Exhaust Question

[Xodius]

I wanted to get some of your opinions on exhaust pipes. My 2002 Jeep Liberty (KJ) has a borla cat back exhaust but this weekend I removed one of the exhaust legs. Why...well I was going to weld up a bracket to stop it from rattling and noticed it needed to be adjusted some. I tweaked it and when I was done the pipe was only about 1" max from my gas tank. This did not sit well with me so I took it off and currently have one pipe going out the back and the other pointed to the ground shortly after the muffler but still under the vehicle. My question for you is, would you or do you have your exhaust pipe empty under your vehicle or do you have it ported out to the rear or side (away from the vehicle)?
My concern is leakage into the passenger compartment. I do not think it is all that likely but a second or third opinion never killed anyone
Thanks.

[tommudd]

I know of several who have theirs just drop off right at the muffler on KJs. I ran mine like that for a while. What I don't like is on dusty trails it blows so much dust up from underneath even though the turn down was angled off to the side. Also when in 3 foot of water it really bubbled up!
So now I have it almost to the back bumper again, comes out right about the back edge of the rear tire. With the bottom of the rear bumper cut off it works great

[Chazz Layne]

I'm not familiar with where the muffler is on a KJ, but if it is far enough back with a good angle there shouldn't be any issues with fumes getting into the passenger compartment. Mine currently sits inside the frame rail about 1.5 feet forward of the back wall, and a 45-degree turn-down is plenty for the exhaust to be well behind the vehicle before it starts to rise back up.

You might want to try it out first with some of the cheap, flexible exhaust tubing they sell at Kragen/AutoZone and the like. As long as the gasses are making it out from under the vehicle, and aren't heating up anything on the vehicle (watch out for the plastic fuel tank), you should be fine. Test this at idle of course, since that is when the problem is most likely to happen.

[Xodius]

I'm not familiar with where the muffler is on a KJ, but if it is far enough back with a good angle there shouldn't be any issues with fumes getting into the passenger compartment. Mine currently sits inside the frame rail about 1.5 feet forward of the back wall, and a 45-degree turn-down is plenty for the exhaust to be well behind the vehicle before it starts to rise back up.

You might want to try it out first with some of the cheap, flexible exhaust tubing they sell at Kragen/AutoZone and the like. As long as the gasses are making it out from under the vehicle, and aren't heating up anything on the vehicle (watch out for the plastic fuel tank), you should be fine. Test this at idle of course, since that is when the problem is most likely to happen.

The exhaust is just inside the frame with the muffler under the rear passenger seat...or really close. The exhaust tips if on directly after the muffler would have the exhaust just before the rear axle by about...3".