When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.
Was hoping they'd say - 'sure, we have that jig - we'll make you up one.'
I am tracing down some folks from instagram that Ticon is always linking posts to. Someone will build me one. Eventually - this is going to be a show car that people will want to have their names 'on'.
Playing with some ideas. Talking with some fabricators.
Design 1. Total weight estimate around 16lbs.
Retains a dual muffler design, but moves the 12" mufflers to the rear. Mufflers connect across back and exhaust tips are welded to the cross pipe. I can see no reason not to connect the mufflers together. The original exhaust stream is single, and the streams are not coming from separate head banks...
Design 2. Total weight estimate 12 or 13lbs.
I like this idea better. The front section (not shown) retains a resonator, but a small 12" muffler is added prior to a T with a smaller loop (and less material) going around the battery box. I kept the connected pipes/tips from the last design.
A third idea that would weigh probably no more than 10lbs would be a single muffler in the front section and a single sided 2.5" pipe only on the right side and with dual tips. Not sure I like that as much. I can't say why though. This engine doesn't need a split back end with two pipes and mufflers. But I like the idea that it does.
Don't be critical of my renders - did them in 20 minutes and the pipes don't line up if you look too closely...
Nice 3D rendering. Would it be worth looking at if that could be exported to an automated tubing bender?
A comment... Those “Ts” for the exits and the gases running into each other at that point are going to be a huge flow resistance/restriction as compared to radius bends. Those alone will probably negate the flow improvement from going to the 2.5” pipe... Maybe even worse...
Not sure I like that as much. I can't say why though. This engine doesn't need a split back end with two pipes and mufflers. But I like the idea that it does.
The mind loves symmetry...
But, no, not needed for the engine...
For performance, I would go with the single sided system with the tubing/muffler on the passenger side for car weight balance, what little there is of that.
Interesting - I've just started measuring and sourcing materials. I too will be designing,building and welding up my own exhaust.
I also saw no reason not to. I've always built/welded my own exhausts for my previous cars in the past.
Good for you. I hope it works out!
Interesting - I've just started measuring and sourcing materials. I too will be designing,building and welding up my own exhaust.
I also saw no reason not to. I've always built/welded my own exhausts for my previous cars in the past.
Good for you. I hope it works out!
A synopsis:
Good or bad: My rudimentary plan is to stick with OEM diam specs on the exhaust pipes. 2"-1/4 od on the straight pipe and "Y" from there, to the applicable bends and diam leading into the chosen mufflers.
Or if prudent; reduce down to 1-3/4" OEM after the mufflers for the outlet/tailpipes.
Pretty close to what jciollettiii had drawn up but tail pipes parsed individually from each muffler.
Since I live in a state where cars are not prone to excessive rust: I'm speculating on cannibalizing some exhaust pipes from a salvage Mini to sidestep having to form bends/curves.
Welding is not an issue. Pipe bending/fabrication is not an issue (if need be). I have tools and access.
Perhaps naive; The only real obstacle I foresee is understanding the correct flow and back pressure (mufflers )for theses engines - Without resulting in the obstreperous noise or retarding performance.
A cat back resonator is also in consideration(?).
Conversely, to the aforementioned, - the OEM engineers have already figured that out. I also have to ask myself....why bother?
As of now my 19 y/o exhaust looks almost new. Absolutely no rust. Just a little road dirt. So this project can wait until I am better informed/understand what I want/need.
My current exhaust will not be used for this project.
This is one of the ideas that led me to the loop design with the tips cut into it... one of the Porsche 991 exhaust types.
But, now that I think about this more - that can is probably two half mufflers with a wall between them. The stock 991 exhaust (I believe) uses separate cans. The more I think about this, the more I think 2.5" single side muffler arrangement on the right side is probably even overkill for this engine. The slightly larger cross section (versus the split 2 sided 2" pipes in my current Borla exhaust should still breathe nicely, and the staighter arrangement should have less restriction. This is more of what I am thinking now...
It would have dual tips, but this is probably the straightest, least convoluted exhaust design I have ever seen for the R53 other than a custom, remove the battery box, straight through. I think this will be the lightest mufflered system ever put on an R53 as well. This should be less than 10lbs - maybe 11 or 12 with clamps and hangers. If it ever exists in reality...
