Side exit (hidden) exhaust

Morning guys,

I'm having a good think about exhaust options before I finally pull the trigger on one. There's a few options open to me; buy a second hand one from Bob (2-1/2" - 3" £??), get a full 3" system made locally (~£500) OR get a front/side exit made up in 3" (£??). Its this last option that I'm seriously considering.

At the moment the exhaust fitted to the car is slowly crumbling away and is quite loud and backfires/pops a lot. So the thought of having a different loud system on the car doesn't really frighten me much. I don't use the car for long distances or intend on tracking the car.

My thoughts are to have a 90° bend coming from the elbow, joining to as big a silencer as would fit and then having the 'tailpipe' come out of the silencer at 90° pointing at the deck. Whats maybe different about this is I think there's room to get the silencer underneath and just in front of the alternator, pointing directly towards the front of the OSF wheel arch. I would hope this would maybe help keep noise levels down a bit and would keep the plod away from the car. Hopefully this would keep gasses and flames away from any bits of the car as well.

Has anyone ever terminated their exhaust INSIDE the wheel arch area before? Can anyone think of any issues I might have in doing this?
Just how loud are 3" side exits with only one box? I had a goose on my last R and tolerated that for years so might be ok...

cheers for now,

mike

I bought a front exit of bob a while ago, fitted it to see just how well my car would go and it made a hell of a difference! Down side was it was horrifically loud, I couldn't drive around in the summer with it and the window down for the noise and exhaust fumes. I also had to cut front bumper but it was an old shabby one any way. If you have neighbours or running it on the road you will get a lot of nasty looks, don't know what the mot man would say as I only had it fitted for three months. I eventually had a full three inch system turbo back made up and its a lot more bearable and performance wise is pretty good too. hope this helps

I've always been a fan of the full goose systems as far as off the shelf stuff goes - just really like the sound they produce - i have one on mine - but you already know what that's like....
Side exit or similar to me is pretty hardcore - from the one's I've seen they've always been really loud and look cool but wouldn't be my preference.
You're idea about the tail pipe towards the deck - you'd have to have what at least 6-8 inches including the bend in imagine - i wonder if this could be a clearance risk ?
Companies that do custom systems are pretty good these days as you can really tailor the size, bore, tail pipe(s) volume - they can design very close to what you want but might come with a cost ?

I dont think you would have any room to do it in the wheel arch I have seen side exit silencers having to be cut to get wheel clearance. Partpete has one on his may be able to video or shed some light on it.

But for me its not something i would ever have again

Thanks for the feedback guys! So it seems the front exit is a no no for daily use then...oh well. I was working on the R yesterday and on closer inspection there isnt really enough room in there for a box anyway.
Guess i beter start saving my pennies then.

Cheers again fellas

If it’s a daily don’t do it, you will regret it. If it’s the odd weekend toy then yes. Your neighbours will hate you.

cheers for that Pete...they probably hate me already though! :p

Side exit here as well.
116db at idle, so you can tell how loud it will be when under load.
I can be heard coming home around 3 miles away if I'm on the juice.
Fumes, insane. Can't drive with my window down too long.
Can't start it early morning, weekends or late evenings.

But the sound and comments you get... makes up for it all. Scares the shit out of everyone with a tap of the juice pedle and looks the dogs bollocks.

ok, you're not making this an easy choice now! :p

Don't waste your time with front exit for road car if used a lot and don't want hassle from police or neighbours.
decent 3" system and even 2.5" more than fine if made well with quality silencers and thoughtful route .

FPSChris wrote:Side exit here as well.
116db at idle, so you can tell how loud it will be when under load.
I can be heard coming home around 3 miles away if I'm on the juice.
Fumes, insane. Can't drive with my window down too long.
Can't start it early morning, weekends or late evenings.

But the sound and comments you get... makes up for it all. Scares the shit out of everyone with a tap of the juice pedle and looks the dogs bollocks.

after reading that i want one.

