a set of headers that are higher performance than the original Y pipe for only $250. I'm sure it would be a total pain to put those on, but that seems like the cheapest way to deal with this problem. Anyone else had to deal with this?

 

[kjmclark]

OK, so in another thread, people say the Pacesetters are junk. There are also JBA headers at Autozone and upgraded Pacesetters at Rock Auto.
That flange is a an awful oval-on-the-inside triangle thing.

These are the JBA headers:

They're cheaper at CarID than at Autozone.

Has anyone done this replacement who can comment? I'd be happy to switch to this. It looks like it mostly just bolts in place.

 

[Curious Hound]

I think someone on this site had some repair flanges for sale a month or two ago. Check the ads section.

 

[kjmclark]

Yeah, that's here, but his repair flange is for older Rangers. I compared that with my gasket and it won't work. Bummer.

 

[Shran]

Why not just have an exhaust shop build you a Y pipe?

Or a junkyard Y pipe... I realize you're in the rust belt but even the worst of the worst rusty trucks out here usually have usable Y pipes.

 

[kjmclark]

Shran - I've read, in a bunch of other forum posts, that having a shop build one would run around $800. And then it's mild steel and will rot out in a couple of years. The shorty headers are in the $250-$400 price range, and it looks I could bolt it together myself. The $250 version is mild steel with a layer of regular paint that burns off with first use, but the $400 version is ceramic coated and should last fine.

I might go the junkyard route though. I checked that out this morning, and there's a yard around 30 miles south of me that says they have one that would fit. But they don't list a price for it, so I'm going to call in the morning.

 

[19Walt93]

Is there a cat built into the y pipe? If so, Walker offers direct fit replacements for a lot of them. If a muffler shop quotes $800 for a y pipe find another shop.

 

[Shran]

Shran - I've read, in a bunch of other forum posts, that having a shop build one would run around $800. And then it's mild steel and will rot out in a couple of years. The shorty headers are in the $250-$400 price range, and it looks I could bolt it together myself. The $250 version is mild steel with a layer of regular paint that burns off with first use, but the $400 version is ceramic coated and should last fine.

I might go the junkyard route though. I checked that out this morning, and there's a yard around 30 miles south of me that says they have one that would fit. But they don't list a price for it, so I'm going to call in the morning.

I had a complete exhaust system built for my V8 swapped Ranger from the manifolds back, including a Y pipe and a knockoff Flowmaster muffler and it cost me a total of $175. That $800 system better be gold plated, it is literally 4' of tubing with a couple bends... find another shop!!!

 

[kjmclark]

Haven't checked with a shop myself, that's just what was in those other posts. I'd expect it to be cheaper and easier for them to do the whole exhaust. If they make a pipe to match the stock cat, they have to get the flange bolt pattern right, have that same oval and angle for the cat inlet, and get the bends right to match up with the manifolds. We had the whole exhaust replaced on our car a while back and they just bought the whole Walker kit and bolted it in place. If the Walker kit for the Ranger included the Y pipe, I'd be really tempted.

 

[Ramcharger90]

The worst thing you can do is take pricing advice from a fourm.

 

[Ramcharger90]

Excluding the "cats" and the Pypes mufflers this whole exhaust was less then $300 so like Shran said find a different shop

 

[Dirtman]

Whats the point of the x pipe on a single to dual system?


*edit, nevermind now I see. The crossmember made it look like a single exit Y pipe then split into dual. I can see now its actually a true dual. Im a silly goose.

 

[Shran]

The problem with Ranger Y-pipes is that there are a bunch of different variants... some have one O2 sensor bung, some have two, there are quite a variety of engines in the trucks to begin with so Walker or whoever would have to stock many different parts and I imagine that they are not in super high demand.

The guy who did my buddy's Y pipe on his 4.0 swapped Ranger just used a two-into-one adapter... then the flange is irrelevant, you could use a universal converter if it'll pass smog that way. A lot easier and cheaper than trying to find the factory Ford triangle flange.

 

[pjtoledo]

Shran - I've read, in a bunch of other forum posts, that having a shop build one would run around $800. And then it's mild steel and will rot out in a couple of years. The shorty headers are in the $250-$400 price range, and it looks I could bolt it together myself. The $250 version is mild steel with a layer of regular paint that burns off with first use, but the $400 version is ceramic coated and should last fine.

I might go the junkyard route though. I checked that out this morning, and there's a yard around 30 miles south of me that says they have one that would fit. But they don't list a price for it, so I'm going to call in the morning.

mind if I ask what yard?
if it's in Deerfield his prices are usually quite high.
I'm a 3.0 & 2.3 guy. no need for 4.0 stuff.

 

[kjmclark]

PJ - that's hilarious! Yes, it was from Deerfield. I got the pipe for $50, which didn't seem too bad to me, considering the alternatives. Shran, right, I agree that if I want to replace the cat too, I could just have them join up the pipes and make it a standard round pipe going into the generic catalytic converter. But that's another ball of wax and a bunch more money for the cat. Ram - personally I think the worst thing I could do is scrap the truck, since that's what I'm "supposed" to do, given that it's "worth less" than the cost of repairs. Second worst would be *not* checking the forums for prices, since I can almost always get the job done for less - and faster - than making an appointment at a shop. And a little funny that I'm not supposed to get an idea about prices, when two other people have given me ideas about prices in this excellent thread

Here's the pipe:

Here's the flange:

I'm going to clean it up and hit the flange with some heat paint before I put it in.