Rich, a headsup for your mechanic or for your preflight check. generally the muffler will break out like that when the tailpipe clamp is too tight. The tailpipe is hung from the firewall and the muffler attached to the engine But, the engine moves a lot on its mounts and if the clamp is tight there is no give where tailpipe slips over muffler stub pipe. When correct one should be able to move the back end of tailpipe inches in all directions. Hope that helps.

maules.com wrote:Rich, a headsup for your mechanic or for your preflight check. generally the muffler will break out like that when the tailpipe clamp is too tight. The tailpipe is hung from the firewall and the muffler attached to the engine But, the engine moves a lot on its mounts and if the clamp is tight there is no give where tailpipe slips over muffler stub pipe. When correct one should be able to move the back end of tailpipe inches in all directions. Hope that helps.

Thanks for the tip.

I don't want to throw anyone under the bus without absolute certainty, so I'm not going to name names, but I'm pretty sure this issue was caused by an improper repair a few months prior.

rw2 wrote:I don't want to throw anyone under the bus without absolute certainty, so I'm not going to name names, but I'm pretty sure this issue was caused by an improper repair a few months prior.

Confirmed. They damaged it when attempting the previous repair by forcing the pipe off the muffler. But it wasn't them, it was sent out. So I don't know who to blame, even if I wanted to name names.

Anyway, stuff happens, I guess this is just another example if why things often happen immediately after being serviced.