which new exhaust to buy?

[jep]

Dropped Zoom at LotusBits this morning, now on the £12 train back to London. Met Dave Sharp who showed me around the store/graveyard of Elite/Éclat/Excel. Its an impressive set up, much cleaner workshop that many a Lotus garage I have attended. Great enthusiasm and I hope for a successful outcome to the impending spend.

[jep]

Update: spoke to Dave and Mike today. Clutch is in a poor way so have been persuaded to fit the replica/reproduction Works Lotus Sunbeam flywheel and Esprit clutch. Plus new cams. With the new exhaust, the engine should breath a lot better. We will see.

[DWH]

Old thread I know but seemed the most relevant as my question is about the Lotus Bits big bore manifold and system. I too kmy Excel out for a run this evening and on the way back home whilst on full throttle, the exhaust note suddenly went very deep and on returning home....not far thankfully.....the nearside rear silencer has parted company from the system.
As many have mentioned on the forum, the system is stainless but the fittings are mild steel and the clamp has totally rusted through.
So I'm in the camp of needing a full system. The Lotus Bits big bore looks to business but I heard that you need to remove the engine to fit the manifold. Is this correct ?
I don't feel up to pulling the engine out so another option would be to buy the Lotus bits system and have a custom made adapter to fit the existing manifold or have a system made by http://www.demandengineering.co.uk who made a beautiful system for a Scimitar I had and have coincidentally replaced the flexi pipe on the excel less than a month ago. They can make a 2.5" system for approx £650 and I don't have any concerns about the quality of their work.
Any thoughts ?
Cheers

[MrCoolA]

One of the big things with mike's system is the manifold. You can increase the exhaust diameter and it will help but you will still have a big restriction with the original manifold. I would suggest the full system and talk to mike about fitting costs.

[fueltheburn]

Tight is the word.
5mm play between the body if you are lucky.
You have have to cut a small half moon into body to clear + I had to use a 3 mm aluminium spacer on the engine mount to gain a little more clearance for good measure.

Removing the old manifold can also be a pain in the proverbials.
Much, much easier when engine is out.

Good quality system though - wish I had saved my money and bought it in the first place instead of the in between system when I first bought the car under the same situation as you David.

[alanbell]

I had a 421 manifold and exhaust fitted by pnm. done with the engine in but the car was returned, due to my schedule, with one bolt on the manifold not fitted, it took me 9 hours and a very sore and swollen hand to get that single bolt in. take the engine out I reckon that my time and pete's was probably 27 hours and that was without any problems getting the old manifold off.

[don.hasi]

DWH: how much life rests in your clutch? In my case the clutch has to be changed, so this was one affair (the Mrs has had some concerns about my logic at this point though )


We all know afterwards, that the shorter, but harder way was not the way to choose when the wise men said do this or that first... been there, done that a million times mayself ... But I would tend to believe, free the engine is really the way to go.

At the end the result every time you push the throttle will make you smile over it

[DWH]

Thanks for everyone's response....there's clearly a vote in favour of the Lotus Bits big bore system and it is good to hear such universal approval for the system.
Only downside is the cost, system only £500 + VAT, Manifold only £850 + VAT, combined £1200 + VAT and manifold and system fitted is £1,600 + VAT which equals just shy of £2,000. Whilst that may be the best option, I considering getting just the big bore system and, until such time as the engine has to come out, having a custom front pipe made to link existing manifold to the new system.
Then when the engine comes out or I'm flush enough to give the car to Lotus Bits or brave enough to tackle the job myself, I can buy and fit the big bore manifold and possible sell on the custom front pipe to someone else to whom £2000 in one hit is too much money.
Does that sound sensible or cheap skate ?

[don.hasi]

At the end more cash spent but sounds like a plan to me