Manifold surprise

[droptop]

I went about changing the exhaust manifold to downpipe gasket this afternoon.
After the expected struggle, i reached what I thought was THE gasket, but no, it was one of a PAIR of gaskets with a plate sandwiched in between which secures the heatshield.
at this point I made several discoveries.
1)  The 6mm bolts holding the heatshield came away without ant trouble
2) I only had one replacement gasket
3) The replacement gasket was too small.
4) The old Montecarlo manifold I have lying around had one perfect gasket attached but not stuck to it.
5) The mounting studs were variously missing, stripped and/or replaced with nuts and bolts

At this stage I decided to abandon the sandwich plate and use the one gasket in conjubction with joint cement, new studs where adequate thread remained in the manifold and "customised" a bolt where the thread was stripped fully leaving a clean 8mm hole but at least it went through to the other side. the blind hole with the missing stud simply needed cleaning with a plug tap.

All reassembly went well and I can't beleive how nice the car now sounds.
There must have been a little blow there since I got the car but it became really noticable over the last few journeys.

I didn't get into changing the steering rack bellows as I need the car for early Sunday morning and I was concerned that I wouldn't get finished if I met any snags.
I am however changing the 45A Marelli alternator for a 65A Bosch unit to which I've fitted a smaller diameter pulley as the Marelli simply doesn't charge at idle.

All worthwhile once it's a success

[betabuoy]

Out of interest, do you have a flexi section in the downpipe? 

I used to have regular problems with the joint you discuss when I used the original pattern rigid pipe; these days, touching wood and all that, a flexi seems to have eased alot of stress (structural and cerebral!)

[smithymc]

I ended up having a flexi section added to my system too, immediately behind the twin downpipe- joint was opening all the time.

Mark

[droptop]

There's logic to your commentsindeed.
I'm going to replace the system in the next few months with a bespoke stainless one-off that a firm about 70 miles from me can provide with great service.
you drive the car in, tell them what you want and while you sit and drink coffee and watch TV, they construct and fit it to the car using Magnex boxes and their own tubing.
Prices are very reasonable and a friend of mine got a custom system for an Alfa 156 TS from the cat back with twin exit exhausts for well under €500 in the space of a few hours of R and R.
I'm keeping the original system, which is perfect, as my '79 project needs a full exhaust so this way I'm killing the proverbial two birds.
I'll get them to do a flexi pipe as youv'e described while I'm at it.
If I could find a sensibly priced 4 into 1 manifold in the meantime, that would really induce a smile.

[smithymc]

That's exactly  the route I went and the price seems about the same too( he says rapidly trying to do sums ) at £360.00.

Has a bit more rasp that I would prefer for long runs, but is fine. There a few pics of mine in progress on my car thread in members cars- Shropshire Beta Coupe Project or something like that- it shows it before they worked out it needed the flexi.

Good luck

Mark