Mild steel exhaust?

Tor

Tor

Well-Known Member
Hi all,

Well, my exhaust bloke said he can't make up a middle silencer replacement at all, not even for mild performance enhancement. I don't get it - they're specialists, like - but anyway I'll have to look elsewhere for a stock pair of 3500S silencers (middle and rear can), preferably new ones. JRW can deliver the rear one in mild steel, but I can't find the main one anywhere. Too many people have raised noise issues with S/S systems for me to go for one. Any advice or a suitable set of performance silencers would be of interest!
 
Hello Tor,

Stainless steel develops more of a ring to it, especially when used for the down pipes. The exhaust system comprises a muffler followed by the resonator out the back.

There are ample off the shelf mufflers available to do the job, both in the baffled plate design as used in the OEM Rover mufflers along with mufflers which feature a variety of straight through designs.
The former will keep exhaust noise to a minimum, whilst the latter offer an improvement in performance along with an increase in the V8 sound.

Off the shelf mufflers have no brackets attached, so the muffler man will shape and weld brackets to suit. The muffler man that I used had no problem at all, so maybe you might need to find another chap.

I run a straight through muffler in mild steel and a stainless steel resonator or cannon as it is now called. With the 4.6, it sounds amazing,..really deep and much much louder than the standard OEM system... :D

Some people may well frown, but I love the sound of a deep thumping V8.

Ron.
 
I've noticed the problem with the stainless downpipes on my car being noisy.

I've just bought some of the fabric heat proof wrap that is sold by the performance shops. I'm hoping that wrapping them will help to damp out the slightly harsh sound on acceleration.
 
My exhaust has caused me nothing but problems. :evil:

I have tubular headers made from stainless, which give off so much heat that they have melted everything under the bonnet (ok not everything but engine mounts, various rubbers and hoses).

The down pipes are restrictive as they turn a sharp 90 degree angle and are too small. The rest of the system is the small bore 3500 system except for a 54mm tail pipe.

I have had a complete system made now with powerflow silencers (Straight through) which make it burble a little more but is no more noisy than it was. The headers and front section are being ceramic coated to stop everything cooking as I drive past.

They were wrapped up to a week ago and this did help a lot.

100_8118.jpg
 
Hi guys,

Quattro, those headers look pretty serious with the wrap on... Good to hear that it sorted your heat issue out. What you describe sound-wise with your new system seems to be just what I'm after - not loud, but commanding... 8) Do you still have both a muffler and resonator in roughly the stock locations? If you think I can make it work with the stock Y pipe in 2,25", would you have a reference no. or dimensions? The idea is to make the car breathe a little better and be more receptive to a few light mods as we go along.
 
The silencers look exactly as they did before, and are in the same place.

They are however, straight through boxes and are on a slightly larger bore pipe. The car responds a lot better and feels a lot less 'strangled' than before.

I don't have any dimensions at the moment as the manifolds and front Y section are in a factory in Warrington being ceramic coated.

The noise is only slightly louder, but is certainly a lot more tuned to the engine than the original system. I will measure the diameter of the front section when it gets back. The primaries are 1 3/4, or so I am told.

The Y section that was on there joined together a long way down the car, and was therefore quite wide. It was very close to the side of the centre tunnel and caused a lot of radiated heat into the car. The new one joins up underneath the gearbox and will be heat proofed anyway so another little problem gone. When it gets coated, and the engine has been out and painted, it should all look very nice under here.

This is the company the siencers came from : - http://www.powerflowexhausts.co.uk/products/silencers/

And this is what the front section looked like when fitted.
100_8124.jpg


I have only driven the car about ten miles with the new exhaust on, so i'll let you know better when it has covered a few miles.
 
Hello Tor,

If you change your exhaust system pipe diameter and fit a flow through muffler (the resonator is already a straight flow through) thus allowing the exhaust to flow better, do be aware that your engine will now run leaner than before. Any change to air filters or the exhaust sytem in an otherwise standard car will see a flow on effect. So although the car may sound better, you may need to use more throttle to achieve the same result speed wise as you achieved previously.

Nothing is simple unfortunately... :(

Fitting tubular manifolds although making the car louder will often see no performance advantage until engine speed exceeds 4000rpm or more. Pipe diameter is crucial and 1.5" is essentially the maximum that should be contemplated for a 3.5 litre engine.

Tubular manifolds can also be detrimental to the performance of a car running an automatic transmission, especially for normal everyday driving, where engine speeds are below 4000 rpm.

Ron.
 
SydneyRoverP6B said:
Hello Tor,

Stainless steel develops more of a ring to it, especially when used for the down pipes. much much louder than the standard OEM system... :D

Some people may well frown, but I love the sound of a deep thumping V8.

Ron.
Click to expand...

Many years ago fitted a partial copper system in a Volkswagon beatle far worse than stainles, you could hear the thing ringing way before you could see the car, very distinctive sound though.

Graeme
 
Thanks a lot for the input! I'll see if I can work my way through the Powerflow site.

Ron, my old car had a made-up system on it with two mufflers (as opposed to one + resonator). So when I managed to blow a hole through the middle one I sourced a correct original to replace it, which made the car quieter and much less responsive. This also stole a good bit of low-end torque. I have not yet driven an 'S' with a correct stock exhaust - they've all had aftermarket/made-up systems so not exactly sure how 'good' stock would be.

What I want is to use the stock 2 1/4" Y section and fit performance cans to it, getting the exhaust bloke to make up an adaptor. I just read about an Audi owner having had a Powerflow system made up by the same guy... You wouldn't have a photo showing the shape and fitment of the middle box would you?

Graeme - my first car was a 1303S and I had a twin-silencer performance exhaust fitted at one stage (before I sourced a Porsche 356 TC engine that used 2l of oil a week and spat flames). One of the cans had a muffler in it, the other was empty. It sounded awful and looked a bit stupid but I was 18... :LOL:
 
Hello Tor,

The performance muffler that I had installed is essentially in the same position as the OEM issue, but is smaller in diameter. I don't have a photo at present, so I'll organize to take one and post it on here by the end of the weekend.

Retaining the cast manifold and stock downpipes, but replacing the OEM with a performance muffler will certainly allow the exhaust to flow better.

Ron.
 
Thanks, look forward to that. I just found out that my local exhaust bloke actually carries Powerflow, and he couldn't figure one to fit. I'd have to leave the county to find someone else and that isn't feasible at the moment.

At this point it looks most likely I'll go for a set of S/S silencer/resonator from JRW, given that the downpipes are the crucial component iro. internal noise. Does anyone have experience with these or similar, compared to stock? Good sound out the back?
 
Update: Mild steel exhaust?

Fitted a 2/3 stainless exhaust from Rover Classics today. The system looks great, well manufactured and the fit was as good as I had hoped, came with attachment hooks and a bracket for the new bump stop. The old units came out with plenty holes and the baffles had come loose inside the main can. Starting the car up was great. It's a bit quiet but I think I can get used to it...
 
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