940 exhaust question

[827Roverman]

The mild steel exhaust on my 1996 940 2.3ti fitted at Halfords almost five years ago is now corroding, its not blowing as yet but it will need replacing soon, I remember at the time Halfords struggled to find the right one and I think I finished up with a bitsa (different bits they made to fit)
So now that I've decided to keep my Volvo, I'm thinking that when it does start to blow, replace it with a stainless system, I'm no boy racer those days have long gone , so I don't want anything too loud, my questions are:
1, What is the original bore of the exhaust on a 2.3 turbo ?
2, Now that my volvo is running on LPG (except for start up) do I really need to have a catalytic converter, (just thinking about MOT's).

And how's this for close birthdays, I'm 75 on the 8 Dec, my volvo will be 24 on the 11 Dec, (just wish I was in as good nick as the Volvo) David.

[loki_the_glt]

The Exxon Valdez is running a cat-back stainless system from the people who advertise in the Volvo Driver; if you haven't got a copy of the mag I'll post the details tomorrow. (I'm at work just now.)

[gpl1968]

The original cat back exhaust would have been 2.25".

As your car was built after 1992 and had a cat fitted you will need a cat for the mot. That said pre' 2001 cars don't need the full OEM spec cat as the emissions test is less strict for these cars.

If you plan on keeping the car then stainless is the sensible option.

I bought my 940 in 2007 and it had a 1 year old 2.5" stainless cat back exhaust fitted. That lasted until last year (13 years).
The original cat was also knackered so I bought a custom 2.5" full exhaust (behind the down pipe) including a Magnaflow cat, middle box and rear silencer.
I went to Cybox in Bormborough on the Wirral. They had the car for six hours and charged £400. They gave me the option to delete the centre box but I chose to keep it quiet. If this exhaust lasts as long as the last it will be a good investment.

One thing to note with ss exhausts, if they don't use ss clamps to join the sections the clamps will rot away and your exhaust may drop off unexpectidly as a result (a friend of mine experienced this with his Land Rover) I had to replace one clamp a few years ago for the MOT as there wasn't much left of the original.

[Laird Scooby]

Originally Posted by 827Roverman

2, Now that my volvo is running on LPG (except for start up) do I really need to have a catalytic converter, (just thinking about MOT's).

Originally Posted by gpl1968

As your car was built after 1992 and had a cat fitted you will need a cat for the mot.

No, the cat can be removed legally as part of the LPG conversion and it will still pass the MoT, there is no legal requirement if running an LPG conversion.

[827Roverman]

Originally Posted by loki_the_glt

The Exxon Valdez is running a cat-back stainless system from the people who advertise in the Volvo Driver; if you haven't got a copy of the mag I'll post the details tomorrow. (I'm at work just now.)

Thanks for this, I've got the mag so will have a look tomorrow, David.

[827Roverman]

Originally Posted by loki_the_glt

The Exxon Valdez is running a cat-back stainless system from the people who advertise in the Volvo Driver; if you haven't got a copy of the mag I'll post the details tomorrow. (I'm at work just now.)

Would that be the Jetex system in the August issue that you got, David.

[TonyS9]

5 yrs is a good life from a Halford exhaust, I used to get 2 yrs from a Volvo system, but my mileage was low and this seemed to be the problem.

I got a Longlife down-pipe back system custom fitted, with a single rear silencer and cat for about £500 a few years back. If the down pipe is still in good order I would cut the end off it near the cat and custom fit from that point.

One of the difficulties the fitters have is getting the swaged end to fit the turbo and finding a suitable clamp. The swaged ends are available on ebay now, but not the clamp, or as I said you can reuse the down-pipe.

There are many Longlife dealers and they will match your original noise and fittment. If you go for a powerflow or Jetxx system you will end up with a straight through system that will be loud.

I also got a system fitted to my 360 with B230FT, with what I hoped was a place with better experience and skills, but they fitted a 2.25" down pipe (badly) system (after I spec'd 2.5" welded to the original, and fitted a straight through system after I had spec'd 'original sound level'. The fitter didn't understand the difference between a staggered/baffled systems and a straight through.

