350i manifold

[leeross]

How do u go about gettin manifolds 4 the 350i

[blaineuk]

tvr carparts, act, rt racing all do manifolds from about £180 per side.

[leorest]

Anyone got experience of any of these? My main concern is that mine (don't know their origin but doubt they are originals!) look like they received a serious hammering in order to make them clear the chassis. Wouldn't pay tuppence for something which needed such serious bodging to get to "fit".

[JR]

leorest said:

Anyone got experience of any of these? My main concern is that mine (don't know their origin but doubt they are originals!) look like they received a serious hammering in order to make them clear the chassis. Wouldn't pay tuppence for something which needed such serious bodging to get to "fit".

Those sound like the originals.

[leorest]

So has anyone got experience of aftermarket ones that bolt on without hammering then?

[stainless_steve]

leorest said:

So has anyone got experience of aftermarket ones that bolt on without hammering then?

Act ones had no hammer marks

[rev-erend]

leorest said:

Anyone got experience of any of these? My main concern is that mine (don't know their origin but doubt they are originals!) look like they received a serious hammering in order to make them clear the chassis. Wouldn't pay tuppence for something which needed such serious bodging to get to "fit".

Mine also look like that near the chassis rails.. I believe this is typical TVR build quality.

I think ACT use JP exhausts and would guess these are much better made with out the bodging..

[leorest]

stainless_steve said:

leorest said:

So has anyone got experience of aftermarket ones that bolt on without hammering then?

Act ones had no hammer marks

[leeross]

i take it u cant just get rover ones and make them fit?

[rev-erend]

No - they are definately made to fit a wedge only..

[JR]

leeross said:

i take it u cant just get rover ones and make them fit?

rev-erend said:

No - they are definately made to fit a wedge only..

The early 350i cars had cast iron Rover manifolds, from the Range Rover IIRC. These were the cars that were rated at 190bhp. The later tubular manifolds are TVR and the cars were rated at 197bhp.

If I were short of money or could not get hold of tubular manifolds in time and the cast ones were available then they are an option.

[leorest]

JR said:

If I were short of money or could not get hold of tubular manifolds in time and the cast ones were available then they are an option.

I guess you would have to get adapter pipes made up to mate the cast manifolds to your existing system. So you would need to take this into account when deciding on the best solution. As posted recently I have just had the end of one of my manifolds cut and shut to buy me a bit more time before finally biting the bullet and shelling out for new manifolds.

[JR]

leorest said:

I guess you would have to get adapter pipes made up to mate the cast manifolds to your existing system. So you would need to take this into account when deciding on the best solution. As posted recently I have just had the end of one of my manifolds cut and shut to buy me a bit more time before finally biting the bullet and shelling out for new manifolds.

Good point. Convoluted s/s pipe would make this easier. It's certainly not an ideal option but if it keeps you on the road... I welded mine up about five times to spin it out a while.

[leorest]

JR said:

...I welded mine up about five times to spin it out a while.

I've lost count of my bodges on top of bodges. Mind you the last intervention ended up cutting off the previous three layers of beer cans and firegum and bandages to go back to real metal so should hold for the foreseeable...