Budget exhaust I did myself

[vix.tabellae]

I'm new here, hi. These are pics of the stainless exhaust I've recently installed. It's all 2.5", mandrel bent and has a Borla muffler. The stock pre-cat is still there and the second cat which was all broken up, was replaced with a flexpipe. I bought the mandrels, flex pipe, and muffler from ebay while the straight pipe came from Jegs. I've never welded exhaust before so it took at least 12 hours of fabrication to get it right. I said it's a budget exhaust because I have less than $300 in it. Today I was zooming on a country road at WOT and went airborn on a hill. I know because I was suddenly bouncing off the rev limiter in 4th gear. Well I came down hard enough to rub the front tires inside the liners and also squashed my brand new pipe as you can see in the pic.

[F1 LOTUS]

Another fine job!
What's next on your list?

[rip]

2.5 mandrel bent. Nice. You have even got a flexi joint.
Shame about the squish, although with 2.5 diameter kit, it has probably not done too much harm. It may even act as a boost creep eliminator.

[Monty]

Shame about the squish, although with 2.5 diameter kit, it has probably not done too much harm. It may even act as a boost creep eliminator.

What squish

[vix.tabellae]

F1 LOTUS: I really need to do something about those brakes. I find myself going much faster than intended since the mods so I better upgrade the brakes soon. Actually the most important thing I'm going to do is the cambelt. Though it only has 36K miles on it, I'm sure it's original and I would feel alot better with a new one there.

rip: I still have the stock pre-cat downpipe and left a stub of the stock outlet pipe to act as a 'torque-cone' so I don't think I'm getting any boost creep. But then again, I have the stock boost gauge and it goes about a finger width past 1 bar when really having fun so who knows?

Monty: I probably lost a mil or two of pipe diameter but at least it didn't start leaking.

[rip]

Shame about the squish, although with 2.5 diameter kit, it has probably not done too much harm. It may even act as a boost creep eliminator.

What squish

I meant the flat bit in the first pic.

Vix, the boost gauge is notoriously inaccurate. Use it as a rough guide only. The Elan's fuel system cannot safely cope with 1 bar boost at maximum revs, so the fuel safety cut is set just below this.

Edit: Just read elsewhere that you have 3 bar MAP sensor & different injuectors. I guess you will also have modded the ECU so fuel cutoff will probably not be an issue for you.

[vix.tabellae]

rip: when it was stock, the boost gauge would go just over .5 bar. Following others on LEC, I installed a 3 bar map and 550 cc injectors. Instead of a manual boost controller, I simply drilled 3 tiny holes in the wastegate hose. Now if I accelerate slowly, the boost gauge maxes just below 1 bar. If I accelerate quickly, it swings past 1 bar about a fingers width. I will be getting a real boost gauge soon. The ECM is stock but with the 3 bar map, boost cut is much higher. I am not running it to fuel cut, not yet.

[tigerdog]

The ECM is stock but with the 3 bar map, boost cut is much higher. I am not running it to fuel cut, not yet.

I certainly hope not! The ECU's programmed to cut boost when the sensor says .95 Bar. With a 3 BAR map sensor, the output equivaltent to .95 Bar happens at 1.425 Bar, or nearly 21 PSI! I think you'll detect overboost by the grenading sound made by your engine when the wastegate sticks.