[Laird Scooby]

Originally Posted by TonyS9

5 yrs is a good life from a Halford exhaust, I used to get 2 yrs from a Volvo system, but my mileage was low and this seemed to be the problem.

I got a Longlife down-pipe back system custom fitted, with a single rear silencer and cat for about £500 a few years back. If the down pipe is still in good order I would cut the end off it near the cat and custom fit from that point.

One of the difficulties the fitters have is getting the swaged end to fit the turbo and finding a suitable clamp. The swaged ends are available on ebay now, but not the clamp, or as I said you can reuse the down-pipe.

There are many Longlife dealers and they will match your original noise and fittment. If you go for a powerflow or Jetxx system you will end up with a straight through system that will be loud.

I also got a system fitted to my 360 with B230FT, with what I hoped was a place with better experience and skills, but they fitted a 2.25" down pipe (badly) system (after I spec'd 2.5" welded to the original, and fitted a straight through system after I had spec'd 'original sound level'. The fitter didn't understand the difference between a staggered/baffled systems and a straight through.

Good points there Tony but even straight through systems can be factory quiet. I think your main problem with the fitter not understanding original sound level is that most people want noissy straight through, we as an older generation asking for original sound level on a stainless system confuse the bejesus out of them!

First car i had with a stainless system was a Nissan 300C, that was quiet until you booted it when it became slightly noisir/raspier than the standard but once up to cruising speed, went quiet again. That was straight through as well.

[827Roverman]

Originally Posted by TonyS9

5 yrs is a good life from a Halford exhaust, I used to get 2 yrs from a Volvo system, but my mileage was low and this seemed to be the problem.

I got a Longlife down-pipe back system custom fitted, with a single rear silencer and cat for about £500 a few years back. If the down pipe is still in good order I would cut the end off it near the cat and custom fit from that point.

One of the difficulties the fitters have is getting the swaged end to fit the turbo and finding a suitable clamp. The swaged ends are available on ebay now, but not the clamp, or as I said you can reuse the down-pipe.

There are many Longlife dealers and they will match your original noise and fittment. If you go for a powerflow or Jetxx system you will end up with a straight through system that will be loud.

I also got a system fitted to my 360 with B230FT, with what I hoped was a place with better experience and skills, but they fitted a 2.25" down pipe (badly) system (after I spec'd 2.5" welded to the original, and fitted a straight through system after I had spec'd 'original sound level'. The fitter didn't understand the difference between a staggered/baffled systems and a straight through.

Like you my 940 has done very little mileage since the Halfords exhaust was fitted, in fact the car has been more or less parked up for the last five years due to my wife's illness and me not being able to get out, so its only had very occasional use which obviously does not help, there is a firm, Longlife Exhaust in Bredbury/Stockport not far from me, that make stainless exhaust, so as and when it does start blowing I'll contact them, I may just contact them now just to get a idea on cost etc,
The longest lasting exhaust I've ever known was on my wife's Proton 1.5 MPI, we bought the car new, and had it for 15 years, when she stopped driving we gave the car to our nephew who then ran it for another 4 years, still on the original exhaust, I'm 90% sure it was just a steel one,

Just got a provisional quote back from Longlife, for a stainless system,
From cat back £429
For a cat £299
For a front pipe(single) £150,
I'll be looking elswhere !

[Laird Scooby]

Originally Posted by 827Roverman

The longest lasting exhaust I've ever known was on my wife's Proton 1.5 MPI, we bought the car new, and had it for 15 years, when she stopped driving we gave the car to our nephew who then ran it for another 4 years, still on the original exhaust, I'm 90% sure it was just a steel one,

I think that beats the longest one i know of which was on my Sterling until about 8 years ago when i built a system, used most of the original pipework and just replaced the silencers. That lasted until about 2-3 years back when i decided to revert to standard (i had two back boxes, one each side) so i only had one rear silencer.
I had have to do a few repairs on the original pipework as well but when the front pipes finally got to the point where dog food tins and Jubilee clips were no longer a good repair, that was when i renewed the lot, front to back.
The original system lasted 18 years and the front pipes (with repairs) lasted 23 years.