Last night we went to the dog racing at Henlow Dog Racing Stadium, so had a few beers, a bite to eat and a couple of lousy bets... Ended up being a bit of a late one so I woke with a reasonably thick head this morning... Went for an early coffee and bacon sandwich to soak up any remaining alcohol and to give me some energy to get the Raceco exhaust fitted and to prep the car for the upcoming track day at Snetterton (weather permitting).
First job was to remove the standard R500 silencer. Real easy to do, loosen the nuts on the bobbin and then loosen the clamp and wiggle it off.
R500 standard exhaust. |
Springs holding catalytic converter and collector to manifold. |
R500 catalytic converter and exhaust collector ready for removal. |
Caterham R500 catalytic converter with guard and lambda sensor in shot. |
Caterham R500 catalytic converter being weighed in at 3.3kg |
Caterham R500 cat bypass pipe at standard length weighing in at 1.49kg |
Loosing off these header pipe bolts allows easier fitment of collector pipe. |
Cat bypass pipe fitted to Caterham R500 Duratec. |
Exhaust system re-fitted with cat bypass pipe and standard R500 silencer. |
Caterham Carbon Track Day Airbox - weighs 1.06kg |
Then I weighed the pipercross air filter which is much lighter at just 384g.
Caterham Pipercross air filter - weighs just 384g. |
Then it was time to fit the Raceco silencer. I placed the Raceco silencer on some cloth and next to the standard R500 silencer and you can see how much larger the Raceco can is.
R500 standard silencer next to Raceco titanium silencer. |
Raceco Titanium Silencer - weighs 5.5kg |
R500 Standard Silencer - weights 5.7kg, 200g more than the Raceco Titanium version. |
Caterham R500 Cat Bypass Pipe marked up ready for cutting. |
Cutting the Cat Bypass Pipe with my Dremel. |
Cat bypass pipe cut, after first cut, de-burred and fitted. |
Cutting another 3cm off the cat bypass pipe with my Dremel. |
Cut cat bypass pipe, now weighing in at 1.1kg |
The inside of a brand new R500 Duratec Raceco Titanium Exhaust. |
Raceco Titanium Silencer fitted to my Caterham R500. |
Raceco sticker fitted to silencer. |
As I'd weighed everything I thought I'd total up what the before and after weights are.
Pipercross Air Filter - 384g
Carbon Track Day Airbox - 1066g
Catalytic Converter (with guard) - 3314g
Cat Bypass Pipe (uncut) - 1490g
Cat Bypass Pipe (cut to length) - 1162g
Standard R500 silencer - 5.7kg
Raceco Titanium silencer - 5.5kg
So my old setup of the Pipercross air filter, catalytic converter and R500 standard silencer weighed 9.4kg and the new (track day) configuration now weighs in at 7.7kg - so that's a 1.7kg saving. I think I'll order myself another cat bypass pipe and run that with the standard exhaust and pipercross air filter for road use as not only will it sound amazing, it'll also be 7.3kg which is 2.1kg lighter (all due to the cat!)
The Noise Reduction
A couple of days ago I went to Maplin and bought a cheap decibel monitor to measure the results of each possible configuration of the air filters, collector and silencer pipes. Turns out I spent about 2 hours recording video of startups, 5,000RPM revs (as this is the 2/3rds region for testing at track days) and fettling with the different setups to find out that Maplins' decibel monitor was absolutely rubbish.
So I decided to go for a blat instead, and remembering there were some nice tunnel noises on a blat I done on Wednesday, I went back to get some footage to compare the two setups. The setups were:-
1. R500 standard exhaust, catalytic converter and pipercross air filter
2. Raceco titanium silencer, cat bypass pipe and carbon track day air box
There's definitely a different tone between the two, and I prefer the sound of the standard exhaust - but that's ok as the Raceco (for me) is purely to ensure I get through the noise tests at track days.
The breakdown
A few days ago I noticed that one of the indicators on the cycle wings wasn't flashing brightly, and made the following video:-
After speaking to Simon at CC Midlands about the issue he said that it was due to a grounding issue, and I just needed to slightly turn the nut connecting the brake hose to the front calliper. (See picture below)
AP racing front calliper on Caterham R500. |
So I put the indicators on, tightened the nut very slightly and it worked! Another job done!
So why have I written about the indicator repeater under the 'breakdown' heading... The video below is of the breakdown and should reveal all...
It turns out that the grounding issue is causing a short in the electrics - and when I hit the indicator button at 13 seconds (yes 13 believe it or not) in the video it shorted the electrics and blew the 10 amp fuse. So the job isn't done at all, now I've got to try and work out where the short is.
Here is a picture of the fuse that blew:-
Blown 10 amp fuse. |
And a picture of the fuse box with the fuse removed ready for replacement:-
Fuse box with blown fuse removed. |
Polished Raceco silencer looks great Daniel! Never thought about having my own done, i don't have the patience to do it myself, so it will be staying as a now rather dirty Matt finish!
ReplyDeleteGive Mark at M&M polishers a call on 01202 671625 and they can do it for you... They done a great job too!
DeleteGreat Blog,.. quick question did your standard silencer set up fail on track days?, what sort of results did you get is any on static/drive by readings?.
ReplyDeleteWith the Raceco silencer how did you get on on the statc test?....
John
Hi John,
DeleteThanks for reading and a good question...
With the Raceco can, no cat, and carbon airbox it tests static at 99.5db (5,500rpm)... Which is fine for use even at Bedford Autodrome, however later on at Bedford when following a 991 GT3 we all got black flagged for noise - as we were running so close together for a long time (drive-by limit is 87.5db there if I remember correctly). More info is on this page of my blog:-
http://www.caterhamr500.co.uk/2014/08/bedford-autodrome-track-day.html
I'll also be going to Cadwell Park this coming Monday (25th May 2015). Cadwell Park has a 105db static test limit, so will hopefully get through with the standard exhaust and pipercross air filter! I'll take the Raceco parts just in case though!