So what you are saying is most manufactures are making their pipes wrong? Every pipe I have ever had the baffle fits the opening it mounts in. There should be no flow past the baffle the flow should be through it. And yes I do know more than a little about this, I have been in this business for over 30 years and went to school for it.
If you need flow past the baffle then the design is wrong and the amount of gas able to flow through it should be increased.
Lets take Triumph pipes for an example since many here have seen those. Show me where there is one of their pipes either TOR or stock that has an ill fitting baffle allowing gases to flow out past the outside edge. I could point to many other after market pipes for HD and other to make the same example but I figured with this crowd Triumph is the best example. The baffle should be a snug fit to the outside of the pipe and the exhaust gases should flow through it and the packing and out the hole in the baffle not bypassing around the outside of the mounting. It is simply shoddy workmanship, no way around it. And to say you are right and the entire exhaust manufacturing world is wrong is ridiculous.
If you intended to make gases go around the outside edge you should have put spacers on 3 or 4 sides similar to the single spacer NorthEast1 used to fix the problem. Or as in the Suzuki design a flanged plate for the baffle mounting to go into snugly and bolt to that instead of flopping around in the pipe with a 1/4" to 1/2" gap on one side if snugged down. To say you shouldn't tighten it down is not a good thing either since the nut would then vibrate off as happened to a member above and then lose the baffle. You are not going to win this, you know what I am saying is true and correct. If you do in fact make the baffles then you should correct them, if you need flow at the outside through the packing make the mounting plate fit the pipe and put holes in that. You were right when you stated above, it isn't rocket science.
