Get my new exhaust on friday

[jayjay99]

I'm getting my new custom s/s exhaust fitted on friday, just waiting for the tail pipe I chose to come. I'm getting it done at powerflow in Hayes, seem like a nice bunch and are quite helpful. Quoted me £350 for cat back and lifetime warantee. He was saying that he's done 4 VR-4's there this year for their exhausts. I'll obviously post pictures when it's done. Got my MOT tomorrow though :thinking: wish me luck!

[orionn2o]

With your lifetime warentee... I think you have to go back every year to get it checked! So make sure you do otherwise it expires!

[stuey]

I'm not far from Hayes, let me know how it goes. It's on my list of next possible things to do.
Might even swing past if I'm near to check it out.

[Nick VR4]

I too have lifetime warranty and dont have to get it checked every year

[jayjay99]

I do have to pop it down once a year and check it out. Stuey, your welcome to pop down if you wish, I've got it booked in for 2pm.

[K9NG]

Powerflow Hayes!!! I had one fitted a few years ago on my dads VR4.
A blind man could of welded better :thinking:
Maybe they have improved over the years, Good Luck.

[sanct]

Just down the road from you mate.
Looking forward to hearing that exhaust tone on the 316.
:)

[jayjay99]

Powerflow Hayes!!! I had one fitted a few years ago on my dads VR4.
A blind man could of welded better :thinking:
Maybe they have improved over the years, Good Luck.

Oh god, I hope so :thinking: when I take it in I'll ask questions about how much welding is done etc, so they know I'm showing an interest in the welding and maybe they'll make an extra effort /pan Sounds hopeful.




Just down the road from you mate.
Looking forward to hearing that exhaust tone on the 316.

You sure will, /rally flag me down and say hello if you see me.





Went for my MOT today, all past with flying colours :scholar:

[sanct]

Nice one will do.
I'll be the tall bloke in the silver VR4 (estate)
with a silly grin waving frantically and pointing.

Nice one on the MOT mate, it's like waiting at the dentists!!!

[psbarham]

Powerflow Hayes!!! I had one fitted a few years ago on my dads VR4.
A blind man could of welded better :thinking:
Maybe they have improved over the years, Good Luck.
i wasn't the only one then, their qaulity is shocking, they cut the flange and 2 inchs of pipe off the old back box and welded it to the stainless pipe, as for the weld, well put it this way i've just rebuilt the flange section with my sealey gasless mig and done a much tidier job, i also had to cut the tail pipe off because the stupid tossers had put a 1 3/4 outlet pipe on the box , the rest of the car is 2 1/2 " /pan it now has a 2 3/4" section coming from the box to the trim damn it made soooo much difference

[jayjay99]

Nice one will do.
I'll be the tall bloke in the silver VR4 (estate)
with a silly grin waving frantically and pointing.

Nice one on the MOT mate, it's like waiting at the dentists!!!


Cool! I know what you mean, I always get worried, like I'm waiting for test results at the doctors!




i wasn't the only one then, their qaulity is shocking, they cut the flange and 2 inchs of pipe off the old back box and welded it to the stainless pipe, as for the weld, well put it this way i've just rebuilt the flange section with my sealey gasless mig and done a much tidier job, i also had to cut the tail pipe off because the stupid tossers had put a 1 3/4 outlet pipe on the box , the rest of the car is 2 1/2 " it now has a 2 3/4" section coming from the box to the trim damn it made soooo much difference

Oh dear, well I can handle slightly dodgy looking welding as it's hidden under the car but as for the tail pipe, that's stupid, I'll be checking for that!

[jayjay99]

Sorry I didn't post sooner but there was a bit of a hipcup. I got the exhaust done, it took them 4 hours to make it up and put it on which was a bit longer than I was expecting but I don't mind people taking time on my car (as long as I'm not paying by the hour). all seemed well but I left and as you do I went to try it out and picked up some mates and went for a beer, got out of the car and the exhaust was sitting to the left solid up against the bumper, I didn't drive it much more. Rang them first thing today and they said to bring it down. When I got to the car to leave it had cooled and moved back a tad but had left a nice bit of melted bumper behind! as you can see below.

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Apart for the melted plastic do you think the tail pipe looks ok, went for the Jap one in the end as I said I originally wanted one that looked the same kind of shape as the original but not too big, they ordered it and it was smaller than the standard! They asked if I still wanted it but I declined!

