Hi all - as some of you have read i've been working on getting my 214Sei (R8) sorted out. So far I have: Fixed the central locking actuators, Sorted the HGF, done the cambelt and waterpump, i've located an immaculate drivers seat and tomcat rear plinth and spoiler all in for £35 I'm going all the way to Birmingham from Manchester tomorrow to pick them up.... so Excited She's getting a full respray in British racing green after Xmas - will upload some pictures of her soon

Now its time to try and improve the performance a bit and need to know a bit about the exhausts - Ideally I'd like to fit a full stainless steel system with a decat - unfortunately I'm having trouble locating anything like it. i have managed to find some sportex back boxes (http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Rover-214i-21 ... 6737099%26) but not having much luck with anything else - can anyone tell me what other cars the exhaust would fit from - how about the 216, 218, 220 etc...

Or am i better going seeing a firm like demon tweeks and having a custom system made? this sounds like a very expensive option tho :(

You should be fine with a system off a 216/218

220 would more then likely lose power and the cat bolts holds are different

custom systems are not as expensive as you might think although from demon tweeks they might be. your better off trying a powerflow or cobra dealer.

years ago I had a Janspeed full system with decat and this seemed to really make a difference when also combined with a K&N air filter. But it became very noisy and boomy.

That system rotted away so I have a Sportex back box but standard everywhere else (mid section and cat etc) and so the back box itself, as extepced, makes no difference really.

Personally i think its the decat that has the most benefit but you may have emissions issues as MOT if you do this. the decat combined with the k&n airfilter is a good balance of improvement without spending too much, plus perhaps a nice backbox. Full system good if you can afford it but either way you're never gonna get much more power from the 1400 as its already pretty powerful for its size. It does however free it up rev wise and so it feels like better response.

I remember back in the day my 214si 16v with the janspeed system and k&n would do 125mph on the flat with 5 people in it. Later on, after I had a cambelt change and had gone back to standard setup it would struggle to better 105mph just with me in it. I reckon the timing wasnt quite right.

Now, with the 1600 bottom end, K&N, sportex back box, but cat still in use, it'll do 115-120mph fairly easily and thats my measure of power. Id estimate it to be about 115bhp at present.

Just to note though - I dont drive that sort of speed normally, just in a safe situation on a known stretch of motorway I occasionally "test" it after a change to see if its better or worse.

I would just add that you can waste a great deal of the hard earned buying ' off the shelf ' stainless systems that don't actually fit properly, ( Corrado in my case) or as I think some one has already stated, they can produce exhaust boom and or set up a nasty cabin vibration ( recent issue on a SLK Merc forum).

Our old 214 16v ran better with a cat than without it. (not uncommon)

I also fitted a performance stainless backbox which made very little difference (aside from being annoying on the mnotorway!)

To be honest there aren't big performance gains to be hand on the 1.4. It is pretty highly tuned as standard. (was the most powerful 1.4 in its day and even now it is respectable).

several people have told me the best performance mod they did to their 1.4 is fitting the throttle body off the more powerful versions of the 1.4

That is true for the R3 versions (bubble shaped) as they came in 84 and 103bhp versions. (The major difference being the throttle body).

The wedge shaped R8's only came in the full power versions, i.e. none were restricted power versions (although there were 8v, 16v and SPi and MPi versions with different power outputs).

If you have a look on tinterweb it seems best advice is not to remove the cat on the kseries.

On the non k's its ok but a K will loose power.

thats interesting about the cat.

Definitely not the case with mine, must have been the full Janspeed system from downpipe back (with no cat) was obviously a good system as the car was most definitely quicker at that stage. When I later rrefitted the original style system with cat is felt much more restricted and I lost 10-15mph off the top end speed.

Guess it all depends on the application.