Exhaust Pipe Failure

[Agfoxflyer]

On a recent flight I noticed a change in engine noise. I looked down and my EGT had gone to O. I assumed the probe had come out somehow. I was 15 miles from my home airport so I headed direct. By the timeI was down and taxing back to the hanger the engine sound was a comical fast putt-putt-putt. Upon examination, the weld about two inches off the cylindar had failed. It was a clean break of the weld, no crack in the pipe. The welder who fixed it wasn't impressed with the original Skystar factory weld. I remove my top cowling after every 3 flights and now pay special attention to the exhaust pipes. Fortunately for me there was anything close enought to catch fire.

[84KF]

"The welder who fixed it wasn't impressed with the original Skystar factory weld."

Pretty harsh words.
I would suspect improper installation was subjecting the weld area to excess stress.

[Agfoxflyer]

Steve, I know what you are saying. But I do not recall any binding in the system. It went on farely easy. In fact right after I installed the exhaust system, Skystar came out with a service bulletin requiring extra braces on the muffler and tail pipe. I removed it and sent it back to the factory for mods. At this time I removed the entire exhaust system and then reinstalled because I wanted to put anti-seize on all the connections. I used proper torque procedures and the sytem went back together easy. This one weld looked different from the others. I'm not a welder but I believe this one was not right. Other than that it's a fantastic airplane and flies great. I'm just using extra caution because things do break. (I won't blame the break on a couple of my landings!).