EXHAUST SYSTEM

It was a very easy decision to go with the Parallel exhaust system. I knew it was made for the car and engine type I had plus it was made from stainless steel. At £1665 (inc. tailpipes) cheap it isn't but it was certainly not something I could make myself. I could have shipped the job out but the logistics of getting the car moved to an exhaust fabricators just wasn't appealing, plus I doubt if it would have worked out much cheaper for a custom exhaust manifold and system anyway.

During the process of my work I spend a lot of time around high-end exhausts and manifolds and it has to be said that the Parallel system could be made nicer in terms of weld quality and show finish. However, the exhausts I am used to are robotically welded for relatively mass-produced vehicles and they still sell for around the same price if not more than the low-volume Parallel setup. Another big plus for using this exhaust was that I knew it sounded nice, and a fair bit of R&D had gone into making it do so. It would be easy to get a one-off exhaust made and it sound awful, negating any cost savings. Interestingly, Parallel claim that there is 14' of piping for each bank which they found necessary to get the sound right. I haven't measured the piping to confirm this but there does seem to be an awful lot of spagetti going on so I'll take their word for it.

I was quite lucky when buying my system as it was the first one that Parallel had 'upgraded' with the use of stainless steel heatshields accross the top of the larger exhaust boxes, and strategic polishing of several key areas which are in view when installed. Parallel were able to do this at no extra cost which was nice.

2 pics of the exhaust laid out....2 of the 4 rubber 'bobbins' required....2 of the 6 (beautiful) exhaust clamps I bought.

Although 4 of the joints in the system are 'flanged', which I much prefer over the sleeve type, there are still 3 sleeve joints present in the system (excluding the 4 tailpipes) which Parallel claim are necessary to allow the system to be adjusted to suit the differences between each kit's body/chassis placement. I can kind of understand this. However, I absolutely hate the usual cheap 'U' shaped exhaust clamps with a vengeance as they don't give an even clamp pressure which often leads to leaks. To counteract this, people usually try and just do the things up tighter which then ovalises the pipework and makes things even worse. So, I looked for an alternative. I found some very nice band-type clamps at a stall run by 'Surplus Supplies' (01636 636735) who I saw at the Stoneleigh show in 2004. They were awesome- polished stainless steel with a cap-head bolt passing through to tighten them. Not cheap at £6 each (you will need 6) but well worth it. For the 4 tailpipes I just used 'normal' exhaust clamps, as hardly any clamping load is required, neither are they likely to leak being at the end of the exhaust.

In addition to the clamps, you will also need to buy 4 rubber 'bobbins' with which to mount the pipework and allow a little movement. These can usually be supplied by Parallel but when I bought my exhaust they had run out so Naz told me that they were in fact a Renault part. After speaking to a local dealer (Renault Ilford- 0208 276 5000) I had them in my hand and were exactly the same as Naz used. The part number is 770 056 5762 and they are £3.71 each.

So, it was a bit of a kick in the guts to have spent £1665 on an exhaust only to find out that you then need to spend another £60 or so on bits to fit it with but again it's that or nothing. You could spend less on the fittings but like I said earlier the bits I bought are top notch and won't give me any hassles. Apart from my relatively expensive exhaust clamps I have also seen rubber bobbins for half the price I paid but I knew that the Renault ones allowed a fair bit of movement and wouldn't rip themselves to pieces and/or fracture the exhaust system because of not allowing enough movement. I simply thought of it a a minor cost against an expensive exhaust.

FITTING THE EXHAUST

I had an absolute 'mare with my exhaust and to be frank got 'very annoyed' (interpret that as you see fit) with the fact that I had spent £1700 for the priveledge. The first issue was that Parallel had made my chassis wrong, which meant that the nearside manifold was never going to fit as one of the supports for the engine mount had been welded into the wrong place and was smack bang in the middle of the 2nd manifold runner. After numerous emails and pictures to Parallel with Naz only saying 'I've never seen this problem before' and 'maybe try spacing the engine up a little' to rectify the problem I wasn't best pleased. It was clear that something was majorly wrong and it was only after further pictures that the penny dropped and Naz admitted that the chassis had been made wrong, something which was never suggested could be the case. The picture below shows a correct chassis, and the yellow box shows the location of where my support bar was. Many thanks to fellow builder Andy Williams for supplying me with the pic of his chassis- a simple picture answered the whole thing. Shame I had to chase all this up myself rather than Parallel doing it for me....

