Fae ?

[jaywidhalm]

Nice work!

[kvand347]

I made mine out of pvc the other day. Water tested it yesterday and it fell off in the drink. The only pieces left were the T and the down spout (They were the only ones attached). My fatal error was using old glue. I don't think it melded the pvc together and thus pulled apart while under load. Back to the drawing board! One difference is that I used 4" instead of 3". Might try the 3" on the next run.

[CornRickey]

I would not " pinch" it do much also on the next one.

[kvand347]

So I made another one with 3" PVC. It was the regular PVC and not the DMW that I used previously. Again, it did not stay on. It pulled off at the rubber mounting to the boat. I'm done screwing around with it! I give up!! There is just too much drag on the PVC to keep it on without some sort of insert into the original exhaust pipe. After it came off, I just left it on until I got to the beach. By then the drag on it split the "T" and it was rendered useless. I GIVE UP!

[trayson]

So I made another one with 3" PVC. It was the regular PVC and not the DMW that I used previously. Again, it did not stay on. It pulled off at the rubber mounting to the boat. I'm done screwing around with it! I give up!! There is just too much drag on the PVC to keep it on without some sort of insert into the original exhaust pipe. After it came off, I just left it on until I got to the beach. By then the drag on it split the "T" and it was rendered useless. I GIVE UP!

Damn that sucks. We're planning on trying our own DIY soon and have been drawing up plans. It's good to know that simply
using a rubber coupler to attach to the exhaust flange lip isn't good enough.

What I plan to do is as follows. I'm going to buy another pair of the 3.5" exhaust flanges. For the purposes of this discussion, I'm going to talk about the flange in 3 parts. The short pipe (yellow), the long pipe (red) and the face (the part with the screw holes through it).


I'm going to take the OEM flange and chop off the short pipe (yellow), and I'm going to buy a new flange and likewise chop off the short pipe from it. so then I'll have the OEM flange with about 3" of long pipe that's attached inside the boat to the wet exhaust hose. I'll flip around the new flange so that the faces butt up against each other and the screw holes line up. I'll get longer screws if needed and put in a 3.5" Inside Diameter gasket or I'll make my own "gasket" with RTV and then I'll screw the two faces together.

What this will give me is a 3" long tube with a 3.5" OD to which I can attach the rest of the FAE to. I will then get some 3.5" ID wet exhaust hose and use that as a coupler for the rest of the FAE system that will basically look the same as yours. Since I'll have 3" of the (red) long tube sticking out from the new backwards flange, that will give me the ability to double hose clamp onto the straight PVC that leads to the first elbow. This is how the real FAE is set up, so it seems to make sense that it would work for me. I think it will be important (knowing your experiences) to brace the crap out of it even when testing.

Kevin, sorry yours isn't working out thus far. I'm sure more failed prototypes, the close you get to having bought a real FAE system in the first place.
I guess your test runs are proving my suspicions--that the 1" short pipe "lip" (yellow) is NOT enough to have the system stay in place (as there's only room for 1 hose clamp at best).

if you look at this writeup, I'm pretty much copying the idea of using flanges on the FAE side, just taking another pair of OEM flanges and cutting off the (yellow) 1" short pipe that comes off it.
http://www.wakeworld.com/MB/Discus/m...19/433197.html

[kvand347]

That just might work. I used 3 hose clamps. One on each side and one in the middle. I think i tightened them too much because they bent the "short" pipe. That might have been my downfall.

My thought for correction would be to find something that will insert into the flange to give it more strength, but I think I like yours better.

I'll tell you what though, before it came off it was QUIET! Wow what a difference it makes. I had to lift the dog house up just to make sure it was running!

[CornRickey]

mine came with a stub of pipe that slid into the flange you talking about cutting off. this is what the clamp actually tightens down on. If it wasn't there the flange woulddeflect if and it would fall off.

[trayson]

mine came with a stub of pipe that slid into the flange you talking about cutting off. this is what the clamp actually tightens down on. If it wasn't there the flange woulddeflect if and it would fall off.

In kevin's case I can see how putting a stub pipe inside the flange would help, because yes, that 1" short pipe (yellow) is not very strong. Look at mine and all that I have on there is the flappers!



Well, I'm only talking about cutting off a portion of that flange. so that we basically have a face-to-face connection.

I suppose as an alternative, I could get the next sized down flange that has a 3" OD. I could still chop off the yellow short pipe of my OEM flange and then use the smaller 3" OD one without cutting it. That would effectively stick a 1" short pipe into the boat's existing flange...

Of course the 3" OD flange is $15 instead of $10 each. Not that $10 is a dealbreaker in the project...

[trayson]

That just might work. I used 3 hose clamps. One on each side and one in the middle. I think i tightened them too much because they bent the "short" pipe. That might have been my downfall.

My thought for correction would be to find something that will insert into the flange to give it more strength, but I think I like yours better.

I'll tell you what though, before it came off it was QUIET! Wow what a difference it makes. I had to lift the dog house up just to make sure it was running!

Kevin, another thought:

if the 3.5" OD of the longer pipe (red) of the new flange is perfect to mate with an elbow or whatever, then we certainly could skip the wet exhaust hose as a coupler and either:

1) go straight to the elbow if we have enough space to have everything clear the wake plate, or
2) use a PVC coupler to the straight 3" pvc pipe to the elbow.

Either of these options would mean that everything would be cemented together and there would be no hose clamps at all... The screws of the one flange face to the other would be the force that would hold the FAE onto the boat...

Food for thought anyway.

[CornRickey]

the idea of the stub pipe is to pinch the fae onto the short flexible section using the stub pipe as it's rigid backing. mine is tbe same way as you pictures.