Hi all,

At the track today my muffler/megaphone hanger broke. Does anyone know where to get this type with the holes? I thought it was pretty cool, except for the breaking part. It did last several years.

I know I can use a stock 2.0 one for this application but I don't think I have one at the moment and I think it's heavier and boring lookiing.

Thanks!

Click to view attachment

That's an Engman exhaust hanger. Unfortunately he is no longer with us. He made some great products and was a really nice guy. I'm surprised that bracket broke like that. I have one that I'll be installing as soon as my new motor is finished being built.

How does the unbroken end look? It's probably a fatigue crack that caused the failure.

It shouldnt be too hard to trace that onto a paper and go to a company with a lasercutter/waterjey and have some blanks cut.

You'd think the reinforcement would prevent that failure.
Mmmmmmm......are you going to use that MFI cam ?

Cool piece, and I would probably want one too.

For me, the stock piece and some time at the gym would get it done.

Why not reweld it?

that reinforcement termination was the cause of the break by creating a hard point for bending to originate, continued flexing in that area led to fatigue.

Or just weld back what you have with a tiny reinforcement on each side and your good to go.

Yep....also heat expansion/contraction.


Trace it draw it up in cad and have someone burn it out for you Chris.

I have Pro E or Solid Works if you want it done. I can't fab it though, a 4 foot laser table is still on my bucket list.

Thanks everyone! Shoot, I had not realized it was an Engman product. I did buy several bits from him. It does seem correct that the break was in between the reinforcing weld points.

I can't simply re-weld as the broken-off piece is somewhere at Willow Springs -- I hope not embedded in somebody else's car.

Thought about having a small run of these made but I figure like many boutique vintage parts, I'd probably sell 3 and be stuck with the rest for eternity. Would be extra sweet in stainless steel, I think.

I'll do some web searching and if nothing turns up, maybe I'll try drilling holes in a stock one "R" style.

Sorry for the track problems.
Fab one from aluminum. Not hard and you can someone else weld it cheaply if needed

I'd go with Stainless over aluminum...if the steel part suffered from fatigue failure the aluminium will do the same but much quicker unless you make it really sturdy.
Alu will also have the chance of transfering more heat into your gearbox.

(Fatigue strength increases with the yield strength of the material.)

I remember those exhaust brackets when posted on the forum several years ago. I wondered at the time how much lighter they were versus a stock 914 muffler bracket. The stock brackets are steel metal stampings with the strength and stiffness increased by the curvature of the stamped shape. The light weight version appears to be a flat sheet with a welded rod added to increase the stiffness. Add more rod, add more weight.

Does anybody know the weight difference?

Get a stock one and drill some holes to lighten...

How much of a difference between where the end of the hanger end wants to rest when not bolted up and where it sits between the muffler and exchanger when installed?
The end should line up fairly closely at rest to where it's at when bolted up. If not, you're going to stress the hanger unless it's made to line up properly.

If it lines up in the North-South direction at room temperature, thermal growth of the H/E's or headers at operating temperature will result in the little ends moving south by perhaps 1/2". You need flex capability to accommodate this movement or the result will be what you saw in this thread.
That's why the stock hangers do not have reinforcements like these.

Just make your own, tube, and FLAPs exhaust hangers mounted off the trans like stock via a flat plate. A little your done. Wish I had pictures of my old setup but it is long since gone, and I just cut it up a month or two as I needed the tube for another project. IT was 3/8" tube, or maybe 1/4" can't remember. 1/8" wall though, so it took a conduit bender to fit it up.

version 1 that we made:

version 2:

So I have a new repro one in-hand now but am unsure that drilling or cutting some of the material away is a good idea with regard to overly weakening it. Obviously the weight savings would be negligible (although every ounce counts) and it'd largely be for looks.

Thoughts?

Your car looks great as is.
You don't need a fancy bracket that will break again.
This bracket needs to bend in the length direction of the car as the heat exchangers will thermally expand a lot (1/4"+), pushing the back part of the exhaust system toward the back end of the car.

What he said, re: it needing the flex in the fore/aft direction. It's the first thing I thought when I looked at the pic in your first post. The brace welded along the length of your bracket probably caused it to flex too much in that one spot and eventually broke there ...

10-4 guys. I'm gonna stick with factory engineering on this one. Thanks again for the inputs.