Naz eventually apologised for the mistake and said that the best solution would be to cut out the offending box section so I could actually get on with the exhaust fitment and leave it until the car went to him for pre-SVA. He said he would weld in a piece of new box section (in the right place) to finalise the issue. I could have accepted this offer but I knew that the engine would have to be jacked up and the manifold removed (and probably most of the exhaust due to the engine being jacked up) which I didn't really want to have done once the car was up and running. In short, I wanted to have control over the situation. So, I decided to weld in a new length of box section which was no small feat even with the engine up and the manifold off. Getting in there was real difficult and my welder guy swore like hell when he was trying to weld upside down with molten metal flying off everywhere. Luckily I managed to find lots of blankets to protect my paintwork. Would Parallel have bothered with blankets? Would they have put new exhaust manifold gaskets on? Would they have just jacked the engine up leaving the exhaust system on and possibly stressing it and/or the mounting rubbers? Maybe, maybe not, but I didnt know either way which is why I wanted to sort the problem myself.

The worst thing is that after all this, I noticed that now the manifold was on I could see that No1 runner was now VERY close to the other piece of box section! I just couldn't believe it. It's not touching, but I've only got 2mm clearance and I'll bet that there will be more than 2mm of engine 'rock' when nailing the car. Enoughs enough- I left it and if it ever touches then Parallel can sort it out.

Pic above shows how little clearance there is between the manifold and chassis

Once the manifolds were on I could start fitting the rest of the system. Wasn't long before I hit another hurdle (the list goes on- carry on reading if you're not bored) whereby the offside pipe that bolts to the manifold was hitting the bellhousing. Not by a lot, but it meant that the flange bolt holes were out of alignment meaning the 10mm bolts that join the two wouldn't go through the flanges on each bit of pipe. So, dremel in hand I had to grind away some of the aluminium bellhousing. Not a major job, but more time and hassle than I wanted after the manifold scenario. With the pair of post-manifold pipes on, the larger exhaust silencers were able to be fitted which thankfully were not too much of a drama. However, it wasn't long before I came up against another problem- the secondary silencers have mounting lugs which are supposed to attach via rubber mounts to the cross-brace that goes over the top of the bellhousing. There was no way the lugs were in line with the cross-bar so I had to make up some brackets to go between the bar and the lugs. More aggravation.

After the primary and seconday silencers had been fitted, we moved on to the exhaust tips, and yep, there were more problems. The first one was that the oval tailpipe trims had a sleeve joint which is obviously meant to slip over the exhaust system. However, the pipes sizes were identical so there was no way one would slip over the other. The easiest option was to cut off the sleeves on the tailpipes and weld on some bigger ones. Not the easiest job and by this time I was really starting to get hacked off.

Once I had made up and welded some correct sleeves I tried one on the exhaust and it fitted perfect. So, filled with joy and ready to finalise my exhaust system I then tried to fit two tailpipes onto the 2 into 1 exhaust splitter. Yep, more hassles. The gap between the two pipes on the splitter wasn't enough and so there simply wasn't enough room to slip on the two oval tailpipes side by side. Great. After emailing Naz about this (and with pictures) he said he would 'sort it out' when the car got to him for pre-SVA. I'm not sure I want to leave it until then as I want to run the engine up and get things nice and hot to check the rads work etc, but with no tailpipes on the car the exhaust exit is scarily close to my freshly-painted rear valance and bumper. I would rather Naz just sent me another pair of correct splitter pipes but at the time of writing I'm unsure if he will do this.

Above: splitter pipe showing that theres no way the two oval tailpipes will fit on

UPDATE: Naz has confirmed that the splitter pipes I have are for use with round tailpipes like the Diablo VT used. This now also explains why my oval tailpipes didin't fit because the round pipes use a different internal diameter. So, not only do I need another pair of splitters, I also need another 4 SV tailpipes because mine will now no longer fit the correct splitters....Naz has said he will sort all of it out FOC for me which is all I can ask really.

THE FINAL FITMENT

Eventually I got there, and here are the pics I took....

THIS PAGE WILL HAVE MORE PICS ADDED OF THE TAILPIPES WHEN DONE

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