Most Plus Twos today sport the standard replacement stainless back box with the 2" diameter tail pipe which can be quite noisy but I believe the original for the late model cars was made by Peco and can be seen on the JPS in the Stoneleigh gallery photos. From the look of it I can’t imagine it’ll be quieter though.
Hi There
I have a used (I believe stainless) back box if you’re interested. It came off my +2 S130. I’ve gone through the Zetec conversion & fitted a new stainless exhaust sytem so I no longer need it. I can send you pictures if you want.
had another look now, the Peco box looke like a Monster, with about half an inch ground clearance… yo sure this is not off a Mitsubishi EVO or something…
The one one Niall’s Zetec on the other hand looks lovely, and such a good fit!.. Niall, where are you, what is it?
It’s true you don’t see many Pecos around these days but they were the Lotus-supplied part on the later S130s. I’m checking to see if they’re still available.
The photo doesn’t show it at its best as the poor JPS is sitting much too low at the rear and the tail pipe should be shiny chrome or stainless. Interested?
Nice, I’ll consider that one, as I don’t think I’ve got a 2" pipe, and the exhaust system is nice, except for the back box which looks sad. Supposedly stainless, but you know…there’s stainless and then there’s stainless…
Shame there’s no picture in your gallery Hamish. Has it got a rolled edge on the pipe?
The way I have the silencer positioned, the back pipe protrudes about 1" beyond the bumper. That seems to minimise the noise inside the car and makes long distance journeys a lot more pleasant.
[quote=“thor”]
but you know…there’s stainless and then there’s stainless…
May be you metalargists out there can cast some light on this, but do some ‘stainless’ systems not have a higher % of mild steel in them to make the material easier to work? ergo, some stainless systems can show corrosion fairly quickly. It’s just that they corrode a hell of a lot slower than their mild steel equivalent.
The stainless box I bought from Matty last Summer already seems to be showing rust on the main weld where the pipe enters the box.
It depends on the type of stainless - basically two types are commonly used for exhausts, austenitic and ferritic
If the stainless is is in the ANSI 300 series then the stainless is austenitic and the ones usually used for exhausts (304 or 316) have 18% Chromium and 8% Nickel, with a bit of molybdenum added in 316.
If it’s in the ANSI 400 series then the stainless is ferritic with 409 being commonly used for exhausts. 409 only has about 11% Chromium and very little nickel. In service they will usually form a rust like coating fairly quickly but they are easy to weld and even press into shape and are subsequently used in a lot of production vehicles for catalyst housings and silencer boxes.
Most exhausts you see on sale for the aftermarket will probably be 304 or 316 but one or two places are offering exhausts with some 409. The reason the 300 series types will corrode on the welds is usually down to a couple of major reasons. The weld will often be done with no shielding gas on the rear of the weld area (either the weld needs to be done in a completely inert atmosphere or you feed gas in via bungs and purge all the air out before you commence welding) - I suspect this is quite common having briefly seen a couple of production facilities in the UK. The other reason is incompatible filler wire is being used. But there are lots of other reasons too, I know someone involved in welding research and he reckons you could write a book on how not to weld or utilise stainless - with exhausts being featured in every chapter!
To my mind stainless exhausts are a huge can of worms - don’t ever buy one without a full guarantee as likely as not you WILL need it sooner rather than later and always keep a spare one to fit (in mild steel) to fit on the car just in case
The silencer just seemed to fit that way. The whole thing was assembled in position before tightening up any joints or mountings. I have a triangular mounting at the fromt of the silencer so there is not too much choice for how to locate the assembly. Feels like the tailpipe was designed that way.
I don’t have any photos to hand but I’ll see if I can take a couple tonight and pop them into my gallery.