Bates Prototype Valvetronic Exhaust - Custom OEM Exhaust with Valves

[Subw00er]

Why do you guys care about the fake tips?! Have you seen the passenger side of your hood lately (ie the fake vent)? IMO the extra tips are just styling elements like lots of other stuff on the car, and if engineering dictated one tip, and obviously one tip would look more stupid than two, what did you expect them to do? Perhaps do a 1 into 2 pipe coming out of the muffler? Thats just as lame. Hell, at least you only have to clean one top this way.

+1 dinan.

[McLuVan]

[Subw00er]

Originally Posted by rldzhao

nope there isn't space on the two sides...

I checked, looks like there is plenty of space! Especially if I come out the back corners - not sure if this is possible yet. The exhaust is on its way to me - I'll crack it open in the next couple weeks..

I'll update the thread as I go if people want.

[Subw00er]

Ok, today we started cutting the extra exhaust I bought.. here are some pics. Enjoy!


We followed the sections hoping to find a design similar to the Dinan sketch. Just below the numbers that are stamped on the exhaust there is the location of the Helmholtz chamber. It is totally sealed from the rest of the exhaust.


Obligatory awesome sparks picture.


We were able to bend back the cover, saving some welding work and keeping it as stock-looking as possible from the rear once installed.


Peeling back the cover, it looks like the diagram in the earlier post is pretty close to reality. We will tap off that top pipe about halfway into the bend to the left and shoot it down towards the lower corner, exiting out the side. We will roughly need a 90deg bend and a straight section on exit.


Note the double walls - is this for sound deadening and heat? Maybe this contributes to that raspy sound? We'll have to spot weld these back together later before welding the cover back on.


Both sides open - will have to open the bottoms too later to be able to weld.


The 2.5" pipe inside splits into what looks like dual 2" pipes before exiting. Note that the pipes are not totally welded, just sort of shoved in and spot welded. Kind of weird. I guess it doenst matter if exhaust gases enter this area. If you look to the right, you can just start to make out some packing material peeking out. The sound absorbing center section of the muffler is not sealed. It looks like the packing material is made of straight lengths of very thin metal strands.


The new plan is to come out pretty close to my original plan, but farther towards the rear and the pipes will be at a slight angle rearward. Now I have to order the 2.5" valves and line everything up. Stay tuned!

[AMPowerJ]

Cool project.

[iatacs19]

nice shirt!

[McLuVan]

wow....
thanks man

[Periokid]

Wow, this is awesome. If it works out, maybe you can make one for me

[Subw00er]

Thanks for the comments so far.

We were thinking that if this is successful, maybe we could fab a few and sell them. Any other interest in doing this? We can make templates, etc now while we are fabbing mine.

[URBAN LEGEND]

Keep us posted.

[Subw00er]

Will do. RRP valves and wireless controller are ordered!
[edit: UPDATE - dont order these.. I've been through two failed sets in 1.5 years! - company support sort of sucks, even though they claim lifetime. They gave me a hard time about the second set saying I already replaced it once. Units I received back were refurbished...]

[Periokid]

[QUOTE=Subw00er;5216356]




[/QUOTE

Just a thought ( I don't know if it is even possible)...can the pipes into the muffler be bypassed to go right to the pipes out of the muffler as seen in these pictures? That way the exhaust would always go out the rear pipes no matter what mode you are in.

[Subw00er]

We looked at this method first. There are two problems
1. the exit pipes are 2", not 2.5" and one would have to be devoted to the valves, so that means a restriction all the time for when the valves are closed. We could obviously make larger pipes, but this is a lot of work because of the proximity of the tips and general spacing.
2. the second and harder problem is where do you put the valves? they cant go inside the muffler because of heat and what if they needed replacement? It would be timely to fab a indent or cutout section to accommodate the valves. We could put them external just behind the muffler, but there is little room there and there is a spacing issue between the exit pipes - only about 1/4-1/2" gap.

