Second pic shows how far the downpipes have to be moved over to gain alignment
Third pic shows that shoving the mufflers on as hard as I can, without using a big hammer, there’s still a gap in the clamp/crush area that cannot be sealed due to misalignment
Anyone have any experience of this and or perhaps point out something stupid I’ve done to cause the problem…and of course will welcome any suggestions to correct…I refuse to do surgery on this brand new system!
Hi Les, I just went through the exact same thing a couple months back. Got them through xks.
There was a slight difference between the offset of the connection pipes, takes look , that helped some. Then I vigorously over flexed the flex joint to gain some more lateral adjustment. With all that I found that subtle rotation of the connector pipes, allowed them to enter the mufflers. An ample dose, of a large deadblow hammer, and a generous distribution filthy talk was also required.
I think so, but am not certain. It’s whatever xks unlimited sells, and I think that is bell. 10-15 degrees of rotation on the connecting pipes, made the biggest difference. It was surprising. Also, stainless really likes to gall. Helps to file the edges of the male tube to a soft radius.
It’s a 2+2 so the mufflers can be moved in their brackets, unlike a FHC in which the muffler bodies are welded to the brackets. Could you move the mufflers forward? That assumes you have sufficient overlap at the rear of the muffler to intermediate pipe and intermediate pipe to resonator connections to move the mufflers forward.
I’ve always installed the downpipes - loosely, than the mufflers, than the intermediate pipes and then the resonators. Bolt everything up loosely. Once I’m satisfied with the alignment and overlap on all the pipes and there is no strain on any joint I start tightening, starting at the manifold to downpipe connection and work my way back.
John,
Thanks for the input, yep, test fit all parts and when satisfied that all are where they should be, mark relative positions with felt tip. Lock up downpipes, back under car, take everything apart, smother with sealing compound and reassemble…I wish it were that straightforward in this case! We have calls into Bell to see what their opinion is.
Moving the mufflers forward wont help, in fact it would just make things worse and anyway, their position is pretty much fixed by the solid mounting of the downpipes. Plenty of room for adjustment at the back.
The system is extremely well made, very nice to look at. My view is that there’s something wrong with the welding/bending jigs. Karl’s and my systems are made by different manufacturers yet have the same problem. I suspect the jigs are at fault but hey, I hope I’m wrong and Bell will come back and say “do this and that and all will be well”…not holding my breath though.
I’ve owned several Brit cars over the years. MGA, TR4, Austin, …the Jag, is way ahead of the field in my opinion, but that’s not to say it all fits up well. I’ve got two years in this car, and it mostly seems to need a lot of finessing to do damn near anything…barely anything " bolts up"… really that’s been a lot of the fun…and frustration… And it’s almost surprising, that eventually with patience and work, these things can be made right… I too was pretty annoyed at the " fit, when I got mine, and if I were hand forming the exhaust I would have made them a little different, but I got them in after day of fiddling and compromising… they look great.
I fitted a Bell thinking they were about as good as you can get.
I took 7/8" and 3/4" out of the down pipes. I also had to pie-cut the first bend in the down pipes and pie-cut the lead-ins at the mufflers to get the pipes parallel to the ground.
NOW there’s proper clearance under the car.
This shows it installed out-of-the-box. Totally unacceptable:
In my case the real issue, is the connectors are made with the same bend, length and radius. Simple, one jig, one pipe. Simplify manufacturing.
The distance between down pipes, is 2-3 inches narrower than distance between muffler intake pipes. One pipe fits so-so… the other not so good. They really should make the connector pipes in a left and right configuration to accommodate the different offsets… but that would cost a couple bucks more. I guess they figure the flex will make up for this. It does, but not without an argument…
Bell make a big deal about the “fit” of their systems, but I’ve fitted a few to different makes/models of car, and never had them fit-up without cutting, shortening, re-bending, etc.
I’ve fitted 3 to MGBs, and one to a TR4…none fit as advertised, and one of the MGB systems required the assistance of a muffler shop to add a bend where the original shape would have stresses the rubber system mounts to failure in no time at all.
Been installing console and seatbelt today, but I rolled under her a took a quick photo to show what I think is the intended installation, note the splay at the flex joint…
Your car, or at least your exhaust setup is completely different to mine Karl. My car is a 2+2 I assume yours is one of the SWB variety. My system doesn’t have clamps in the position you show in your pic, which is what leads me to believe our systems, if not our cars, are different.
Really?, I have never been under a 2+2, I have always assumed, they were the same underneath but for a few inches in length. Does your system have intermediate pipes, with the flex piece, that transition between down pipes and mufflers?
It does have flex sections but the overall section between the manifold and mufflers is one single welded siamesed piece with very little ability to change the angle at which the downpipes meet the mufflers, hence my problem, that still exists! Her’s a pic for you…it’s made that way to allow for the autobox on some cars and they just used it on all 2+2 cars, pity!..
Oh!, I see now. That really is a problem! Sorry to have been going on about how it will work out. I agree, given the lack of flexibility of that Siamese section, that is a poor manufacture.
