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Author: Subject: Mild steel exhaust bends needed.
craig1410

posted on 28/7/04 at 08:56 AM Reply With Quote
Mild steel exhaust bends needed.

Hi,
Where, other than custom chrome and demon tweeks can I buy mild steel pre-bent tubing? Specifically I need 1 5/8" (41.28mm) 16swg tubing which has been pre-bent into the tightest possible radius without seriously affecting flow rate. This is the size of pipe used on the output of the Rover V8 SD1 manifold which I am using. I can find places which supply stainless pipe of this size but can't find anyone who does boring old mild steel...

Cheers,
Craig.

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James

posted on 28/7/04 at 09:36 AM Reply With Quote
You tried Lolocost? I seem to remeber they do pieces.

HTH,

James

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craig1410

posted on 28/7/04 at 09:55 AM Reply With Quote
Thanks guys, two good suggestions there. Yes there is a Partco in my home town so I'll try them. I'll also check Lolocost's website tonight.
Cheers,
Craig.

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ChrisJLW

posted on 28/7/04 at 10:09 AM Reply With Quote
http://jetex.co.uk/jetexwebsite/index.html

Should link to both Laser (if you want some bling bling s/s) and Jetex exhaust parts.

Ooops, just realised you're after 1 5/8", oh well might be good for future feference

[Edited on 28/7/04 by ChrisJLW]

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craig1410

posted on 28/7/04 at 08:06 PM Reply With Quote
Syd,
I tried Partco but they only do the flexy stuff now. You know, the convoluted hose type stuff. I'm not sure how far this sort of stuff can be bent but I think I read a spec on one brand of it and it could only achieve about 45 degrees in a length about 10 or 12 inches long. I need tighter turns than that but I'll nip in to Partco on Saturday and take a look at it anyway.

Another thought I have had which I'd appreciate your opinions on is whether it is feasible/sensible to consider using a sort of exhaust "plenum chamber" with a three bolt flange connecting to the manifold and then just take the exit pipe in whatever size I want and at whatever angle is most convenient for me. The Rover V8 isn't the easiest car to tune the exhaust on anyway so I won't lose too much there but I wondered if a plenum chamber would flow better or worse than having a number of quite tight 1 5/8" bends followed by a 2 into 1 collector (1 5/8" in and 2" out). I was thinking of using a piece of 4" or 5" 16swg pipe with the ends closed off as a plenum and just cutting holes in it to suit the input and output pipes.

Have any of you seen such an exhaust system and is it worth considering?

Cheers,
Craig.

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Jon Ison

posted on 28/7/04 at 08:51 PM Reply With Quote
get behind your local exhaust center with an hack saw, the two times ive asked iv'e not been turned away.................






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craig1410

posted on 29/7/04 at 09:19 AM Reply With Quote
Syd,
Yes maybe it is a local thing or maybe the person I spoke to just didn't know what I was talking about... I'll try the Glasgow branch of Partco at lunchtime today. I'm also going to try Viking International in Glasgow who are a big wholesale exhaust supplier.

As suggested above, I may also try a local tyre and exhaust centre and see if they'll give me access to their scrap bin.

Cheers guys,
Craig.

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Bob C

posted on 29/7/04 at 09:33 AM Reply With Quote
Hi craig,
I got some "mild steel weldable elbows" from a local steel supplier in 3mm wall 44mm ID, I can find out who if you want but it wasn't hard to find.
4-2-1 exhaust won't help on the V8 due to weirdo firing order - I did my own bizarre thing on my old V8 with 4 tubes going to the back pairing 2&4 6&8 1&5 3&7 - all these pairs are on 3/5 beat. I'm not convinced this is much cop but it seemed the best I could do within the space constraints on the mx5
cheers
Bob

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mackie

posted on 29/7/04 at 12:12 PM Reply With Quote
quote:
Originally posted by Bob C
Hi craig,
I got some "mild steel weldable elbows" from a local steel supplier in 3mm wall 44mm ID, I can find out who if you want but it wasn't hard to find.
4-2-1 exhaust won't help on the V8 due to weirdo firing order - I did my own bizarre thing on my old V8 with 4 tubes going to the back pairing 2&4 6&8 1&5 3&7 - all these pairs are on 3/5 beat. I'm not convinced this is much cop but it seemed the best I could do within the space constraints on the mx5
cheers
Bob


I think it ends up being 4-2-1 because that's what the standard manifolds give you which is I believe what craig is using...

