So we just thought we'd take an opportunity to show the differences between our
products and then what you might find from other manufacturers on the
market, what makes them different and why so this is one of the s55
BMW downpipes that we make this is the shortest side of the from the
twin turbo setup as you can see straight away.
They do look quite different to the other brand now one of the things
that we do is we will kind of Polish all of the pipework before it
gets welded and that.
Means that we can have it really nice surface finish and once our TIG
welding is supplied window with apart which not only works well for
also looks really aesthetically pleasing.
Really wanted the big things is the TIG welding so there's nothing
necessary wrong with MIG welding it.
Will do the job but what you can what you can do with TIG welding is
kind of turn it up to 11 or motion 8ur you've got so much more control
over the world and it said it's a world is far better suited to
stainless steels than MIG welding is one of the other differences
between what we produce and what you'll generally find and is it we
also take quite a lot of caring interest over what's going on inside
the pipe work, so it's not just for trying to make something that's
athletically pleasing we also wanted to be really nice and smooth
inside and also to last a long time so all of our world's are back
purged and that is essentially filling the pipe work with argon gas.
That sign weld on the inside as we get on the outside so we're not
getting any oxidize a shin of the world when we weld it from the
outside that way it's really important to ensure that all the world's
are fully penetrated and that well this coming through on the inside
and that we've got the argon shielding gas on the inside as well.
That will lead to a world which really should never break even with
really high stress and really high 43 thousands of heat Cycles and
it's not just the pipework joiners that wear purging as well, but also
purging the O2 sensor boss is so literally when this pipe is welded we
start at all the all the parts salt act together and we world the
whole thing up with a back Purge at the same time that way again.
We can make sure that none of this starts to oxidize we don't ever see
any kind of degradation of welding there.
We also port out the joint here so you can see where are well joint is
there but it's been sanded out nicely switch snooze again when the Gas
is coming out of a turbo.
We want no restrictions.
We want it to be as smoother flow as possible.
All these little details add up to a product that will perform better.
Alpart uses a stainless steel flexible o instead of a traditional
braided into lock line flexi so for the short downpipes.
This is a far better suit black section dinner traditional flexi it's
mainly because the engine really isn't doing an awful lot of movement
in terms of we're not we're not worried about exhaust sound too much
into the back of the car and a transverse engine.
What there is is a lot of vibration in the engine bay the engine
performance car so all of vibrations and we want to make sure that
were given this downpipe the best chance of being as reliable as
possible.
So using these stourflex bellows give us that added extra liability.
They are lighter than a normal interlock lined Bello as well.
So it was all the range of movement we need.
with the added reliability
so as with all of our products.
We only manufacture them in really small batches, so that's that we
can keep a real close control over the quality of the part the fit in
the finish of it and thank you have all the details we're not really
banging things out in big quantities.
We are looking at small batches.
So that we can really concentrate on getting all those details right
of details that make this a really unique product over whilst is on
the market.
When we're looking at the alternatives even from big name on the
market you can instantly see the differences between what we produce
and what they're interested in producing.
So this part is clearly a part that doesn't take as long to
manufacture.
It is manufactured in a way that makes it easy and makes it fast so
they're not too worried about the external surface finish.
They're not too worried about weld appearance or weld reliability with
the MIG welding the placement of the O2 sensors isn't always the best.
And then the welding that goes with it.
There's been no effort to remove any kind of clamping Marks and the
mandrel bending process.
There are still in there.
This has been drilled straight through the the crimp of the braids and
the interliner so although it's been welded round that brain interlock
line was actually or loose on the inside of this this bossier now is
that really going to affect it in the long-term maybe not but this but
there's a chance it could there's a chance that a crack or joint good
form here especially with it being near the flex joint.
And then that could cause a leaking exhaust joint which is obviously
going to cause smell in the cabin through exhaust gas entering the
engine bay.
It's just these little things that will also be quite hard to inspect
from the engine bay and from the underneath of the car.
So you might suspect there's an issue, but it's also really hard so as
we spoke about with the flex Bellow on the enhanced downpipe on this
other branded downpipe the views day traditional overbraid flex with
the crimp ends in the interrupt liner now.
He's a great on a traditional exhaust system single turbo.
They're just looking at taking up the movement of the exhaust and a
rocking of the engine.
But these aren't really that great for dealing with engine bay
vibration where it's really quite a heavy flex action what these do
need is there quite a lot of force to actually caused them to move
there really quite stiff that's because they're designed to be really
durable in an engine.
That's going to move around a lot or an exhaust system is going to
move around a lot on the s55 engine car engine isn't going anywhere
it's really starting mounted as all the exhaust systems so fitting in
a
Interlock lined braided flex, it's not really the best way to go.
Really stiff to really trying to get any movement out of that it's
really hard to actually move it and then it will compare that to the
Bella we've you we've got a full range of movement there without
really much effort, so that's just going to take loads of stress off
of the weld joints and off of the downpipe itself off the turbo the
engine and everything that you do that over to downpipes and you can
either add or reduce quite a lot of stress.
As you can see from the inside of here.
Not much carer's really been taken to cut this whole and clean it up.
It's kind of a very fast process.
What's the quickest easiest way of doing just been plasma cut out and
all of the the Swarm and remained in their obviously got some well
protruding through from the MIG welding process.
It's just a very made Park a lot of these manufacturers will state
that day manufacture the part 2 en standards, but a lot of the time
what you can see particularly the standard s55 downpipes is actually
made a lot nicer than these are as you can see there's no care taking
over the pipe fitment against the flange so we've got quite a lot of
roughage in here can not great for gas flow protruding through on the
inside again not great for gas flow.
Then we got that internal pipe joint where it's in sleeved all of
these things add up.
So where is we're taking into account all of those small details and
knowing the all of those small details will add up to gaining more
performance especially when you're really pushing high and horsepower
on this kind of product all those small details like to start to work
against you on with a mild steel flange that's to reduce Wapping when
it's been welded now what they've done is well.
All the way around here even though there's a graphite seal that goes
square up against the back of that flange and that joint doesn't
actually do anything there's no actual gas seal there so the fact that
use the mild steel flat and then well you all the way around it.
It's a bit pointless the stainless steel flange would have been much
nicer.
No no corrosion overtime no chance for it to leak.
And I've also just blob MIG welded some bolts on the only part would
have a stud in here.
It's we're both up to the cat back exhaust and obviously instead of
using a stereo using a tapped threaded flange with a mig welder fault
on which just make it a little easier.
The same as a stud wood to thread those nuts and bolts on when you
actually fitting it, but say you want to remove it in a year's time
and this mild steel bolt which was zinc coated but since they MIG
welding it.
They burn all that zinc coating off that will be all rusty.
They supply mild steel nuts it was all rusted together and we're going
to get that off his most likely to break it all the time but some
sharp edges in here.
Which is again not really worse, but it's also not the best.
Just goes to show that there's not really been much pride.
Taken when this has been manufactured it's fine the fast process and
not really too interested in leaving shop that really too worried
about leaving sharp edges on the inside of the pipework to the
alternative to welding on a bolt is a nice stainless steel bolt and a
copper nut the beat of the copper know is just like the game would use
you can remove that note after hundreds of heat cycles.
No problem and that boat is still going to be in just as good
condition so you're not going to get it look you're not going to be
kind to heat nuts and bolts up trying to move them later date.
It will just wind off just like their weekend would use on the
manifolds and downpipes and Bolton on Bowie as you like.