It took them a further hour and a half to get the exhaust sitting central, he said all the brackets were solid and he hadn't seen an exhaust move like that under heat before? They had to take it apart again and cut an inch or so off the pipe where it goes from right to left across the back of the car.

Here's another picture I took of the workshop, the volvo in the foreground was having alloys put on, they jacked the car up on the front jack point so high so that both front and back wheel on that side were off the ground, is that normal? it looked very dodgy and as he was fiddling with the wheels the whole car was rocking backwards and forwards on the jack! Don't think I would've been happily standing there if it was my car!

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I'll post some pics of the whole exhaust tomorrow, I'm taking it to my mate at Kwikfit to gum it up as I think it's blowing :thinking: , I'll let you judge the welding. Bear in mind the boss said to me "sorry it's taking so long as he wanted to do it himself and get the welding looking good, and they do look good" (I did ask plenty of questions about the welding before hand) We'll see :speechles

[bradc]

Most exhausts I've seen on Legnums haven't been perfectly centered, most seem to be a little bit to the left. Must have something to do with the mounts people use. It definately shouldn't be touching though!

As for the volvo, I would do the same thing at home, but they should have loosened all the nuts first so that when they jack it up they don't need to shake the whole car around.

[stuey]

Exhaust looks good, shame you had to mess about with the alignment, hope it all works out.
what does it sound like ?

I was intending on popping in on way past, but due to crap weather and very heavy traffic didn't get to Hayes till about 7 and presumed you'd be gone,.

[jayjay99]

Yeah, I was done about 6:30ish. It does sound nice,:2thumbsup sounds a bit weird under full boost, goes from a reverberating sound to a 'air rushing through a tunnel' sound, I asked the guy and he said it was 'free flow' and was normal. Definatly is a bit pokier! /woot Might get a decat next, I'm assuming that to replace the standard cat it's the 65mm one.

Anyway, here are some pics of the full system, a bit overkill, but hey, that's me when it comes to pictures! Let me know what you think of how they did it!

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[jayjay99]

well, going back to topgear today to get the pipe from the bracket to the back box re-done as it keeps blowing and he wasn't happy with it, this time he's gonna weld it instead of putting a bracket on it.

[Kenneth]

From the lack of replies I suspect a few people feel the same way as I do, but feel bad saying anything... as do I. I feel it needs to be said though

It looks crap IMO, all the bends look press-bent and the welds look like what I was doing when I did my first few welds. That bending looks shocking, I don't think I have ever seen an exhaust so butchered. :( (Then I haven't seen a great deal of them, so thats no biggie)

For £350 ($900 NZD!) I would expect mandrel bends and neat tig welding.

On a side note, the fact it is press bent is probably the reason why it distorts so much when hot :(

[Turbo_Steve]

Agree with Kenneth, but unfortunately it's about what I'd expect from a Powerflow dealer (I've had a few from them on old thrashabout cars, so I didn't want to spend big money) however I'd usually expect to pay about £150 for that, not £350!!!

I think I'd be tempted to go back and ask them to change the tighter bends for mandrel bends....as Kenny says, there will be much less movement in the exhaust (looking at where it goes round the diff, they've made a spring!!) and it will flow even better too!

The whoosing noise is known as "boost roar", and I absoloutely love it, especially if you get to hear the engine come "on cam" and start to sing just before the boost really kicks in.

[Kieran]

It's not a pretty system but it does work I suppose. I have to say that the first thoughts that came to mind when I saw the bends around the diff weren't polite!:inquisiti

To my mind the welding isn't pretty but I would say it's adequate. However, there's a BIG void between 'adequate' welding (such as the welds I have done on my coupe) and 'neat' welding.

[jayjay99]

Thanks for speaking up, I wouldn't hold back saying anything just for my feelings, honesty will benefit other readers as well as myself.

I was at Eurospec yesterday and Ben showed me what top notch welding looks like on an exhaust he had there /JawDroppi Once I saw that I realised what a pants job they had done and shortly after I rang them back. They've redone the pipe to the back box now, from what I saw before it came done it looks much better.

At the end of the day, as Kieran says, the exhaust makes a nice sound, standing behind the car it looks good, the performance is improved and I paid less than I was expecting. I'm not ecstatic with it but I'm happy, I wouldn't do it again but there's not much I can do about it so it's not worth freting over.

Oh btw, I saw them fitting some angel-eyes in a range rover while mine was on the ramp, I asked how much they charged to fit them....... £500! :inquisiti Ouch!

[K9NG]

I see from the pics that their welding is still shockingly good /JawDroppi