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| Rover 800 820 Exhaust Front Section (non-turbo). |
Car: 1999 Rover 800 820 Auto Fastback
Colour: Charcoal Grey / Black
Although this vehicle had already had the middle and rear sections of its exhaust replaced with a custom built stainless steel cat-back system, it was only a matter of time before the front section would eventually need replacing.
After 11 years use, the front section was now at the stage where a replacement was definitely needed. It had had some patches of welding applied to it the previous year, to allow it to be used for longer and so that it would pass an MOT test, but now it was about time to replace it as a new series of holes were now beginning to develop.
Fortunately we looked on ebay, before trying an x-part dealer, and we found a Rover supplier had listed some new old stock Rover 820 exhausts on ebay just a few hours earlier. Great timing, and this allowed us to purchase a genuine Rover exhaust for far less than the normal £130-140 price. We then ordered some new gaskets from an MG-Rover X-part dealer.
On arrival the exhaust looked great but on closer examination, it appeared there was a tiny gap in the weld along one of the seams. We did not know if this would be a problem or not, and so decided to fit it anyway, and then get it welded later if required. (This would not be a problem, as the location of it, would still accessible when fitted to the vehicle).
Anyway at least now we had a replacement, and so we were able to make a start. First we drove the car on to ramps.
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The old front section of the exhaust, was now looking a little the worse for wear! Some parts of the seams have been repaired with weld previously. Much of the wire around the flexi-section, had also burnt away.
To make it easier to remove the front section from the exhaust manifold, the cross member would need to be removed from underneath the car.
The cross member has now been removed just by undoing the bolts and lowering out of the way.
To undo the front section of exhaust you need to remove 7 bolts and a rubber bung. 4 of the bolts hold the exhaust to the manifold. These were loosened off, but with a couple still kept in place until the other end was also released.
The 3 bolts that hold the exhaust to the catalytic converter (cat), always seem to be the ones that are going to be the difficult ones to remove. This proved to be the case as normal.
We attempted to remove the nuts with a nut splitter (held on with a g-clamp), although we managed to remove 1 nut this way the nut splitter tool was turning to much on the other 2, but still it cut into the nuts enough to help a little.
We then used several different tools including a junior hacksaw, hammer & metal chisel, various gripping tools, on the remaining nuts, whilst trying not to do too much damage to the threads.
Finally we had all 3 bolts removed. Whilst this end still holds itself up, the rubber bung was removed, and the remaining bolts from the manifold end.
The front section of the exhaust was removed.
The old metal gasket was next to come off.
The old exhaust pipe has finally been removed.
The old and the new exhaust pipes side by side. The part number on the new exhaust pipe is WCD103390EVA
The rust on the old exhaust with new holes appearing.
The new gaskets had not arrived yet, but that did not mean that there was nothing to do! We still needed to prepare the rest of the car prior to fitting the new parts. This face was okay, but the oxygen sensor was given a clean.
The entrance to the cat, had a large build up of carbon on it, so this was scraped off and vacuumed out. We did this to allow for a better flow and hopefully it will help extend the life of the cat.
The entrance to the cat has now been cleaned. Not often you get to clean parts like this, which is why we did it! The face has also now been cleaned.
The bolts wanted the threads cleaning up, so after using needle files, we got out the tap & die set, unfortunately the holder/handle provided in the set, broke immediately once any pressure was required. They always do, and so we just used a set of mole type grips instead.
The second bolt, although seemed to be the worst, was actually the easiest to re-thread.
the 10x1.5 threading tool made spinning new nuts onto the old bolts a doddle. This saved knocking out the ld bolts and getting/fitting new ones.
The bolt threads are now much nicer now they have been cleaned up.
The new gaskets arrived the following morning, part numbers WCM10027 and WCM100480.
The new gasket being fitted. Although not completely flat, they will soon compress into shape when bolted up.
This gasket was placed on top of the new exhaust and would have to be lifted up into place.
With the new front section of exhaust lifted into place, all of the nuts were loosely tightened up.
The nuts were loosely tightened up at this end too. And the rubber bung had been put back in place.
After tightening up the front nuts, these bolts were tightened up to. We have used some nyloc nuts, but with the heat the cat generates, maybe these are not the best choice as the nylon bit might melt! Anyway they are just what we had handy, so if they go bad we will just replace them with normal bolts (and spring washers if required).
At this stage the car was started to check for any leaks at either end, although we also wanted to check the possible tiny gap in the weld too! (as mentioned earlier).
Turns out there is a slight blow from the pipe along the seam weld, where the welder must of got distracted!
We marked up the bad bit, then reattached the cross member underneath the car, so that we could go in search of a welder.
With the car battery disconnected, the welder managed to fix the new exhaust without us having to take it back off the car. It just goes to show you though, that new exhausts, can leak, and it's not just old ones.
The new exhaust section makes the whole exhaust look a lot better now, and the flow is improved back to normal, and hopefully we should see a little improvement in performance and MPG too.
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