When you say "bolt close to engine", did you do something other than use the normal mounting bracket?... what I'm wondering (of course) is if theres a chance that some odd angle or undue stress caused the cracks...

 

I use the notch on the z tube bracket with no modification. Since the notch is long you can adjust the location of the bolt on the notch. I place the bolt on the end of the notch which placing the tube on the closest setting to the engine. I hope that make sense

Now I have another problem, the SES light came up. I think it’s because I cleaned the MAF sensor, I wish I read the posts about it before I did it. I’ll go to Auto Zone to get the code read.