Bodge of the week with Sodium Silicate

[awemawson]

A young friend turned up this afternoon, car sounding like a boy racer - it's a small 10 year old Rover 25, and to put it in context, she'd paid the princely sum of £175 a couple of months ago with 6 months left on it's MOT. Exhaust blowing, her boyfriend busy with something else at the moment but will weld it up given time, but have I got anything to stop it sounding like a formula 1 car in the meantime?

She's quite an unusual specimen in that she's more than willing to crawl under it and do things, (which I'm not any longer !!)

So, I rolled up a bit of tin plate, doubled up some jubilee clips to hold it on and sent her under to fit them. Still obviously blowing out as the noise is only marginally reduced.

Now years back you could buy 'Gun Gum' for patching exhausts - is that still around ? But what do I have on hand to pack down between the tin plate and exhaust pipe - NOTHING - or at least nothing that'll take the heat.

... no hang on a minute, I've a 20 litre drum of Sodium Silicate, a dustbin full of dry sand, and a bottle of CO2 on my MIG welder. Now as we all know, sodium silicate - a liquid syrup, when exposed to CO2 converts to Silica Gel - a glass hard heat resisting substance.

So I mix up a small beaker of sand / sodium silicate and send her back under with a putty knife to pack the joint, then hand her the CO2 pipe and set it. A bit crusty and soft inside, so start the engine and let the exhaust heat up - this enhances the setting and of course generates more CO2 on the other side of the bodge.

By the time we'd had a cup of tea, it was nice and hard and off she drives, car sounding 'normal'.

I bet the boyfriend curses when he has to chip that lot off in the future 

[vtsteam]

Good one Andrew.

Jubilee clips are what we call hose clamps I think? 

I did something similar for a very long term patch --  had a golf ball sized hole in the muffler, but the rest was shiny, don't know why. AnywayI I didn't have hose clamps long enough to reach around the muffler, but you can put two together to make an extra long one, which I did. Actualy I made two sets of these. Then I took a cover plate of galvanized steel, just flexible enough to conform to the muffler and spot welded the plate to the inside the two sets of hose clamps -- I have a spot welder.

This made attaching the rig while lying under the truck very easy. It tightened right up and couldn't shift, and actually looked good! I was thinking, somebody ought to make these as a product. There weren't any leaks at all -- it was very tight. I did have some muffler repair (gungum type) but didn't need it.

If there had been a seam in the area it probably would have needed some, but the slightly curved side of the muffler had the patch seal tightly. I think I went almost 6 months with it, and finally changed out the muffler only because it was inspection time. It never leaaked.

[shipto]

Jubilee clips are one of those brand names that has come to mean the item in this case hose clips as you say its a bit like we call vacuum cleaners Hoovers pretty much regardless of the company that makes them.
BTW awemawson you can still get gun gum.

[mexican jon]

Good one Andrew.

Jubilee clips are what we call hose clamps I think? 

Jubilee clips are one of those brand names that has come to mean the item in this case hose clips as you say its a bit like we call vacuum cleaners Hoovers pretty much regardless of the company that makes them.
BTW awemawson you can still get gun gum.

                                                                           
Bit like Adjustable spanner  You guys call them Crescent Wrenches

[PekkaNF]

Adjustable spanner! I remember asking for a one one and getting a dirty look. Like spanners are not adjustable....

Another time I asked electric torch in a hardware store in Oregon.....I was hushed to a self full of propane torches and to my bewilderment salesman told "some have piezo igniter".

Flash(light) was an camera accessory to me 

I still should have a exhaust first aid band somewhere. Checkered pattern on white cardboard box I think.

Pekka

[awemawson]

Good one Andrew.

Jubilee clips are what we call hose clamps I think? 

Jubilee clips are one of those brand names that has come to mean the item in this case hose clips as you say its a bit like we call vacuum cleaners Hoovers pretty much regardless of the company that makes them.
BTW awemawson you can still get gun gum.

Bit like Adjustable spanner  You guys call them Crescent Wrenches

Perhaps I should buy a tin and have it on the shelf ready for the next distressed damsel that comes through the farm gate 
                                                                           

[wgw]

Spending to much money, wire is good enough for that job! Yes gun -gun is still sold but it is not the same as it was, more like gasket cement. A bit of heat resisting cloth, or scrap of fibre glass cloth , soaked in the silicate will make a good seal, once it's been hot. Did not know about the CO2 trick, thanks for that.

[vtsteam]

Spending to much money, wire is good enough for that job! ...... Did not know about the CO2 trick, thanks for that.

Yes, that's the money saving option.

The nice thing about the hose clamps vs twisting wire, they last, being stainless steel. are flat, so force the galvanized sheet metal flat to conform to the muffler shape, rather than creasing it when tightened, don't leak therefore, tighten easily and install very quickly without a lot of contortions trying to twist wire while lying upside down under the vehicle. Unortunately I was $4 the poorer as a result. 

[awemawson]

Which is why I doubled up Jubilee clips as Steve did to get ones long enough, although this was the pipe itself not the silencer - I don't think that she'd have managed the twisted wire in the cramped space.