Exhaust Systems

[n/a]

Can anyone recommend a good quality and good value supplier of a stainless exhaust system for my European spec 1970 280SL Pagoda?  I live in France.
John   cheersmears@wanadoo.fr

[Douglas]

John,

One of the tried & true suppliers in the US is Time Valve. Their website is:

http://www.timevalve.com/



Douglas Kim
New York, NY
#018260

[Bearcat]

time valve tell me they also do RHD exhausts. A question though, if we in Europe order from the states is there a 25% duty bringing in to the EU? I am in Ireland.


280SL 1970
SL320 1998
E300 T/D 98

[TA250SL]

From my understanding, the ss exhaust systems last longer than standard systems, but are louder and lack the distinctive throaty exhaust note we all love to hear.  I know of several owners who tried them and were not happy with these drawbacks.  Just something to consider before making the switch.

Tom

[Shvegel]

John,
 I have a Time Valve exaust on my car that used to be on the 113 of another member. For the most part I like the volume and tone of the exaust but I too find it a bit loud at times especially around 3500RPM(it seems to reach some sort of harmonic resonance). I did find a novel solution to the problem.
  For those days when I am not in the mood for the loudness or am traveling with my girlfriend I pull out and old sock that I keep in my trunk and jam it up one tailpipe With a screwdriver and the noise level drops dramatically without any noticeable decrease in performance. When the trip is over I pull it out with a suitable pair of pliers and I am back to normal.
 I discovered this quite by accident when I was diagnosing a bad valve seal and needed to decrease engine vaccuum and thought that increased backpressure would do the trick.

[Cees Klumper]

Bearcat and others - there are Stainless steel exhaust system suppliers in Europe as well. These systems are recommended by retailers like Van Dijk - principally because they are superior to the MB stock system, and they are cheaper to boot ...
Plus they go together with clamps rather than requiring welding (which is a tricky process, to get the system installed hanging just right) and, if you ever need to take (parts of) the exhaust system back off, for example to work on the rear end, the clamped system is much easier to take off.
I drove Michael Salemi's car (with Timevalve system) last month in Ohio (thanks again Michael) and the exhaust note was just fine.
My car needs a new system soon (same time as I will be installing the rebuilt engine) and I will go with the Van Dijk recommended stainless system.