Re: Stebro for Alfa

[George Graves <gmgraves@domain.elided>]

Funny you should ask. Just last week, my Alfa mechanic put my new 
Stebro resonator (rear muffler) on my GTV-6. On the rack just next to 
my car was another GTV-6 that he was putting an Ansa rear muffler on. I 
got to hear them both, side by side. The Stebro definitely sounds 
better. Its deeper, more aggressive, and definitely a tad louder. The 
Ansa is much more stock sounding and has smaller exhaust tips. But 
there are other differences as well that someone contemplating a new 
rear can for any Alfa should know:

Ansas are finished better than Stebros. Ansas have black wrinkle 
painted  "cans" and inlet pipes as well as painted exhaust outlets up 
to the actual tips where the wrinkle finish gives way to chrome finish 
with the Ansa logo stamped into the tips. Very nice looking. The 
Stebros, OTOH, are bare metal and unfinished. The exhaust outlet pipes 
end in polished, not chrome plated steel. On the GTV-6,  when in place, 
the can itself (which is rectangular) sits crooked, rather than square 
with the underside of the car, but the tips are level.  This turns out 
to be OK because you can't actually see the Stebro can from street 
level after its installed. My mechanic tells me that he has put in 
scores of Stebros in all models of Alfas, and he has never seen one yet 
that actually fit and my car was no exception. The inlet pipe on my 
rear can arches up over the rear axle assembly to connect with the pipe 
from the muffler. When we first connected it up, the top of the arched 
inlet pipe was hard against the underside of the body (exhaust systems 
aren't supposed to actually touch the car anywhere except at the 
mounting points via the rubber or spring hangers.). We tried moving the 
rest of the exhaust system forward using heat from a torch and mallets, 
but that was unsuccessful. Since the Ansa system on the other car 
needed to be in by lunchtime (when the owner was returning to pick it 
up), my mechanic left mine for a while and installed the Ansa. It fit 
perfectly, but it was then we noticed that this Alfa was lacking the 
heat shield over the arched inlet pipe that my car has -there weren't 
even any empty screw holes where it was supposed to be. So we went back 
to my car and removed the heat shield. Then the Stebro's pipe cleared 
the underbody - barely (I think it still hits something when I 
back-up). As I mentioned above, my mechanic says that every Stebro he 
has ever fitted was troublesome. He told me that the worst were for the 
164 which took about 8-hours to install, and the  2000 GTV through '74, 
which takes him about 5 hours to get right. Also be advised that 
Stebros are made in Canada, not in Italy (as I believed) but they are 
definitely well made and are of 100% U.S. grade heavy STAINLESS STEEL, 
which is even better than the original factory system. The Ansa, though 
better finished, are probably so well finished because they ARE NOT 
STAINLESS, they are just regular 16 Ga galvanized. I suspect that 
without the paint, they'd rust through pretty quickly and because GTV-6 
exhausts make a lot of water when the car is cold (cold exhaust system 
condensing water vapor in exhaust gases), I think one wouldn't last 
more than a couple of years. So, in a nutshell: Ansas are prettier, but 
won't last as long. Stebros are harder to fit (not DIY), yield a better 
sound, and being high quality stainless, will likely last indefinitely. 
One more thing: Neither came with any hardware, so if you break 
something getting the old exhaust system out, you'll need to supply 
your own new hardware as well as a new exhaust joint gasket. I hope 
this answers everyone's questions

George Graves
'86 GTV-6




On Tuesday, Feb 18, 2003, at 12:18 US/Pacific, alfa-digest wrote:


> Date: Mon, 17 Feb 2003 22:41:02 -0800
> From: Stacy Faught <slfaught@domain.elided>
> Subject: Re: alfa-digest V9 #276
>
> Very cool.  I have a question though, for those of you out there
> who have had the experience of hearing both the Stebro and Ansa 
> exhaust:
> Which of these do you prefer from a sound quality point of view, and 
> why?
> I understand that the Ansa will rust out sooner---this is not really a
> concern of mine though--I will gladly replace it every few years if it 
> has
> a nice deep throaty sound to it.  Now if the Stebro unit sounds as 
> nice as
> the
> Ansa (or better...), then of course there's the added bonus that it 
> will
> last
> for quite a long time.
>
>
>
>
> > Date: Mon, 17 Feb 2003 22:00:13 -0500
> > From: "Marc Grenier" <giulia2000@domain.elided>
> > Subject: Stebro for Alfa
> >
> > I was surfing the usual Alfa suppliers this week and came across a
> > special
> > offer appearing on the Stebro website:  15% off all Alfa Romeo stock
> > items the
> > week of February 23 for Alfa Digest / AROC Group members.
> > Check it out for yourself:   www.stebro.net
> >
> > Marc Grenier
> > 1974 GTV 2000 (Stebro equipped)
> >
> > No financial interest, etc:
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