Those renderings look interesting however "loud" by proportion of pipe diameters and silencer can sizes, noting renderings likely simply for illustration. Nonetheless - during my mtn drive yesterday, I kept wishing for a bit less of a "good thing" with total dBA at speed. IMO, in order to accomplish something even remotely close to OEM JCW level, you gotta go larger. Image of my Milltek partially installed last year shows Milltek rear cans substantially smaller than OEM JCW. OTOH, Milltek's are generally invisible tucked up in front of the bumper cover valance which appeals to me. The only way I can achieve "quieter" in combo with 4:1 header / hi-flow cat is by removing the B&M SSK, allowing clearance for Milltek's res pipe. Be careful what you wish for...
Borla 'race' exhausts are about as loud as they get but they also don't drone. I do indeed like loud. Unlike the Milltek, the Borla uses small diameter round race cans - why I prefer the sound probably. Otherwise most of these early-to-the-game exhausts are basically copies of each other with slight differences - and I can't recall with certainty which was the originator, I think of the three I remember, the UUC was most unique with side exit round race cans. I definitely recall though, that the UUC had the best looking tips, period. All that said, all of the videos I have seen of systems using Ticon mufflers seem pretty quiet in comparison. But with a slightly different almost sort of subdued exotic raspiness - hard to explain. They don't pack with fiberglass like others do - maybe that's why - stainless steel is what they use for packing. Anyhow, in the rather unlikely event that it's too loud for my liking, I can have the 12" muffler replaced with a 17".
I thought the center, single pipe section was about 1.25” dia... Some quick math... 2.5” dia is double the flow area of 2” dia... Does it make a difference on these smaller engines.. My Invidia system likely added 5hp to the car. This was on the N14 engine compared to the N18 engine which, stock, was about 5hp more and using top track speed as the measure. It would not hurt and could gain a little with the larger system
As for that Porsche exhaust.... I would not want to pay for a replacement...
And I think you are right that there is more gong on inside the muffler can than what can be gleaned from the outside.
I think I recall the center section being a but smaller when I put the Borla on, but that was eons ago... and I had hair. I think you're probably right on the 2 inch diameter. Will probably dig in to the exhaust a bit more tonight. With a beer.
Just got done for the night on my body prep work. 25 hours in and the top of the hood is sanded through most of the old clear, all of the creases are cleaned, sanded, and scuffed, the dents are taken care of, and the rock chips have been filled and the entire top sanded to 320. Found a couple of additional rust spots on the front edge of the scoop cut out and sanded those. Tomorrow I'll give it a good clean and shoot a bit of etching primer on the bare spots, then a garage clean up to find the space to take it off the car to start on the back side. Should be done with the back in a week or so and then I will start on the bumper. In other news, the new calipers continue to be a victim to a postal strike in the UK, but my decals did show up today - so the public sector UK post is still functioning, even if the private one is not. Ah well, I can wait. Would just like to know if the pins and brackets come with those rebuilt Brembo calipers. Decals look awesome though!
As is so often the case, doing this sort of enjoyable work is made all the more enjoyable by a good beer. I typically do not like beers with a lot of flavor other than barley, hops, maybe some rice - and that pretty much is it. Usually, the higher the IBU the better. Funny aside there... I just found out that my lab benchtop spectrophotometer can do IBU's... but I digress. So, for my upper midwest peeps - I have no idea how far distribution goes, but this is a fairly new brewery in Minot, and their popularity is growing quite rapidly. It has a **** ton of vanilla in it - you don't tast an overpowering vanilla, but it hits you in the face with the aromatics. I have had cream ales before, but there is something DIFFERENT about this one. I am a Stone man, love love LOVE me some of their IPA. But this is brewed by a little place called Atypical. This is their London Fog - and I give it 3 thumbs up.
I managed to get the rats' nest of wires and tubes fished out of the underside of the hood, and pulled it off and started giving it a good clean on the underside. 20 Years of grunge. Not too bad. Got a start at least. More on the beer than the MINI. Still... progress.
Darn, I was going to offer to check the IBUs on MY spectrophotometer* but it turns out you have one too. Keep up the great progress -- always a pleasure to see what you're doing.
*I do not have a spectrophotometer. If I had a spectrophotometer, I wouldn't know what the heck to do with it. Other than check IBUs, of course.
LOL - they measure the absorbance or transmittance of light through a solution to give you a pretty accurate indication of what is in the solution. Can only do one ion or element at a time. Using mine to try and trace added ions from anthropogenic sources making their way into a large lake up here to see if we can't learn something about lake eutrophication - and possibly bioaccumulation of heavy metals in algae and plants.
LOL - they measure the absorbance or transmittance of light through a solution to give you a pretty accurate indication of what is in the solution. Can only do one ion or element at a time. Using mine to try and trace added ions from anthropogenic sources making their way into a large lake up here to see if we can't learn something about lake eutrophication - and possibly bioaccumulation of heavy metals in algae and plants.
