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diverter valve need some brainstorming help

7K views 24 replies 5 participants last post by  DcMoore999 
#1 ·
Hey guys well I want to setup a diverter valve on the stacked exhaust. This is what I am working with. I have a straight pipe turbo back to stacks. And what I am wanting to do is just before the flex pipe under the truck I want to put in a 4" diverter valve to divert exhaust flow from the stright stacks to a short muffler with a dump pipe. Grand rock makes a very simple diverter pipe but it does not seal very well and there is still a but of soot that makes it past the valve. and no weeds makes a very nice diverter but is very pricey. WOuld love to go with the no weeds setup but hoping maybe find a cheaper alternative.
Here is a link to the no weeds one
4.00 NOWEEDS SINGLE
and here is the grand rock on page 21
http://www.grpipes.com/GrandRock_2007.pdf

It doesn't need to be electric.

SO know just shooting for some general ideas and maybe something I can fab up.

Was thinking if there is a sealing issue with round pipe would a person maybe be able to use some 4" sqaure tubing and make a sqaure butterly that way and have it run straigt through when the butterfly is down or have it shut to say a 45 degree angle and run the diverted pipe at that angle. This would maybe give a little nicer transition and being sqaure maybe able to seal better? Just throwing this out there to see what all of you other fab guys can help me improve you guys are brilliant. Hopes some of this makes sense.



 
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#3 ·
i had the same idea as you, square, pivot in the middle, problem is the amount of leverage you have on the flap make you have to have a long lever on outside to compensate for it, therefore if you use a pto cable type cable, the throw of the cable is not long enough.
this is what i came up with instead. i had this layin around, but if i didnt i would make my own y pipe, not buy one. this is all 6" id 304 stainless, with 2 6"-4" reducers and the y pipe was around 450 all by itself and the reducers were like 125, i could have bought all the pipe and made one for 130. all pipe included, its all schedule 10, there is prolly 900 in it. if i would have gotten "tube" instead of "pipe", tube has wall thickness of about exhaust pipe, and make my own y, it would have been around 175 to make it. on the pic with the pink lines, the arrow is pointed to where my cable is mounted and i cut rest off, forgot to make them pink lines. i welded it all together and put it up, but i was to tall. i cut the pink parts out and shrank it, by doin that the top of the Y pipe sits 1/2 inch below the bed, use a band clamp to mount the stack, and clamp your exhaust to it, flex pipe infront of the assembly, and weld two tabs to it to bolt it to the frame the frame of the truck will not twist under the bed, bed keeps it straight, so you have to allow for the twist between the cab and bed. i used a locking "pto cable" from here Welcome to Madison Power Systems, you have to call and tell them what you are doing, cuz the exhaust will get hot there, and you need one to lock, otherwise pressure from the exhaust will move the butterflys on their own, when you make the butterflys on the inside, you cannot have 100% seal because exhaust heat will expand everything, you have to have room to swell, i have a 1/16 gap around mine to allow for that. i could be persuaded to make another one...... out of different stuff though, mine was expensive, but work payed for it :D
 

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#5 ·
to guess, i'd say bout 95%, i didnt try for tighter cuz if it didnt let me move the butterflys when it swelled, i would have to take uninstall from truck, cut it apart to be able to get to the butterflys to grind them down a bit, then weld it all back together. not something i wanted to do. 20/20 hind sight, instead of letting the butterflys "free float" like i did, i would have made a half ring for them to rest against, that would have also helped with the seal some to
 
#7 ·
treetrimmer, very nice welding, you've been at it awhile!!:D

yamaman, I can see how to do it, and get 100% seal, but it may not be pretty. Get yourself a couple gate valves rated for OSW, [Oil Steam Water].
They would be manual valves, with a handwheel, and you'd have to bend over to reach them. Not only that, but I think you'd have to use around Schedule 40 pipe to give yourself something worthwhile to weld to.

There are butterfly valves out there that would seal 100% as well. The trick is to weld the valve body in. To get to the 100% seal, your going to need a complete valve assembly. Now the problem with a butterfly valve, is that you'll setup a restriction in the line, a lot more than with a gate valve.
With an OWS type valve, you'll never get near a temp high enough to jam up the valves, contraction/expansion wouldn't be an issue on a pickup.

I'm sorta/kinda looking at pipefitting 101.

