Video: VW Exhaust & J-Tube Installation

Products in this Video:

Video Overview:

Looking for some tips on replacing your worn out or rusted exhaust system on your VW Beetle? Follow along with our tech as he shows you how to remove your old muffler or header and install a new replacement exhaust. Our video covers the part numbers and tools we use along the way.

Step 1: Disconnect the Negative Side of the Battery

Any time you are working on a major car project, disconnect the battery to prevent a possible electrical fire.

Step 2: Lift the Vehicle to Gain Access to Exhaust Ports

Make sure the exhaust has cooled off since the last time it was driven! Working on a hot engine is a sure way to get burned.

Block the front wheels and jack up the rear of the car, unless your car is lifted or a baja, or you are really small and can easily fit under the rear of the car to access the exhaust ports.

Use jack stands to support the rear of the car if you are jacking up the car.

Step 3: Remove Old Exhaust

Remove the rear engine tin. The fan shroud hoses and heat riser plates will have to be removed if your engine has them.

If you have a single carburetor, you should have heat rise tubes. Unbolt the heat riser tubes from the exhaust.

For cars with working heater boxes, loosen the clamps from the "kidney bellow" to the heater box.

Remove the nuts from the exhaust ports for the header/ muffler.

Loosen the heater box/ j-tube clamps.

Pull back on the header/ muffler to remove it from the engine.

If you are replacing the heater boxes/ j-tubes, remove the nuts at the exhaust ports.

If you have heater boxes, the heater cable clamps need to be disconnected from the operating levers and the hose from the box to the body has to be slid off. Un-bolt the heater channel sheet metal from the heater box.

Pull off the heater boxes or j-tubes and make sure all exhaust port gaskets are removed.

Step 4: Begin Installation

Install new exhaust port gaskets.

Step 5: Install J-Tubes or Heater Boxes (if necessary)

If you pulled the heater boxes or j-tubes, install them now. The right side j-tube is the longer of the j-tubes. Thread on the exhaust nuts but do not tighten them.

Slide the new exhaust lock rings and sealing rings into place on the heater box or j-tube ends.

Step 6: Install Header/ Muffler

Making sure the exhaust port gaskets are in place, slide the header/ muffler into place on the heater boxes/ j-tubes and on to the exhaust port studs. This can take some careful positioning and is why we leave the heater boxes/ j-tubes loose.

On headers, if you are running heat risers, make sure the heat riser ports are drilled. If not, drill both ports out, one at 1/4" and the other at 3/8".

Once the header or muffler is in place, install and tighten the exhaust nuts. Tighten the nuts for the heater boxes/ j-tubes.

Install clamps on the heater box/ j-tube exhaust sealing rings.

For stock mufflers, install tail pipes and clamps.

For headers, install flange gasket and muffler.

For single carbureted engines, install a new heat riser gasket and bolt the tubes to the muffler/ header.

For cars with heater boxes, re-attach the cables, the hoses, and the heater channel tin.

Re-install the rear tin. Re-attach the fan shroud hoses and heat riser plates if your engine has them.

Installation should now be complete

General Notes:

Keep in mind that the paint WILL BURN OFF any painted muffler or exhaust (mufflers and headers that are not ceramic coated, chrome or stainless steel). If you want a lasting finish, remove the paint and use a high temp exhaust paint.

Wipe down the muffler/header/j-tubes with cleaner (brake, carb, alcohol wipe, etc) to remove any grease or oils before starting the engine. This is CRITICAL on ceramic coated, chrome or stainless steel systems.

Video Transcript:

Welcome, good morning, today we're gonna start working on our project beetle 1969. Couple things we have in store today, main thing is to get this thing running and running well. First thing we're going to do this morning is change out the exhaust. It has a couple exhaust leak that we noticed. Hopefully it's not coming from the heads and it's just coming from the exhaust. So were going to swap that out and then we're gonna get to some other things later on a video or a separate video perhaps as well. Alright first thing we're going to do is disconnect the negative side of the battery. Anytime you working on a major project on a car disconnect the negative side of the battery that way you're not gonna short anything out inadvertently, touching the positive wire to a ground and creating a bad electrical fire. Alright first thing were gonna do when removing the exhaust is pull off a couple, Exhaust Removal typically 13 millimeter, nuts on the exhaust port. There's going to be 2 per exhaust port. 2 left, 2 right, back, front, so a total of 8 nuts there. Plus we're going to go ahead and pull off the exhaust clamp on the bottom side. Those are typically 10 millimeter nuts on the top and bottom of the clamps. So pull all those off and that will allow us to get off the exhaust and the j-tubes on this model as it does not have heater boxes. Alright now we got the four exhaust nuts off the exhaust ports and the j-tube clamps are loose. We're going to go ahead and pull off the muffler relatively simple. Yank and pull and there is our old looks like a Tri Mil 2 Tip GT. One of my favorites just because it give a good ground clearance but were going to switch out to a different style two tip GT exhaust today. By no means do you have to pull off the tire to remove the j-tubes we just did J-Tubes Removal so it's easier to see in the video and/or photos. We're going to pull off the two nuts here. One at top, one at bottom ,we'll do this both sides. That will allow us to pull off the j-tubes and replace these were here as well. Alright with our new exhaust gasket,couple spring washers and new copper lock nuts for the exhaust. We'll go ahead and put the j-tubes on now. There is a left and right on the j-tubes so don't confuse them. Anytime you're fitting in an exhaust, until you get everything attached the hear boxes or j-tubes the new exhaust pipe a muffler or header or have you, you want to put everything on loosely. Get everything test fit, make certain all the pipes are snug together j-tubes into the header et cetra, before going through and tightening all your exhaust nuts. Alright on most aftermarket exhaust, Exhaust Preparation the heat risers which are made to keep the intake manifold on a single carburetor from icing up, the actual tubes are not drilled out. So what we'll do now is drill them so the exhaust gases can actually get up to the intake manifold and keep it warm. On the exhaust heat risers you want to have one side larger than the other so that you actually have some cross flow. If you have the holes the same size the exhaust gases will just kind of battle each other. If one side is larger than the other it's going to overpower so the exhausts will actually flow from one port to the other throught the intake manifold keeping it warm. Exhaust Installation Installing the muffler is just a matter of going ahead and first lining up the j-tubes down below with the gaskets and lock-ring already installed. Make sure you have fresh exhaust gaskets and then we're gonna use the same eight-millimeter spring washers and copper exhaust nuts that we had before. We've got everything lined up and on all the exhaust ports so now we're gonna go through and tighten down all the nuts at the heads and then we'll put on exhaust clamps on the bottom tubes. All in all we're all done here. We've got a new exhaust on, new j-tubes, new clamps, new gaskets, new copper exhaust nuts. This thing should be leak free and should get them down the road quietly now for quite some time. This system is a black system so this paint will burn off fairly quickly. Keep that mind if you are ever getting a system is not ceramic coated, chrome plated, or stainless steel. The black paint it's gonna burn off. Installation was very simple and taking the other one off was very simple as well none of the exhaust studs on the head broke which definitely make life easy. If those do break we do have replacements available the hard part of course is getting the old ones out. Often times you're gonna have to drill out the head put a helicoil in or otherwise.

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