I’ll need a Mad Elf or Blithering Idiot (my fav barley wines) to get by this explanation... But as IPA’s go there is a near cult favorite Heady Topper or the Sip of Sunshine hot wet your palette if you are ever in the NE... Oh, so many good brews, so little time... Cheers!
Budweg rebuilt 4 pot Brembo calipers finally arrived. Took 2 weeks from the UK via express air. But a postal strike held them up. Once they started moving in the UK, they took 4 days or so to get here. Happy to report that the calipers DO come with the pins and brackets, and the hoses that I bought seem to be a decent quality set. So, with the $126 pad set from Amazon, the total cost for this 4 pot genuine Brembo (rebuilt OE by Budweg), that puts the TOTAL (INCLUDING SHIPPING FROM THE UK) at $947 for a Brembo 4-pot big brake, big rotor set.
Wow, are these ever beefy. Make the front OEM R53 stockers look puny. That said, I've never felt the stock brakes had any real problem. But I will have much less of a problem with these, were one to arise.
The decals from brakecaliperdecals.co.uk are very nice, very high quality, and at around $9.50 US shipped are a fantastic deal. My one seuugestion - order two sets. You will almost for sure mess up the first one you apply. I got a bunch of bubbles stuck in the first one. More on that below. Nice quality. They also do the white background, and the new style too. The stock size is 92mm.
Application is pretty straightforward (read: not simple). The most crucial part of the application process is the start getting the air pockets out from the center of the decal on either the top part or the bottom part and then sort of roll your finger up (if you started on the top half) or roll your finger down (if you started on the lower half). Gradually work your way outward from the middle doing first the upper half rolling upward, then the lower half rolling downward. This does a good job getting all of the bubbles out. Then I went over the whole thing with my fingers retracing the original path. Once I was sure there were no bubbles, I burnished the decal with the back of a spoon before pulling off the transfer tape. The second one came out great! I will not show a picture of the first one :-/
These are definitely OE Brembos. The ground off all of the casting marks and numbers where they could be gotten to. The one place they could not or did not was the casting numbers on the inside of the caliper body where the pads insert. Identical to OE Brembos. Myth sternly put to bed.
On the refinishing front...
I have now thoroughly cleaned and begun to sand the inside surfaces of the hood. I degreased first with a water based solvent and a maroon scuff pad, and then wiped the whole thing down with solvent based pre-paint prep before starting to sand or brush. After the cleaning, the first step was to wire wheel all of the crevices along the edges of the hood with a narrow stainless wire wheel in my cordless drill. Then, I changed to a 1" wide stainless wire brush and put that in the drill. That fit nicely into all of the 1" or so round holes in the backside of the hood. Then I got out the small stainless hand brushes and finished off all of the areas I could easily get to. Vacuumed the whole thing, and then started sanding with 320 grit on the spars and flats. This thing mush have been painted in a dust factory on cyclone day! The number of dust nibs stuck in the factory paint on the inside of the hood make the number of stars in our galaxy seem small by comparison. Got the whole inside of the hood sanded to 320. Oh, and the one headlight bolt that came out of the back of the headlight because it was rusted together gave me a bit of a conundrum. It was too close to the hood and in an odd location - damn hacksaw couldn't be finagled in there.
Then I remembered... that I have a dremel! Problem solved 5 minutes later.
And that's where I left it a couple of days ago. I am in it for about 34 or 35 hours right now. Next steps on the hood are to sand to 400, then do one more good scuff over the whole underside with a fresh maroon scuffie. Then I will very methodically go around all of the edges of everything trying to get out as much of the grunge between where the two panel halves are joined as I can. Once that is done (that is not going to be fun), I will turn the hood over and sand the top to 400 and hit any exposed metal with etching primer. Blow out the space between the panels good and then the first panel will be ready for paint. The bumper will be next on the agenda.
Will post some pics once I install the new front Brembos. I hear they fit the R112 wheels.
Also on the agenda for this winter - I need to craft some leather bolster protectors for the Cobra seats. See if I can find some close matching leather to use. The Nogaro pads are all held to the base with velcro, so attachment of the bolster protector will be pretty straightforward. Some type of hook arrangement on the outside and a strong velcro sandwich on the inner seat surface side. Will probably make 4 of them - 1 for each side of each seat. Stay tuned for that at some point....
