[Bob Bidonde]

The gland rings have a gap in them, so they are not capable of supporting anything. Those rings prevent burnout of the copper gaskets. Ford added a rib to the exhaust manifold in an attempt to keep it from failing / sagging. In my opinion, the exhaust would benefit from an additional support in front of the muffler. However, the support would have to allow motion of the exhaust pipe just as the existing support clamp does.