Where to buy Flavia Vignale mild-steel exhaust?

[williamcorke]

My Vignale has a stainless steel exhaust system which was on the car when I bought it 6 years ago. I never liked the sound it makes and now there is an increasingly annoying rattle from one of the boxes at the back which is probably due to an internal baffle having come loose.

So I'd like to replace the rear of the system (or the whole lot, if the price is sensible) with an 'original' mild steel system.

Omicron's website only lists stainless systems for Flavias. Does anyone know of a source for mild steel alternatives?

[Parisien]

William, David Laver said in a recent post that the consortium could be a good source of exhausts for the Flavia see the address of a place in Kent below which had exhausts for the Fulvia, maybe can help with a Vignale too

http://www.lancia.myzen.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=6219.0

P

[DavidLaver]

The consortium does have them.

David

[lancialulu]

Hummm. Just did a 100 mile run round suffolk in our V and enjoyed every minute of the car's muted and restrained SS exhaust sound.... Completely different to the rather excited SS sound from our Gamme C.

[Justin McArdle]

William, my 2000hf developed a nasty exhaust rattle which was caused by a weld break on the square piece which connects each pair of the exhausts. The weld on one side had broken and the loose exhaust pipe was rattling against the square. Worth checking out before replacing exhaust components.

[williamcorke]

To complete this thread.

It turned out the consortium doesn't have these, but Colin Clamp pointed me toward ebay.de, where a supplier sells two types of Flavia exhausts. These are IMASAF manufactured (I don't know anything about this operation, though quick Googling shows that they are Italian). I opted for the earlier type, which combines the flow from adjacent cylinders earlier than the later type. Illustrated below:

Early (1800);


Late (2000);


This Saturday I fitted the system, which arrived promptly, very well packed, and with extra clamps (though no manifold gaskets) supplied. Quality appears excellent and it went together without much trouble. I now know that you need to fit the rear of the system before the front, due to the passage of the system over the rear beam axle. Finding this out meant fitting the manifolds twice! I can tell you they are a lot harder to fit when they have the whole of the rest of the system attached...

Justin was right about the rectangular plate being the culprit for the noise. A simple task to repair, but I'm very happy with the more muted sound that the new mild steel system produces, so if someone wants to make me a nominal offer for the stainless system, which is in good condition apart from the separated reinforcing plate (an easy repair if you have the right welding kit for Inox), let me know.

Link to ebay item for anyone interested. http://www.ebay.de/itm/Auspuff-Set-Lancia-FLAVIA-Coupe-1-8-li-re-Abgasrohr-Mittelrohr-MSD-ESD-/380858503271?ssPageName=ADME:L:OC:US:3160

[DavidLaver]

At least the consortium had the knowledge of where to get one

Good result - for all a hard lesson on the order to fit the bits...

David

[lancialulu]

Looking at the pics I seem to have the latter config on my Vig. I thought mine was SS but will have to check, as the sound track is also nicely muted.

[williamcorke]

Good result - for all a hard lesson on the order to fit the bits...

It was one of those annoying things where you know you could have thought it through beforehand if only...

Another more general exhaust-fitting point. Don't use cement unless you absolutely have to. Advice from the expert who happened to be on-hand as I was fitting the exhaust (he was there replacing the head gasket on another car) was to keep away from the stuff and to use WD40 to lube the joints before fitting. Without that advice (and once I'd removed the rapidly drying cement that was stopping the sections sliding together as far as they needed to) it would have been near impossible to get everything aligned. In the end I did use a dab of cement on the manifold gaskets, but nowhere else, and there are no leaks.