Really cool. I similarly am the original owner of my 2005 R50, and, beginning during Covid, I have been restomodding it. It's been great taking things apart, cleaning off years of dirt (that I put there), learning how everything on the car works, and bringing everything back to new, or better than new, condition. Thanks for sharing.
Really cool. I similarly am the original owner of my 2005 R50, and, beginning during Covid, I have been restomodding it. It's been great taking things apart, cleaning off years of dirt (that I put there), learning how everything on the car works, and bringing everything back to new, or better than new, condition. Thanks for sharing.
Awesome, man - thanks for sharing! Start a restomod thread! It's always great to see what other people are doing! Always glad to see there are more original owners out there who still have their cars than I think.
Cool. Yeah, I just started a thread (I'm brand new here) and will throw some stuff up there - a few photos there now. I haven't documented all the work I've done with photos, but may start doing that. If you're like me, after having spent this many years with a car, I will never sell it.
Cool. Yeah, I just started a thread (I'm brand new here) and will throw some stuff up there - a few photos there now. I haven't documented all the work I've done with photos, but may start doing that. If you're like me, after having spent this many years with a car, I will never sell it.
I go back and forth on wheels quite a bit. On the one hand, I think that the R112 challenge wheels are about *the* best look on an R53 there is. Period. But, man, are they ever paperweights. I have seen published weight figures vary from 22.5 to 20.5 lbs per wheel. Lighter than an S-lite, yes, heavier than pretty much everything else.
So, I have been looking around at lightweight options. My car is at around 2428 or so right now, and I would like to get it down to 2400 while maintaining the restored interior that I have finally managed to pull together. All of the easy stuff is done - rear seats, lightweight buckets, etc., so wheels are a place where I can make some pretty significant weight savings over stock. That said, any wheel that goes on this car has to look good. And there are some damn fugly wheels out there.
Caveats:
-must be gunmetal (not some bronze-like gunmetal imposter);
-must be 17lbs each or lighter - no messing about here;
-$400 each or less - any more and your paying for the name, and I don't play that game.
I really like the OE-style look of the Rota RB's, but in the 17" size I need to clear my R56 JCW Brembos, they are almost as heavy as the R112's - and the R112's look WAY better, IMO.
Then there are the Enkei wheels... everyone has them. I don't really care for them.
NM Engineering Rse05: I do really like the look of the RSe05 wheels, but the 4 lug/5 spoke thing... and at just $300per wheel they are affordable. The gunmetal color is perfect. They are a bit big-bottomed for me though... 17lbs a piece. They do look nice though. This conversation would be done if they only made the Rse12 in 17"...
Volk ZE40. Light at only around 14.5lbs, but forged and spendy (~$800 each)... so, probably no - but keeping in the list for now.
949 Racing 6UL. I love the look of these wheels. Probably because they resemble the R112's quite a bit. 17x8" weigh in at 14.5 in 45 offset. Prices around 300 per wheel I think...
Oz Allagerita. I know, I know... yep your mom probably has a pair on her drifterboi racer too... but they are light, and they are light. 13.9lbs. These are basically a tweaked clone of the Volk wheels with 9 spokes instead of 10. This is the bottom of my pile right now. First, because even though they have 11 colors, they don't have a gunmetal, so I would have to paint them and that is silly.
I also want a bit of a wider stance at the back end. Nothing crazy, and I would prefer to do it without spacers. So, to move the wheel outboard by 10mm, I would get a wheel with a smaller offset, correct? So, instead of the stock 45, I would get a 35 offset?
Any other wheels that fit my specs out there that I wouldn't have to rob a bank to put on my car? Have to be 17" and have to be lighter than 17lbs, but the lighter the better. If I can get down to 14lbs per corner, I can save an additional 26lbs.
^^^ All those shown wheels look good to me. I too very much like the R112 Challenge look. OTOH, mine with AP Racing brakes are most probably even larger than your Brembos, thus Team Dynamics wheels sourced circa 2006. Likely for similar reasons JC Garages chose T-D in combo with same brakes back then. Unsure on wheel weight since no opportunity to weigh when replacing tires but undoubtedly lighter than OEM. Mine are ET45 with no need for spacers, which appeals. I prefer T-D's original Pro Race version w/o raised cast letters, however current Pro Race 2 are shown to return to ECS' catalog prox May 2023. None in 17"/ET45 listed available in gunmetal/anthracite but price point achieves your objective as well as brake caliper fitment. I didn't own the car when buying mine new but I'd probably buy them now if/when available...
12-01-2022, 11:01 PM
Keep up the great progress -- always a pleasure to see what you're doing.
