98 Suburban K2500 454: Magnaflow Direct Fit Front Cat Pipe Hits Driveshaft

[CTX-SLPR]

Howdy folks,

In the quest to make my 1998 K2500 Suburban with the 454 in tip top shape for my upcoming move home to TX, I ended up damaging the front (Bank 1) cat and went with a Magnaflow direct fit to replace it (P/N: 4451470). It's a very nice looking unit, mandrel bent pipes and decent quality gaskets. No hardware to attach the section to the rear cat and muffler section though.
After fighting to get the OEM front pipe section, hence forth "downpipe", out I tried to install the Magnaflow unit. I immediately ran into problems where the drivers side pipe section, which is separate, hit the front driveshaft. I tried various different approaches but the fact of it is the curve of the pipe is too tight to clear the driveshaft. Interestingly the same P/N is listed for the C2500 with the 454 which makes sense that you'd just have an opening for the non-existent driveshaft to pass through but it doesn't work in reverse.

Unfortunately they're closed for the weekend and I have to have this thing back on the road Monday. Anyone else run into this?

Thanks

 

[yevgenievich]

How close to not hitting is it? If I had to get it running fast, would either take drive shaft out or smash pipe to fit. Then visit exhaust shop to fix later

 

[CTX-SLPR]

I put the old broken pipe back in just to get it moving again. It's hopelessly close and I'd have to cut and splice the two together to make it work.

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You can see how they have a straight section between the bends. Bottom is going under the converter cover and top is to the manifold. If it was a large constant radius curve like the OEM pipe it would clear.

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Can't even get this one to bolt up at the same time the drivers side is attached, pries the whole crossover section down even while being hard up against the driveshaft.

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[CTX-SLPR]

Submitted the pictures with a removed picture showing the interference to Magnaflow, we'll see what they say.

 

[CTX-SLPR]

They're checking it out after running me through a bunch of questions to make sure I didn't just buy the wrong one. If they can identify this as a problem with their part they'll make me a new pipe (and hopefully update the K2500 and C2500 split) otherwise they'll just refund me and I'll have to think about welding in a universal cat into the original pipe. While not the simplest, I'd say this is pretty good customer service.

 

[CTX-SLPR]

They have said it's my vehicle that's weird and that it should fit. I've kicked more pictures their way as well as a picture of horrid looking Walker equivalent part showing how wide of a berth it gives the front drive shaft. Hopefull this gets somewhere as I need to replace this thing!

 

[Kchevys]

They have said it's my vehicle that's weird and that it should fit. I've kicked more pictures their way as well as a picture of horrid looking Walker equivalent part showing how wide of a berth it gives the front drive shaft. Hopefull this gets somewhere as I need to replace this thing!

Did you ever get any resolution from Magnaflow??

 

[CTX-SLPR]

They told me to return it and I've been too busy with the aftermath of moving to do so. I will admit that I'm not even sure they'll let me return it anymore.

I'm considering just having a shop weld in a 90º bend to replace the two 45º bend sections.

 

[wb292]

Put a pipe in place of the cat un till you get home. Then tackle the problem. Yes you will have a CEL on but it will get you back home.

 

[Donald Mitchell]

They told me to return it and I've been too busy with the aftermath of moving to do so. I will admit that I'm not even sure they'll let me return it anymore.

I'm considering just having a shop weld in a 90º bend to replace the two 45º bend sections.

That's what I was thinking. If you still have the original, the muffler shop might be able to see how it's supposed to fit and do a better job than just putting a random bend to it.