I thought you were speaking in some "Short North" language (everyone except MM, an inside Columbus joke...sorry)
Here's a Greek downpipe made by Akrapovic, in SS with a cat. 490 Euro's about $670.00 US + shipping. Wonder how it handles CEL's. Read somewhere where Riss Racing went under. Thought their DP looked looked good. This looks well made. http://www.akrapovic.com/typo3conf/ext/user_products/mod1/uploads/products/evolution_exhaust_system_for_the_mini_cooper_s_r56_and_cooper_s_cabrio_r57_/mini_cooper_s_en_web.pdf
Something along this line? [ame]http://i540.photobucket.com/albums/gg348/DedRokGallery/047e6ff4.jpg[/ame]
Just a little update on my progress today... With acknowledgement to Keith Huevo, I'm going with the simpler bolt up flanges, but three bolts instead of two. Better spreading of the clamping forces. And with respect to leaks (David in Germany), I have a little something up my sleeve so to speak. No, not gaskets. I'll share my idea for this when I start to build. Had a little spare time today and whipped out a quickie Cad drawing for my exhaust flanges. These puppies will be 3/8" thick T304 SS. I should be able to do this for less than $20.00 each. Here's a pic of the flange drawing.
Just now received an 8' length of 2-1/2" OD perforated 16 Gage T304 SS tubing. This will be chopped up and made into a removable resonator that will also be rebuildable. The remaining length will become the tunable rebuildable rear muffler. As viewed by the exhaust gasses.
Where space is limited like it is in the channel in the middle area of the MINI, there's an issue with accessibility for at least one bolt in a three hole flange. If two holes are positioned up top, one bolt is in harm's way on the bottom. It's not problem in the rear area.
They are so easy to just unbolt from the DP onto a creeper and pull out in one piece though, so not much of an issue IMO
Thanks Keith and Adam for the input. I completely overlooked the accessibility issue of getting to the third fastener up inside the aluminum heat shield tunnel area. Good catch. I'd like to make it as easy as possible to do change outs of the center resonator without dropping the entire exhaust. Made a quick change to the flange drawing this morning.
Don't know if Riss is out of business but thier website is still up. Riss Racing (Kinda flaky though...) I bought a used Riss Racing exhaust. It has the 3-bolt flanges. They are fine so long as you don't want to wrench on it while it's still on the car. I bolted to together on the ground then installed it as one piece. It "re-uses" the stock V-band clamp at the down-pipe. I just went ahead and spent the $19 on a new clamp. The v-band clamps work but the surfaces need to be matched PERFECTLY when you cinch it down or you will have a leak at the down pipe. Mini fixed that problem for assembly by using a bit of exhaust tubing that sits inside the down pipe preventing the exhaust and down-pipe from sitting anyway but dead-nuts on. So that's a long way of saying: -2-bolt flange is a good call. -V-band clamps are good but a b*tch to work with. :mad2: -Big Pipes on little cars make me happy. :cornut: Not that you really care about a drive-way mechanic's opinion. Good luck sir!
Well that's super..... Just a quick clarification on my part. I have no intention of making and selling these exhausts and competing with the vendors on this forum. I intend to be completely transparent in the construction methods, and sources for the raw materials. I hope it's going to almost be like you guy's are here helping me from you living room with suggestions and recommendations. I will weigh both the factory and this exhaust for comparisons. I have no intention of doing any form of dyno or flow testing. If I end up making something that is lighter than the stock factory JCW exhaust and perhaps sounds a little better, that can be acoustically tuned and easily rebuilt then I'll be satisfied. I will try and make a drive by sound clip of both systems for comparison (this is hard to do well, in my opinion). If anyone else wants to make one, there should be all the info on this thread to do so. Anyway, that the plan........
A completely transparent exhaust would be so cool. You could watch the smoke rings all the way from the turbo to the tips!
Yeah, I keep going back checking their site, but it's acting weird, so I don't know what the problem is at Riss. My plan is to just turn a SS piece on the lathe that would match the tapered flare on the DP. Perhaps extending into the DP slightly (as you point out). I really don't want to restrict the exhaust flow at this connection by going inside the DP if I can help it. But yeah, I want a tight fit, so I'll see how this goes. This coupling would then be welded onto a short section just in front of the flex joint. I plan to use a stock OEM clamp as well. Thanks for your input Redbeard.
The interuption in air flow at the DP will be small at best so long at the extension into the DP isn't too far. If you haven't had your stocker off the DP go ahead and pull it off and have a look at what MINI did. It makes good sense I jut wouldn't have made that piece of exhaust extend quite that far into the DP.