asneddon
Mar 24th, 2009, 22:05
I have always had a bit of trouble with exhausts and when I had my P1800 restored I thought I may as well fix the issues.
So while the engine was out I asked Tony Barrett in london (who was doing other work on the engine, but thats a different story) to supply a new two downpipe manafold to replace my single downpipe one. I spacifically said I wanted a two piece one as I might want to go to a tubular header in the future. I should mention that the car came with a seperate inlet and exhaust manifold.
During the restoration my company moved me from London to Oxford, so I couldn't check up on the work as much as I wanted to. I got around every fortnight to three weeks for the body work which was being done at the Car Hospital, who I couldn't recommend more, but never got to see the engine until after it was fitted to the car.
Anyway, it turned out he had fitted a single casting manifold but I dont notice at the time.
Fast foward three months of daily use and I'm sick on the exhaust leak from the join of the downpipe and first flat pipe section. I had had three garages in Oxford look at it and they could fix it. Im also not 100% sure I dont have an air leak in the manifold as I cant get the idle to stay constant. Sometimes it will idle nicely at 800rpm ish, other times it sits at around 1200, other times it wont idle at all unless I keep the engine alive by left foot braking.
Well, I decide to bite the bullet and fit a whole new exhaust system from tubular manifold right back. I choose the Simons system as its got lots of praise from most sites on line. Im a bit supprised they dont to a 4-2-1 header, only a 4-1 which is a shame as I never rev the car hard and like mid range torque over high rev HP. Anyway, I listen to Tony and get him to order the system.
I organise a meeting in my companys London office and book the car in with Tony. I tell him I can drop it off in the morning, train to work, then come back at about 15:00 to 15:30 that evening. I hear nothing from him all day.
I get back at about 16:30 as the meeting ran over, and they are still finishing off the fitting. They explain that the front pipe from the Simons kit that is meant to join the headers to the first muffler didnt fit, so they used the centre muffler from an amazon kit, which meant they had to use an amazon rear section over the axle.
The rear muffler is sitting on the body, and the twin pipes out the back are sitting at an angle rather that level. I get them to adjust things to get the pipes sitting flat. Then they lower the car to start it and BANG. One of the head studs blows off and the header doesnt seal. Sounds like there is no exhaust at all.
I end up getting a courtesy car and heading back to oxford, leaving them to sort it out. I head back a couple of days later to pick it up and get handed a £700 bill! The original quote was £300 for the system and £100 to fit it. I'm fine paying a little extra as the head stud broke, and paying for the new studs isnt a problem, but an extra £300 for something they broke!
On with the story. Tony shows the system off and tells me to be carefull over speed bumps as its lower than standard. I head off and find not only do you have to be carefull over speed bumps, you have to basically stop. Same for pot-holes, man hole covers, and wobbly roads! Any vague bump caused a huge bang from the system hitting the body!
This is obviously not acceptable and has removed all my enjoyment from the car. Im starting to dislike being in it which is a problem as I drive it to work every day! So I take it into a local exhaust place in Oxford and had them put it up on their ramp. I was going to get them to fit a new standard system and flog the brand new Simons one on ebay (probably for a huge loss). 15 minutes and £20 later they have fixed a leak from the front pipe, moved the mounting braket on the centre pipe and spread the back pipe that goes over the axle to clear where it was hitting! They say the fitting was worse than they would expect from a 10 year old. The rear pipe was sitting on the bottom of the suspension spring when at rest, after 2 inches of compression this pushed the top of the pipe into the floor. This not only caused the huge bangs, but meant that I only had 2 inches of suspension travel on the rear drivers side! Oh, and they had bashed the body work out of the way in a couple of places! Not only that, they didnt replace the underseal, leaving bare metal in places!
As they had to move the carbs back from the manifold they supplied earlier onto a seperate inlet manifold (probably my original one anyway) I was hoping the air leak would be fixed. Wouldnt you know it but they didnt use new gaskets! They also re-used a perished fuel pipe that joins the twin carbs (I noiced this after the car started ****ing fuel out when hot and at idle!). The idle is a llittle better, but they had it set to idle at about 1100rpm which is a little high for me. I can live with it though.
So, does it go and sound better? Well, if you like the sound of a Supra, then I guess yes. Its quite a high pitch sound with a whistle at low throttle openings. Its not horrible but its also not the throaty burble I wanted. Its higher pitched than what was on it. As for power, there is no extra in the rev range I use. I guess there might be more if you red line it, but thats not how I drive these days. This doesnt really worry me to be honest. I wasnt after power in the first place. I figure a car like this should look, smell, and sound good. If it goes well then thats an extra!
Anyway, I would say you should all think twice before getting any work done by Tony Barrett. He is probably ok for getting parts through but the quality of the work is just terrible. Im now worried about the engine work I had him carry out a while ago (new D cam, front and rear seals modified to take modern seals, new clutch).
