Decatting help

[tvrgit]

I bought a pair of front pipes and cat replacement pipes this week, and have been fitting them tonight - nearly finished but it got too dark! I still have to tighten the two pipe-to-manifold clamps.

Anyway, problem is that the pipes seem to be slightly shorter than the cats, and also the front pipes are sloped upwards slightly to improve ground clearance. This means that when I tighten the exhaust clamps, the downpipes are pulled up tight against the chassis crossmember in front of the engine.

Is this normal? Will it cause a vibration?

[kentishs2]

I got my S back from the engine rebuild with the exhaust against the chassis and it did drum badly, needed adjustment even though it wasn't moving it sounded terrible.

On a previous car I changed the exhaust system and used a metal strap to hang it from the chassis and the noise was really annoying, again this was all clamped tightly with no movement but I had to weld a hanger on the chassis and a lug on the exhaust and use a rubber mount to get rid of the noise.