The way we're going ahead is the cleanest and requires the least modification, and presents no negative side effects.

[Davis@WheelSTO (no longer with WSTO)]

ummm, we're going to be keeping our eye on this thread. so sweet!; ingenious yet simple simple. I LOVE IT!

can I do the bavarian dance now?

actually I should wait until completion & with video . . .

[Subw00er]

Yes please wait before deciding. It is experimental, but all of the engineers I've talked to and all of my research leads me to believe this is going to be great!

I'll post quality videos later.

[Periokid]

Originally Posted by Subw00er

We looked at this method first. There are two problems
1. the exit pipes are 2", not 2.5" and one would have to be devoted to the valves, so that means a restriction all the time for when the valves are closed. We could obviously make larger pipes, but this is a lot of work because of the proximity of the tips and general spacing.
2. the second and harder problem is where do you put the valves? they cant go inside the muffler because of heat and what if they needed replacement? It would be timely to fab a indent or cutout section to accommodate the valves. We could put them external just behind the muffler, but there is little room there and there is a spacing issue between the exit pipes - only about 1/4-1/2" gap.

The way we're going ahead is the cleanest and requires the least modification, and presents no negative side effects.

I figured as much. I can't wait to see the results!! The other thing I was thinking...Instead of going inside the can, how about just tapping the pipes before they enter the muffler. Your way seems nicer but certainly more work. I am really looking forward to seeing this.

[Subw00er]

Perio, because you'd lose the advantageous Helmholtz chamber in the loop. My goal is to add sound, not drone, and at the same time being able to entirely revert back to stock with a flick of a button..

[///MSpt550xi]

Originally Posted by M2381

-1 on fake dinan exhaust tips

+1 on the -1!

[Periokid]

Originally Posted by Subw00er

Perio, because you'd lose the advantageous Helmholtz chamber in the loop. My goal is to add sound, not drone, and at the same time being able to entirely revert back to stock with a flick of a button..

Got it. Very well thought out.

[Subw00er]

Ok, we worked on this a bit more today. Thought I'd post an update.

Onto the pics!

This is showing where we put the holes to exit the muffler - note the RRP valve off to the right. A note on the race ready performance valve. I tested them today. They move slowly, about 5 seconds from open to close, which is good. I can control the amount of flow easily with the included button. I also bought the remote control that is more of a 1-button press to open or close fully. I think actually you "double-click" it to open automatically.. not sure yet.





Plasma-cutting the initial hole out. It was interesting to note that the bottom half is also double-walled.


Cleaning up the hole to make it perfect. We took our time here and made a template afterward in case we wanted to make more of these and sell them! Next time around will be much easier, with all the hard math done.



Test fitting the pipe. This is from a stainless J-bend that I bought from SUMMIT. The entire exhaust will end up being fully stainless (except the valves obviously).



This is the J-pipe being plasma cut in half. Not much going on in this pic, but I love the sparks!



These are all of the parts laid out. Notice the custom flange that we water-jetted out. These will be welded to the leftover bits from the J pipe later to make a simple exhaust tip. There also needs to be one welded as soon as the pipe exists the muffler - for the valve. It will all be bolted together and I bought gaskets to sandwich in there too - probably not necessary, but why not.



This is one of the pipes shaped in preparation for welding inside the muffler. It will be tricky on one of the sides as it turns out. It will require a compound bend.



Thats it for now. Today we made good progress - aligning the exiting pipes was time consuming and figuring out where to cut was complex as well to get them both perfect on each side and retain the same angle. The pipes will exit at a downward angle and the tips will end up directing exhaust gases mostly to the ground. They will likely hang down a bit, but still much out of the way - probably about as low as the differential fins.

From the looks of it, we have 3-4 more days of work left. Stay tuned!

[AMPowerJ]

I continue to be impressed. Can't wait to see the finished product.

[cyba]

very nice