Transverse Exhaust Box woes

[Peter +2]

Thanks to Dave, AKA Bigvalvehead, I now have a NOS early Elan+2 transverse Exhaust box.

Several people here including myself have experienced badly fitting Stainless Steel exhausts systems as supplied by the usually excellent main retailers. I think these are made but Double S but I could be wrong.

My woes began when I needed to remove the centre pipe and box and ended up cutting the original mild steel centre pipe in two or more pieces which I threw out before the new one from PM arrived.

Needless to say after much huffing and puffing, it eventually fitted but with the end result the exhaust pipe was more or less at 30 degrees to the ground.

Whilst I have blamed my limp exhaust on the SS centre pipe I think think the SS box is partly to blame. So far I have two and both were the same.

Now I have a the NOS item you can see significant differences.

Pic 1 shows the two boxes side by side. the NOS item is on the left.

Lying flat on the ground the NOS item "box" is almost horizontal and the pipe sits about 5mm / 1/4 inch above the ground, whereas the pipe of the SS item is lifting the box about 5mm / 1/4 inch off the ground. So in total there must be a total difference in alignment of about 10mm / 1/2 inch. See Pic 2.

With the box lying on the floor in the same position Pic 3 shows the brackets to be vertical on the NOS item,

Where pic 4 shows the SS items bracketry to be inclined.

Pick 5 is on the Pipe side with again the NOS item on the left clearly shows the that the box of the NOS item sits horizontally with the brackets vertical compared the the SS items.

So far the test assembly is looking good and the pipe horizonatal, once the new hanging straps arrive I will do a final fit and post he results.

I hope others find this useful.

Best to all and of course Happy Christmas and of course thanks to Dave.

Peter

[bigvalvehead]

Hi Peter
Glad it was ok
Cheers
Dave

[MarkDa]

And the real shame is that when we point out that parts don't fit properly we get told that they are exact copies and that no one else has problems!
I've even been told that their own mechanics say the parts are fine.
I'd be asking for my money back on the SS system in this case.

[spridget]

Hi
Not sure it 's a good news !
I need the same box, Dave do you have another one ?
I'm now afraid to order one from the usual suppliers !
Franck

[Bigbaldybloke]

I?ve had an ss box for a long time but ended up fitting it to the original mild steel centre pipe as the bends weren?t right. While it?s off this time I?m going to cut and reweld the centre pipe so it fits. Tried heating and bending it but couldn?t manage it. While it?s off I?m fabricating a heat shield to go inside the recess in the boot floor, I?m using the dimpled aluminium heat shield sheet you can buy in many places and cutting and bending it to a cardboard template I made to fit the recess.

[MarkDa]

I suspect that Susan Miller is a good source because I think she keeps NOS as a pattern to copy.

[Peter +2]

I was out and about yesterday so was unable to respond to many of the comments,

Dave, you are most welcome, your nest of old parts is causing some debate

MarkDa, the two previous SS boxes I had picked up second hand, I suspect they were from a parts cars so no come back there.

My take away from this is that changing to a SS exhaust is probably not going to be the DIY job it should be. Any one contemplating changing to an SS system for a early Plus 2 should book the car into their local exhaust master craftsman (which are in ever reducing supply) and be prepared for several hours of Inter-pipe bending and messing to make it all fit.

I will post final picks of my non-SS box when the new straps arrive.

Cheers

Pete

[Peter +2]

Well all fitted and I am very pleased.

The Pipe is now more or less hoziontal, again the slight misalignment is down to the intermediate pipe.

I used 3.5" rubber straps to attach the box and found it easier to attach the straps to the box first rather than the body work which I tried to do first.

Regards

Peter

[Bigbaldybloke]

I agree about the order of assembly, I really struggled to trial fit the silencer with the straps first bolted to the body, I managed it after much muttering, but will try your sequence when I finally fit it. I did the trial fit to check that my heat shield didn?t foul the ss silencer and it seems ok although I didn?t have the centre pipe in place due to the way I have the car supported on a beam across the car on top of axle stands. This beam is in the way at the moment but I?ve still got some more work to do under the car so am leaving it supported this way for a bit longer. For info I?ve attached a couple of pics of my heat shield which I wanted as the boot floor was showing some signs of overheating at some stage in the past. I noticed that on my trial fit the tail pipe was higher at the rear than yours, probably a couple of inches, does anyone have measurements or pictures to confirm where it should be?

[pharriso]

Love your heat shield, what material is this & where did you buy it from?

[Bigbaldybloke]

The material is called Nimbus Lite aluminium and I bought it via eBay from Demon Tweaks, but several others supply it in various sizes.
It?s very easy to cut and work with, leave about a centimetre extra and fold it back on itself at the edges.
I just made a cardboard template and worked to that.

Cheers
Simon

[Peter +2]

Simon

Very impressive heat shielding.

Just to explain a little more about the order of installation. One downside with NOS item was that the fixings for the straps did not have ?nuts? loosely secured to them like the SS exhaust. It was therefore almost impossible to install bolts washers and nuts from underneath as I had been able to do before. I am sure there may be a knack to it, but with my pork-fingers I had no choice but to change tack!

Cheers

Peter