Fitting a Stainless Steel Sports Exhaust to a Ferrari Mondial or Ferrari 308/328
Saturday, May 17th, 2008Overall this is actually a fairly simple process, and a sports exhaust really gets a mean sound out of the V8 engine (see before and after YouTube video below). Also it has to be said the the original, factory silencer box is pretty big and ugly, it’s also very prominent with there being no rear grill (something Ferrari introduced from the 3.2 Mondial and 328 onwards). The exhaust I bought was a generic stainless steel one from Eurospares, it’s at least half the price of a Tubi or X-Ost. The fitting should be pretty much the same for a Ferrari Mondial as a Ferrari 308/328.
Bear in mind that you may be changing your car from it’s factory state, so if you are worried about future re-sale value you might want to keep the original exhaust to put back on at a later date (pretty simple to do as you will see).
All parts ordered from Eurospares (unless otherwise stated).
Parts needed:
- Part No. 118353 Stainless Steel Sports Exhaust Ferrari Mondial QV 1985, Total: £450
- Part No. 118338 Gasket (O rings), Quantity: 2, Price: £6.80, Total: £13.60
- Exhaust/tailpipe compound/sealer 80-100ml, Price about £5 (eBay)
- Metal clips, Quantity 2, Price: not a lot
Optional parts that would be useful to have in case needed (due to corrosion on the existing parts):
- Part No. 10519601 Washer, Quantity: 20, Price: £0.02, Total: £0.40
- Part No. 114748 Nut, Quantity: 10, Price: £0.31, Total: £3.10
- Part No. 119632 Screw, Quantity: 6, Price: £1.50, Total: £9.00 (I couldn’t get these as they were out of stock)
Easy access to under the car is also preferable, though I could just about imagine it would be possible to fit the new exhaust without the car on a ramp, as everything is really near the back. Warning: If you do use jacks or anything like that please be very careful and ensure nothing can slip, 1.5 metrc tons of Ferrari on your head can be bad for your health. An extra pair of strong hands will come in handy too, for catching the old exhaust as it comes off and holding the new one in place while it’s bolted on.
Luckily for me a nice guy called Dean let me use his hydraulic ramps (yes handy to have your own ramps in your garage!). So a big thanks to Dean and especially Paul for their ramps, tools, help, and expertise.
The procedure is as follows, assuming, like me, you have a replacement exhaust which does not need the 90 degree mounting brackets. Instead the box has long bars coming out each side which should align with where the brackets would have been. If you are re-fitting your original exhaust obviously make sure you have these brackets (either from the current exhaust or kept from the original removal). Make sure you don’t scratch your shiny new exhaust (or the shiny tips of the old one) so have an old blanket at the ready to put them on:
- Undo the three nuts mating the exhaust to the manifold, and repeat on the other side (fig 1), remove the screws, nuts and washers. Use plenty of WD40 as things will probably need some loosening up.
- The main securing of the exhaust comes from the pins seen in fig 1, these attach to the right angle brackets. Get your helper ready to catch the old exhaust and remove the pins on each side, when you remove the pins the exhaust should come free. On one side of mine everything undid easily and the pin could be gently tapped out, however on the other side the bracket and pin had seized up, repeated application of WD40, heat, G clamp pressure, and moderate violence all failed. In the end Paul had to delicately cut through part of the bracket until the pin would finally budge. The cut bracket won’t be usable again, but Paul did a good job to avoid ruining the pin, as this was needed immediatly for fitting the new exhaust. Ferrari spares shops should have replacement brackets as this kind were used on a number of models (308 GT4, 308/328, Mondial).
- Your old exhaust should be off now, wrap it up and keep it somewhere safe in case you decide to go back to it or you want to put the car back into it’s original state. It’s a good time to clean out the ends of the bare pipes, the old O ring gaskets are likely to be corroded and in bits. Tap them out gently, don’t hit the manifold hard as the vibrations could could crack it further up, if some force is needed have a helper hold the end of the pipe still as you tap it. Clean up any fouling and corrosion, leaving the two pipe ends ready for re-fitting.
- Coat some muffler/tailpipe sealer around one side of your new O ring gaskets, place in the end of the bare pipe, and coat the exposed gasket side with some sealer. Tricky bit next: get your new exhaust in position, obviously you need to mate together the pipes, then secure the exhaust by putting the pins back in (securing depends on the fitments but basically will involve pushing back in the locking pins into either brackets or the support bars of the new exhaust to hold it in place), and finally replacing the screws/nuts/washers x3 (using new ones if you have them) on each side, making sure they are done up tight.
- Secure the retaining pins in place by passing the wire your wire clips through the holes in the pins and folding the clips round the pin. This will make sure the pins don’t slip out.
- Check the alignment of the pipe ends with the cut away sections of the rear of the car (next to the fog lights). Make sure there is a little space around the exhaust pipes so that it won’t be rattling against the bodywork, you might need to bend the pipe coming from the box a little to achieve this, but be gentle and take care not to scratch your shiny tips.
- Start her up, have a listen and check the seals for any leaks (apply tailpipe sealer as needed). That’s it, you’re done, go and find a tunnel!
Once again a big thanks to Paul and Dean as none of this would have been possible without them.
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