As always: Warning! Picture heavy! Some of them better not to view with heart problems...
Let me start off with some of my experiences with Piper.
As you might have read I needed quite a few parts to restore the complete (well, almost as the back pipe was still OK) exhaust line after the discovery of a couple of cracks in the exhaust manifold
Since I had everything off the car to replace the exhaust manifold, I thought I'd swap the emptied pre-cat housing with a Piper PCE. There were some troubles with the ordering system on their website, but an email was enough to get the order done quickly. However... I followed the threads of the downpipe developments with great interest and it seemed to me that Piper almost had the pipe ready. So I emailed them and asked how things are looking (the car was disassembled so I needed parts desperately
. It quickly become clear that development was ready and production was about to start up. So I took my chances and ordered one. After a week of uncertainty about production, the pipe was shipped to the Netherlands. I want to add that dealing with Piper was fine and I would definitely deal with them again. One minor point of attention is communication which is, always, a difficult task (in life in general!) I always like bad news more then no news at all. In the end everything worked out perfect and I want to thank Piper for helping me to get the pipe so quick.
So... Here's what happened:
Let's get the old parts out first
Here's what I received (outside)
All shiny new parts with some nice welding. No complaints here!
But on the inside... You be the judge:
So it needed 'some' work. After I cut away the big chunks with my Dremel, I went out to the tool store and bought an air grinder to get the rest out... this was not planned and not funny, but I wanted to have optimal flow and, equally important, no funny whistling noise!
Back to work:
By the way: This is what caused the troubles! This is my ' old' PECO flex section. It was not very flush with the bottom of the Elan, but it was definitely the lowest part on the car (see flat part...)
Yup, nasty!
After a lot of grinding: This is what the result is, together with a new PECO flex part.
Let's get it back together:
The fitting was pretty straight forward. and fitments of the parts was good.
As a precaution I cleaned all the threads before assembling everything back together. I replaced all gaskets, including the full metal ones. Perhaps this was not necessary, but since everything was out anyway I took my chances
After everything was back together, there was a small (or big?) bonus included: The new Cybox exhaust flex part was somehow shaped differently so the ground clearance improved dramatically! Since this was the root cause of all the troubles.... I am beginning to suspect that the initial one was not correctly bent! The lowest part of the pipe is now almost flush with the longeron so I gained approx. 40 millimetres which is a lot
Now I just need some tips to close the joint with the rest of the exhaust gas tight! Should I use gun-gum and then fit the pipes together, followed by tightening the U-shaped clip?
I took the plunge and decided not to coat just yet, and to fit only the top heat shield, as this one is close to the bonnet and the front clamshell.
The car goes up in the air after every drive, so I'll monitor the rest closely. However I predict that the heat-load is less than with the cast iron lump. Not because of the difference in emitting between cast Iron and rolled (or extruded?) stainless steel, but because the mass of the pipe is way less that the cast iron part, and the diameter is a lot smaller, so the distance to other parts has increased significant compared to the stock set-up.
Replacing the other stock shields won't work anyway, as the shape of the pipe needs an entirely different geometry and the fixing points are not there either...
Anyway...
My first impressions after driving around 100 kilometres:
* Performance boost... Just a little, but it can be between my ears only....
* Sound: Virtually no change from my initial set-up (it was loud anyway)
* Looks: From above it is almost impossible to spot the difference with the stock set-up. From below: Whooow! I can stick both of my hands where I would like! Improved access to the rest is a big bonus for me.
* Too bad there is no bracket is supplied to fix the top heat shield on at least 2 fixing points. I made one myself, so the OEM top shield is now fixed with the bolt on the manifold and the one on the RH, which I fixed on the bolt of the PAS pump. No heat damage just yet
Initial Set up:
1.It's an S2
2. 2.25" PECO (Cybox) exhaust
3. No Main CAT
4. Emptied Pre-CAT
5. Ported Wastegate (21.5 mm)
6. Everest Chipped
Oh, the piper downpipe is not coated (yet)
To buy or not to buy?
* In my limited experience: If you have a PCE... don't bother unless the design of the pipe is updated and the waste gate flow is separated over a longer distance (even a wastegate deflection shield welded in the downpipe, as per OEM will improve things here...
* If you doubt between PCE and downpipe: I'd go for the downpipe (see above)
* If you have the cash: Go for the Knox design
* If you want a cheap performance upgrade (free!) ... Empty the pre-cat. It also reduces the risk of a melt down thereabout...
* Would I do it again? Yes!
* Is the pipe worth the money? ... about just...
* long term experience will determine if this was a good idea.
To Piper:
1. Please have quality control check the inside of the pipe prior to shipment and change the production process so all edge,s and more important: all excess material, are removed and inside everything is flush!
2. Please weld in some sort of deflection part for the wastegate flow as per OEM downpipe, as this will dramatically improve the flow, won't cost a lot of engineering, and will attract a lot more potential customers! The lack of this deflection section almost eliminates the performance gain of the pipe all together, compared to my situation anyway. You can always contact me for details, production ideas and measurements!
So,
Here is the bracket I made from a strip of stainless to get the top heat shield fixed with at least 2 points.
Sorry guys, but my experience till now is that all 3 mounting points shall be used if you want the shield to be fixed vibration free!
