The donut gaskets are sort of unique, they age made of a mix of stainless or steel mesh material with a pressed soft metal powder. They are designed to somewhat deform into the bell end of the pipe and seal while also acting like a flexible connection so that engine motion doesn't cause the parts to bind, and they make assembly on the line easy.
There should be no welding needed on the V clamps, they should have bolts that close the clamp down to hold it in place. The ends of the V do nothing so if there is a gap that isn't an issue, the way those work is the V grabs the edges of the cone on each pipe and the gasket between the two pipes gets squeezed to seal the joint. When they are new some will leak a bit until everything works itself into place. Think of the V clamp as acting like a bunch of pliers all around the pipes trying to squeeze them together. The image attached shows a clamp on two stub pipes, in your application the stubs in the picture would be the manifold on one side and the converter on the other. Normally on these you leave them a bit loose, then sort of wobble the connection a bit as you tighten them to get the best fit and seal.
https://www.deedsengineering.com/v-band/ shows how the custom versions work. In your case the flanges are already attached so no welding needed. Just the o-ring gasket because it's a production part not a custom fit item.
Generally I try to just get things snugged up then wiggle and tweak the pieces until they all set in place nice, then go back and tighten everything down while trying not to move the parts. You would be surprised at how annoying it can be if a pipe or muffler is close or touching the body or frame can be.
Image (Click to make bigger)
Friday, June 11th, 2021 AT 5:53 PM
