We are really happy with the end result. It took a lot of work, but the ground clearance we achieved definitely made it worth it. Nothing is perfect, however, and our exhaust has a couple of drawbacks.
First, we simply didn’t have any room to fit a flex pipe anywhere. Thankfully we are currently using the stock cast iron exhaust manifold and the engine is mounted with fairly rigid polyurethane bushings. These factors should mitigate the risk of cracking stuff so we don’t expect to have any issues. If we ever switch exhaust manifolds we will go for a top mount manifold which will give us more room to add a flex pipe.
The second drawback is the proximity of the exhaust to the fuel and brake lines. There is nothing we could have really done about this, there was only one spot for the exhaust to go. We heat wrapped the exhaust to mitigate any problems this can cause, but we will also be adding additional heat shielding to the fuel lines later on.
Look for the next article where we will be upgrading the suspension to finally make this car handle. Meanwhile, check out the rest of Project SR E30.
5 comments
Nice work!
Looks great but any reason to do it in 1 piece? Seems like its going to be a bear to remove later on.
At the time, we couldn’t find any decent oval exhaust flanges that wouldn’t have taken away from the ground clearance.
That being said, the exhaust is actually pretty easy to remove.
Nice work, I was gonna see if you can check out the treehouse racing lollypops. they are smaller in physical size and gain more clearance. Your build reminds me of one of my friends who went KA-t in an e30 and it ran pretty gnar.
Tip: might want to 2-piece the exhaust for when you need to change out the guibo, subframe bushings, and other rear maintenance.
Yeah we’re definitely going to switch to a heim-style lolipop bushing down the line. I’ve gotten that burning polyurethane smell a couple of times already.