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Bob C

posted on 29/7/04 at 12:44 PM Reply With Quote
Hah - I thought the standard manifold was "everything into one big pipe" - more like the plenum idea above - but it's a long time since I looked at a standard SDI manifold......
cheers
Bob

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craig1410

posted on 29/7/04 at 04:28 PM Reply With Quote
Yes it's 4-2-1 but each side of the "V" has a different method of combining the 4 into 2. The nearside combines 1-5 and 3-7 which I believe is optimum but the offside combines 2-4 and 6-8 which is not. However, the SD1 manifolds are considered much better than the previous P6 manifolds which is why I am sticking with them. Someday I might build a pair of tubular manifolds...

Cheers,
Craig.

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Bob C

posted on 29/7/04 at 10:39 PM Reply With Quote
Interesting - same cylinder combinations I went for! rover are as daft as me then..... seriously though if you lookat the firing order it's the best of a bad job..
Bob C

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craig1410

posted on 30/7/04 at 12:05 AM Reply With Quote
Bob,
Yes I see now what you mean. I had assumed (incorrectly) that Rover had just compromised the performance of the offside manifold to accommodate an exhaust heated airbox but you are correct, it is a better system due to the exhaust pulse pattern.

For those who can't see what we are meaning, here is a brief explanation:

The firing order is 18436572 with 1 being front left (viewed from drivers seat) and 2 front right. A "text book" engine would fire each primary header pipe once every 8 sparks (10000000) and each secondary header every 4 sparks (10001000). In the case of a side-pipe silencer system each silencer would get an exhaust pulse every 2 sparks (10101010)

However, on the Rover V8 the firing order is a bit wierd due to the fact that it doesn't use a flat-plane crankshaft and so this optimum layout is not possible. The best compromise yields a system where each primary is still fired every 8 sparks (obviously) but each secondary is fired on spark 1 and 6 (10000100)which gives a 5 spark spacing on one half of the cycle and a 3 spark spacing on the other half. The 3 spark spacing doesn't give the exhaust system quite as much time to dissipate the gases although this is made up for to some extent by the 5 spark spacing on the other half of the cycle.

The effect on the silencer is similarly compromised as you get a pulse pattern of 10010110 for every 8 sparks on each side. A balance pipe can be used to link the two sides to help balance out the assymetry and improve performance but I expect this is a tricky system to design effectively and pipe lengths will be critical to success.

By the way I have decided on how to approach my exhaust design after some head scratching tonight. Rather than combine my two secondary pipes (1 5/8" inside the engine bay, I am going to bring the secondary pipes through the bodywork and turn towards the back of the car before I combine them into a 2" pipe using a collector before feeding the silencer.
This is primarily because I can get a tighter bend using 1 5/8" pipe and not having the collector in there, but it should also benefit performance by having longer secondaries. I've found a company in Glasgow (Silencer Distributors Limited) who stock Bosal exhaust components including bends. Hopefully they can help me out.

Cheers,
Craig.

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craig1410

posted on 30/7/04 at 06:49 PM Reply With Quote
Hi,
Just to let you all know, I think I've found the thing I was after. I visited SDL today and got a Bosal "Welding Bend" (Part number 263-638) which is basically a 90 degree bend with a bend radius of about 4" (centreline radius) and a pipe outer diameter of around 42mm. They only had one in stock but have ordered another 7 for me which should be here on Monday. They are only £3.70 or so each so are much cheaper then the likes of Demon Tweeks although these are not mandrel bends and do have some degree of narrowing evident (not much though).

Remarkably, when I arrived, the sales guy just told me to look around the warehouse and see if anything they had was suitable. I wish I'd known about them earlier because they have all shapes and sizes of silencer just hanging there and it would be very easy to find a silencer which was ideal for a Locost using any type of engine. Excellent resource for any other Locost'ers in the Glasgow area.

Cheers,
Craig.


Bosal Welding Bend
Bosal Welding Bend


[Edited on 30/7/2004 by craig1410]

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