Why do you want to do this?:confused:
 
#8 ·
i used 1/4 rod to go through it, and it 1/8 thick flap, there is not anough pressure to bend any of that, the half ring i should have putin it is just for additional sealing. thats the reason i made it all out of 6", same amount of flow out of it, but less velocity against the flaps, it takes some stress off the cable. btw, that entire this is made out of 316 stainless, a little more in the durability category. its not when they are closed that i was concerned about, when there closed its a even push against both sides, as long as you get the flap to shut even on your lever. its the open side, if its off just a little bit the flow doesnt go straight across it, it will want to turn it, and you cannot put any thing there to support the open side
 
#9 ·
Just a thought. I wonder if Victaulic has a threeway valve that could be used? Just cut the pipe and bolt it up. Although welding does look a lot cleaner.;)
 
#10 ·
but also you have to take into account, a 4 or 5 or 6 inch three way valve, with the req heat rating to not swell for 100% seal will not be cheap. its like i said earlier, if i was jo shmo, didnt have work to pay for my play, ( i didnt say that :D ) i would have made my own y pipe, would have used tube, and made it all for round 175 tops. with the half ring for seal. i would wager that that fitting itself your talking bout will be round that much, all by itself. i mean dont get me wrong, ihad lots of options for 100% seal, but none of them were cost effective for what i was doin. and thats with work footing the bill, i couldnt have done it and not been "noticed" :D
 
#11 ·
Yepper, those Victaulic fittings can get pricey.

That's a nice looking and more cost effective approach you used, plus it looks better than what I was thinking, you never know though.
With the size pipe being used, flow restriction really shouldn't be an issue, it's sure to be less than a 4" pipe would be. Is pressure enough at that pointe to be much of an issue? I can't see there being enough to bend anything, especially with steel you used.
This is interesting to me. You guys do some mods on here that I likely never would, but I like seeing the ideas nevertheless.;)
 
#12 ·
Hey guys wow sorry for not getting on here sooner. The reason I am doing this is to bypass my staks for when I tow and run the exhaust through a dumped muffler just to get rid of some of that drone. I have thought about the gate valve but didn't like how it was all going to look under the truck. I think I am going to try and make it out of 5" sqaure tubing. and keep the general idea I had orignally but where I have the pivot point don't setup a lever there instead put two posts with a hinge setup welding right to the flap to give it some pivot so I can have just the smalleest holes drilled for the rod to slide to either push or pull on the "flap" to divert flow either direction with a 12v actuater doing the pushing and pulling and stepping up to a 5" tube there shouldn't any flow restricitons. Just in front of where the flap will stop I plan on just a small "lip" to bumo the exhaust up over the front of the flap so it has less chance of getting underneath the front and lifting it a bit but either way with an actauater closing it there should be enough force on it. I kinda want the smoother transistion just because then there is no dead end to the flow anywhere it will just hit th angle and keep on going. I am hoping that by using a hnge on the flap with the rods and the smallest hole I can get away with will give me around 98% seal or with the the exhaust diverted it would not even hit the holes so that direction would be damn near 100.
 
#16 ·
just a suggestion, but make the diverter that you seen of weeds. the one you posted on the last page. as its goin together, you can add the lips i was saying i should have added, that pic of weeds' is good, if i would have seen that before i made mine, thats what i would have made. and if your worried about "dead ends" move the flap back closer to where the two pipes join. and if at all possible, try to make it out of stainless. reg steel will swell
 
#17 ·
ya we are right in the middle of harvest right now so haven't had anytime to start working on this but have had lots of time to think lol. I am not great when it comes to metal work and sqaure is just easier to work with in that aspect lol. BUt I am still thinking alot so we will see
 
#18 ·
Ok finally getting some time to revisit this. Now I got a question for all you guys. My orignal plan was the run a muffler off the diverter and just dump it but, I hate rolling coal under the truck when I have stacks so I am looking at rentering it into the stacks after the muffler. My question is how much louder do you tihnk it will be as oppose to dumping it. Because if I go off the theory of what I do now which is just a striaght dumped vs my stacks the dumped is much quieter, so will the concept be the same with the muffled version? Will it be that much quieter in the cab vs running out the stacks. And yes I am talking about cab noise not exterior. Hope I can find some help here guys thanks.
 
#19 ·
I don't know what to tell you, I've zero experience with stacks on a pickup. I'd think since it's louder out the stacks straight piped, than dumping under the truck, the same would be true with a muffler. . I'm surprised no one else has replied that may know.;)
 
#20 ·
well I have decided to run the diverted pipe back into the pipe then up to the stacks. So so far the plan is to add a 30" FTE resonater right after the DP then have my diverter valve, then one side straight and the other side a 30" donaldson muffler. That should make things quiet enough for the wife and if it isn't enough I have my slip ins for the stacks if need be.
 
#23 ·
I am not going to cutout direction because I want to completely block off either side while the other is open. And to do this with cutouts I would have to run 2 of them and then either find a way to wire them together so one opens as the other closes or else wire them separate and flips 2 switches. I was going to make my Own diverter setup but since I suck at metal work and welding I am am forking over the dough for one of these. 4.00 NOWEEDS SINGLE they also make a 5" version. They are very pricey but also very well built.
 
#24 ·
wel I finally got everything ordered I need to get this done. I order a 17" and 30" FTE resonator as well as a grand rock Y and my diverter is being built right now. Hope fully will have all the stuff together in the next few weeks and then I will get it all togther and post op some pics when it is all done.
 
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