Attached are a few photos for reference.
So while the engine was out I asked Tony Barrett in london (who was doing other work on the engine, but thats a different story) to supply a new two downpipe manafold to replace my single downpipe one. I spacifically said I wanted a two piece one as I might want to go to a tubular header in the future. I should mention that the car came with a seperate inlet and exhaust manifold.
During the restoration my company moved me from London to Oxford, so I couldn't check up on the work as much as I wanted to. I got around every fortnight to three weeks for the body work which was being done at the Car Hospital, who I couldn't recommend more, but never got to see the engine until after it was fitted to the car.
Anyway, it turned out he had fitted a single casting manifold but I dont notice at the time.
Fast foward three months of daily use and I'm sick on the exhaust leak from the join of the downpipe and first flat pipe section. I had had three garages in Oxford look at it and they could fix it. Im also not 100% sure I dont have an air leak in the manifold as I cant get the idle to stay constant. Sometimes it will idle nicely at 800rpm ish, other times it sits at around 1200, other times it wont idle at all unless I keep the engine alive by left foot braking.
Well, I decide to bite the bullet and fit a whole new exhaust system from tubular manifold right back. I choose the Simons system as its got lots of praise from most sites on line. Im a bit supprised they dont to a 4-2-1 header, only a 4-1 which is a shame as I never rev the car hard and like mid range torque over high rev HP. Anyway, I listen to Tony and get him to order the system.
I organise a meeting in my companys London office and book the car in with Tony. I tell him I can drop it off in the morning, train to work, then come back at about 15:00 to 15:30 that evening. I hear nothing from him all day.
I get back at about 16:30 as the meeting ran over, and they are still finishing off the fitting. They explain that the front pipe from the Simons kit that is meant to join the headers to the first muffler didnt fit, so they used the centre muffler from an amazon kit, which meant they had to use an amazon rear section over the axle.
The rear muffler is sitting on the body, and the twin pipes out the back are sitting at an angle rather that level. I get them to adjust things to get the pipes sitting flat. Then they lower the car to start it and BANG. One of the head studs blows off and the header doesnt seal. Sounds like there is no exhaust at all.
I end up getting a courtesy car and heading back to oxford, leaving them to sort it out. I head back a couple of days later to pick it up and get handed a £700 bill! The original quote was £300 for the system and £100 to fit it. I'm fine paying a little extra as the head stud broke, and paying for the new studs isnt a problem, but an extra £300 for something they broke!
On with the story. Tony shows the system off and tells me to be carefull over speed bumps as its lower than standard. I head off and find not only do you have to be carefull over speed bumps, you have to basically stop. Same for pot-holes, man hole covers, and wobbly roads! Any vague bump caused a huge bang from the system hitting the body!
This is obviously not acceptable and has removed all my enjoyment from the car. Im starting to dislike being in it which is a problem as I drive it to work every day! So I take it into a local exhaust place in Oxford and had them put it up on their ramp. I was going to get them to fit a new standard system and flog the brand new Simons one on ebay (probably for a huge loss). 15 minutes and £20 later they have fixed a leak from the front pipe, moved the mounting braket on the centre pipe and spread the back pipe that goes over the axle to clear where it was hitting! They say the fitting was worse than they would expect from a 10 year old. The rear pipe was sitting on the bottom of the suspension spring when at rest, after 2 inches of compression this pushed the top of the pipe into the floor. This not only caused the huge bangs, but meant that I only had 2 inches of suspension travel on the rear drivers side! Oh, and they had bashed the body work out of the way in a couple of places! Not only that, they didnt replace the underseal, leaving bare metal in places!
As they had to move the carbs back from the manifold they supplied earlier onto a seperate inlet manifold (probably my original one anyway) I was hoping the air leak would be fixed. Wouldnt you know it but they didnt use new gaskets! They also re-used a perished fuel pipe that joins the twin carbs (I noiced this after the car started ****ing fuel out when hot and at idle!). The idle is a llittle better, but they had it set to idle at about 1100rpm which is a little high for me. I can live with it though.
So, does it go and sound better? Well, if you like the sound of a Supra, then I guess yes. Its quite a high pitch sound with a whistle at low throttle openings. Its not horrible but its also not the throaty burble I wanted. Its higher pitched than what was on it. As for power, there is no extra in the rev range I use. I guess there might be more if you red line it, but thats not how I drive these days. This doesnt really worry me to be honest. I wasnt after power in the first place. I figure a car like this should look, smell, and sound good. If it goes well then thats an extra!
Anyway, I would say you should all think twice before getting any work done by Tony Barrett. He is probably ok for getting parts through but the quality of the work is just terrible. Im now worried about the engine work I had him carry out a while ago (new D cam, front and rear seals modified to take modern seals, new clutch).
Attached are a few photos for reference.