Club 80-90 Forums

Steel grubs will be far worse to drill out than SS equivalent. Stainless is tough, but relatively soft. It isnt "hard" unless actually hardenable grade, such as used for knives.
Non-stainless grubs are better than 10.9 tensile grade and have a very (mechanically) hard skin with a very tough core.
Add this to folks who dont put in a centre pop or pilot hole, only want to run their drills flat out with no cutting oil or cutting pressure, then they wonder why their blunt drills just rub and go blue...
Drill slow and keep the pressure on with a sharp, equally ground drill!

Just looking back on this thread, you did say ^^^ that you prefer "high-tensile M8 steel grub screws, about 40-45mm" and I reckon you know about metals, or you wouldn’t be doing what you do . So I will order those and some brass nuts for when I do my DG to DJ swap.

silverbullet wrote:Steel grubs will be far worse to drill out than SS equivalent. Stainless is tough, but relatively soft. It isnt "hard" unless actually hardenable grade, such as used for knives.
Non-stainless grubs are better than 10.9 tensile grade and have a very (mechanically) hard skin with a very tough core.
Add this to folks who dont put in a centre pop or pilot hole, only want to run their drills flat out with no cutting oil or cutting pressure, then they wonder why their blunt drills just rub and go blue...
Drill slow and keep the pressure on with a sharp, equally ground drill!

I thought cutting speeds/drilling speeds are quite high for small drill bits, certainly as high as a standard drill? Definitely use cutting oil, pressure and a pop though. Quite a while since I did machining/lathe work though!

Theory and practice are two very different things!

Thought I'd update this post for future reference as I have just finished fitting the speedshop exhaust on my 'early' 1.9 DG.

I'm really happy with it and would certainly recommend it to others The fit is nice and neat and there was no need to change the oil filter for a shorter 'Polo" one. I was super cautious with the studs and soaked them about 5 times with plus gas and then practically melted them all with a small hand held blow torch! This may have been overkill but i really didn't want to snap one as i didn't feel confident enough to attempt drilling one out. I used new steel studs and copper nuts from brickwerks and ran a tap through the stud holes to clean them out a bit. The sound from the silencer is great too, it's slightly louder than the original one but by no means 'boy racer' style. I also chose to replace the engine mounts - I received mixed advice on here about whether or not to bother doing this but decided to go ahead anyway as the early vans don't have the 'cradle' to support the silencer and I wanted to reduce the engine vibrations as far as possible. Again, this might have been overkill, time will tell!

All in all I'd say it's a good system for the price.

Thanks for taking the time to a a follow up and glad you are pleased with it

Great system and yes, you did the right job by sorting the engine mounts as well at the same time. Enjoy.

Pics...

Another vote for the Speedshop SS. Here are some from my '84 1.9 DG, if it helps. Brickwerks studs and brass nuts too. I took the exhaust supporting bracket off in the end, didn't need it - very firm in place. I ended up doing a full engine rebuild when my exhaust studs snapped off! Good experience though.

Without the support bracket you will find that the weld that joins the collector to the silencer end plate will fail, or the end of the can will crack. Been there, welded that.

Cheers for that Silverbullet, good to share those experiences. I'll get that bracket back on there.

No problem. My mods to an early version that I bought secondhand. The pad covers a load of cracks around the early (tiny/useless) support bracket and the tie rods are there for peace of mind:

Would anyone who's fitted one of the Speedshop exhausts care to comment on the fit around the pushrod protection plates?

I've been doing a trial fit to the engine I'm building on the bench. I've only tried the right hand side so far, but the gap for the protection plate seems really tight. I'm using an aftermarket stainless protection plate, but if anything the original double skin plate seems like it would be even tighter.

You can see in the photo that the plate is squeezed between the rear J-pipe and the head. It fits (just) but I'm worried about heat transfer from the J-pipe and wear on the exhaust. I'm loath to leave the plates off altogether, as apart from the physical protection I think they probably also deflect heat away from the rubber seals at the ends of the pushrod tubes which are very close at that point. I could trim the edge off the protection plate to clear the J-pipe, but then I'd lose a bit of the heat shielding.

What have other people done? Am I worrying about nothing?

I have to say that would concern me somewhat too. I have sold the van that had the Speedshop exhaust on it, so I cannot check, but I can say it would have had a heck of a lot more clearance than that when I fitted it, otherwise I would have posted the same questions you have. On mine the tailpipe fouled the lower valence slightly and I had to correct that (by bending the valence upwards a bit ). Though I think it is a well designed exhaust, maybe manufacturing tolerances are not as good as they should be. Did you buy it new with a receipt? Perhaps consider getting them to change it.

Thanks John - yes I've emailed them to ask if this is normal or whether this particular J-pipe might be a little out of spec. I should trial fit the other side to see if it's any better. That's a bit tricky at the moment though, as the whole thing is currently resting on that side of the case on my bench - I've drilled 8 holes in the bench top to take the head studs, an idea I cribbed from Andrew at Campershack.

I wondered if it was significant that Speedshop's photos on their website show an installation without the protection plates, but if you managed to install it around the protection plates then I guess it's not.