Just get a 3" system then when the police bumrape you your able to put a silencer in and quiet it down.

^^^ lol!

There is another way of having a side exit with minimal noise and good flow capabilities

Il be making one to go on the Rasheen

Is that one that exits just in front of the rear wheel Bob, or near the front somewhere?

Don’t get me wrong, it’s sounds awesome and you can hear the turbo whistling constantly, the flames that come out at times are just daft, and the comments and looks etc are pretty good. But starting it early in the morning in a quiet area (trust me on this as I know) you will piss off a lot of people! Saying that I’m not that fond of my neighbours so.....
My neighbour actually collared me in ther garden this year and said me starting my car has actually scared his daughter on a few occasions etc, the guy is total dick so I told him nothing will change and to do one. Food for thought......

mike74 wrote:Is that one that exits just in front of the rear wheel Bob, or near the front somewhere?

Yes just in front of rear wheel
not got time to explain now but can be made much quieter and free flowing.
Soon as i get a bit more time il show you how!

got the old girl booked in for Friday afternoon for a full 3" lum, can't wait!
will post some shiny porn once its fitted

Sounds good will look forward to some Shiney exhaust porn then lol

Have you decided against the side exit then?

yeah I decided against it. side/front exit might well be cheaper to make but would be too loud and a biatch to fit

Like I said if it was a daily you’d regret it! Good choice

Well, I'm now sporting 3" of stainless steel Powerflow loveliness on my R and WOW, what a difference!!

When I first got to the place I was called over to discuss what I wanted. The first concern was that the downpipe to turbo flange that they wanted to re-use wasn't the correct size. The fabricator scuttled off at this point and came back sporting a brand new 3" universal 3 bolt flange; result!
We then moved to the back of the car and I was told that it was unlikely that they could fit a 3" section where it kinked over the rear subframe....balls. I asked them to do what they could and at the very least to run the 3" section back as far as they could and IF they needed to, to step down in size. Anyway after a bacon n egg roll, a cup of coffee and a solo shopping trip I came back to find 3" all the way back  
The fabricator said it was pretty tight but he managed regardless, and did a very good job of it too.
On the way home I let it warm up and then gave it a stab in 3rd gear to be presented with 1.5 bar boost
I didn't boot it the rest of the way home!! I reset the MBC last night and all is well with the world once more. It just goes to show how truly shit the original exhaust actually was. I took a couple of pictures of it before it went in the skip (see last two photos). I was shocked at how small diameter the pipe generally was. In fact at one location (where it was close to the rear subframe) this tiny MacDonalds straw had a flat pressed into it for extra clearance! I honestly reckon at this point it wouldn't have even been a full 2" diameter. The exhaust in my old mini is bigger than that!
Anyway, enough blabbing, here's some shiny porn:

Pleased you eventually got it sorted Mike

Have you got a 3'' turbo elbow?
Also looks like that system is mild steel unless im mistaken? If so thats not a bad thing as theres much less resonation compared to stainless and they sound so much better.

Lucky you have an antidive kit fitted to front arb otherwise you get knocking issues every time you accelerate and decelerate, ive seen some that have been bent in by arb to stop this
which is crazy and defeats the point in having 3''

Is that a stock system you have scrapped? If so then i suggest you dig it back out the skip as its probably worth more than the other system youve just had made lol

ohhh yeah, I've got a Bogdan 3" elbow fitted too. Its been on for the past 6 months but only now have I really noticed any difference with it.

I paid (a lot) for stainless so it had better be rust proof or else!

I don't have anti-dive fitted to it (AFAIK anyway), just uprated poly bushes on the front ARB. Would that be beneficial to the car? It does vibrate a little against the ARB but not too unbearable...

TBH Bob there wasn't really much left of the original to salvage. The rear silencer had been removed before I bought the car and the rest of it was as rotten as a pear. Plus it looked fugly too; glad to see (& hear) the back of it!