Exhaust Manifold Gaskets Cost???

[Bigel]

Hi,

I've got my Chim in at Austec at the moment for a few things being done and they've just quoted me £440 to do the exhaust manifold gaskets which seems a bit steep to me.

How much should this normally come to?

Thankyou!!

[Slacey]

The gaskets are pennies... the labour required to swap them however is a different matter.

[jdharris]

I spoke to Brian at Fernies the other day as I thought mine was blowing a bit. He quoted £360 for new gaskets and labour which includes taking off both manifolds and testing them in a water bath for leaks. Depending on the outcome of this he said the bill could go up another £50 per manifold for any welding required (specialist welding apparently). His first words were that it was a pretty time consuming task.

James

[RichB]

I had Racing Green replace them on my Griff a few weeks ago and just checking the invoice the gaskets were a few quid and labour was £267 plus the vat, which I make about £320...

[gadgit]

I've got one blowing a bit, can't hear it when ticking over. Only under load.

I believe the main problem with this type of work is that things can easerly go pear shaped as they did on my S2. Ended up taking off both the heads as half the studds broke off!

I'd be interested to know with my chimeara, what the chances are of getting the nuts off without problems.

And the answer is?

gadgit.

[v8 racing]

You shouldnt be paying anymore than £250 all in for this kind of work.

[Bigel]

Cheers, I thought that sounded a bit much considering that prive was without parts or anything going wrong!!!

[mdotrutherford]

Whilst on topic, has anyone tried this:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&am...

those gaskets look substantial but of course my interest is in the advantage of studs/nuts over bolts as it would seem a repeat task.

[RedCabbage]

mdotrutherford said:

Whilst on topic, has anyone tried this:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&am...

those gaskets look substantial but of course my interest is in the advantage of studs/nuts over bolts as it would seem a repeat task.

Quality kit - quality prices (incl.P&P) IMO

[mdotrutherford]

Ah ha, the voice of experience with the kit ?

Is there sufficient space on both sides to pull the manifolds off the studs ?

[TVRleigh]

He says that with the Griff you may have problems on the rear, so on these to use the bolts.

Also a lot of the problems with exhaust are due the the threads striped in the heads, or the mating faces of the manafolds are not flat.

[mrbongo]

The price seems pretty reasonable, mine ended up costing £1,100 when the bolts snapped off... so be careful of that!

[TVRleigh]

Is it that hard a job, on a Griff,
Could you not do it your self. or do you have to take the engine out. I know the engine is a lot more sunken into the car, but I think you have more room on the side, plus you can disconect them from the top not from underneath like the wedge.

[spend]

Cleaning out the threads whilst the manifolds are off, and slipping the bolts before insertion, should be adequate IMHO. The ARP bolts seem to be the solution to most of the access problems in this area, I wouldn't risk the possible clearance issues with studs, either fouling getting the manifolds past the inner wings, or even being able to get the bolt on because of the pipe curvature. The only trick necessary with bolts is to cotton/rubber band the gaskets to the manifold so they are kept in position whilst fitting. Its all been thru the hoop several times on here in the past, I really dont recall anyone having presented a glowing report on the actual use of studs on a TVR, even tho the possibility has been muted often.

Dave