A question for the 'special' pre-cat owners
Discussion
I have a small crack in my off side exhaust manifold but it is at the rear so easy to weld when I remove it. I have also managed to get a piece of thin steel plate wrapped around the pipe over the crack, with some manifold weld underneath and two jubilee clips clamping it. Its fine for the moment and not blowing. The manifold itself appears in very good condition, compared to the nearside one, and of far better quality steel. However, the records with the car show that the left, so I presume near side, manifold was replaced in 1998 but it has more corrosion on it. Anyway, I was thinking of welding the crack and getting some exhaust paint and doing both manifolds and Y piece so it looks standard and cheaper that the 1,200 for the ACT / JP set. I appreciate that they will continue to be prone to cracking and the new JP ones are a thicker gauge, smaller more efficient primaries etc etc. I got over that but have just noticed that the profile / routing of the two manifolds is different, see the gaps between the primaries on the 90 degree bend on the near side / left one. My question is, has anyone else got slightly different manifolds? Do you think that the right one is the original one or they made a mistake when noting down which one had been changed. The part number was 006801 / LH Manifold. Peter
Re the bend i shall check mine out later today and get back to you.
If you are going to paint them, do some research into acceptable paint. I used Halfords hi temp exhaust paint last year and it is already peeling along the main run of the manifolds. The Y piece is fine so far though.
I think these manifolds can be problematic. Looking back at my cars history, my car is on its 3rd set, i can only presume through cracking. Lets hope the current ones hold on for a while.
The ACT ones are obvious quality, just so pricey. Do we not have a welding god amongst us that can make some decent stainless ones for the right price.
If you are going to paint them, do some research into acceptable paint. I used Halfords hi temp exhaust paint last year and it is already peeling along the main run of the manifolds. The Y piece is fine so far though.
I think these manifolds can be problematic. Looking back at my cars history, my car is on its 3rd set, i can only presume through cracking. Lets hope the current ones hold on for a while.
The ACT ones are obvious quality, just so pricey. Do we not have a welding god amongst us that can make some decent stainless ones for the right price.
I had to patch up my nearside manifold as it had split on the inside. My manifolds are different from each other too, the offside one looks to be much better quality. I seem to recollect seeing a reciept for a new manifold in the paperwork that came with the car, suspect my nearside one is a recent replacement.
my car is still on it's original set of manifolds....... however people have pointed out at previous Growls that my car doesn't (I think thats right) have tangs holding the pipes together, which the latter precats had.... the benifit being that each pipe can contract with out causing stresses on the other pipe it is fixed to via the tang.....
I'll take a pic today as we are on a Fish n Chip run and will have camera with me...... a few people have offered kindly to take my manifolds of my hands if I want to change mine to shiny silver ones... answer was Naahhh!!!!
Apparently you can get replacements for the precats, so you can keep that loveley flanged connection ... I absolutely love the Y piece connection to the manifolds (and it always astounds people who have never seen under the bonnet
)
I'll take a pic today as we are on a Fish n Chip run and will have camera with me...... a few people have offered kindly to take my manifolds of my hands if I want to change mine to shiny silver ones... answer was Naahhh!!!!
Apparently you can get replacements for the precats, so you can keep that loveley flanged connection ... I absolutely love the Y piece connection to the manifolds (and it always astounds people who have never seen under the bonnet
)Peter as you know my manifold are different left to right. The two I bought recently are the newer style with the not so tight 90 degree bend. Also worth noting there are two different 8 bolts flange sizes, new ones are bigger than the old stye. My newer manifold has the bolt holes elongated to marry up to the smaller Y piece.
Russell Mc said:
Peter as you know my manifold are different left to right. The two I bought recently are the newer style with the not so tight 90 degree bend. Also worth noting there are two different 8 bolts flange sizes, new ones are bigger than the old stye. My newer manifold has the bolt holes elongated to marry up to the smaller Y piece.
I know the flanges were a different diameter on the ones you have fitted at the moment but are the bends a different radius? I had a quick look at the ones you bought recently on ebay and they have the not so tight bend but they are original fit as well aren't they? Mine is a Dec 1992 car, so would be one of the last pre-cats, with what looks like to be the original right hand manifold having the tighter bend. Maybe it was any replacements that have the more shallow bend and it looks like most of them will have been replaced at one time or another? Hoover. said:
my car is still on it's original set of manifolds....... however people have pointed out at previous Growls that my car doesn't (I think thats right) have tangs holding the pipes together, which the latter precats had.... the benifit being that each pipe can contract with out causing stresses on the other pipe it is fixed to via the tang.....
I'll take a pic today as we are on a Fish n Chip run and will have camera with me...... a few people have offered kindly to take my manifolds of my hands if I want to change mine to shiny silver ones... answer was Naahhh!!!!
Apparently you can get replacements for the precats, so you can keep that loveley flanged connection ... I absolutely love the Y piece connection to the manifolds (and it always astounds people who have never seen under the bonnet )
That's interesting, I was told that the pipes have the small welds holding the four pipes to each other as they resonate very badly making an odd sound, obviously not the case. The JP system, see picture below of my old engine bay, has a strap instead of the welds holding all four together. To be honest, I think it looses something of the lines............yes sad I know! They have also copied what looks like a 'later' shape more shallow bend radius.I'll take a pic today as we are on a Fish n Chip run and will have camera with me...... a few people have offered kindly to take my manifolds of my hands if I want to change mine to shiny silver ones... answer was Naahhh!!!!
Apparently you can get replacements for the precats, so you can keep that loveley flanged connection ... I absolutely love the Y piece connection to the manifolds (and it always astounds people who have never seen under the bonnet
)All I need now is someone who can make up a set of manifolds that look exactly like the original right hand one in my original post, in a slightly thicker gauge, better quality stainless steel, without the welds in between, coated in one of the modern coatings, that looks like the original matt black finish for less than the JP offering. Maybe JP could do it if I asked them, but again its the price?
carsy said:
Here are mine.
Stunning car you have there, a so much cleaner, less fussy engine bay compared to the 500 and I bet you in 10 years time its will be a 4.3 looking like that which will be one of the most sought after Griffs. I will have to look back through your threads and see how it ended up in the pre-cat porn category!
Anyway back to the manifolds, it does look as if the very first pre-cat manifolds, or at least the ones that came out of the factory, do have the tighter 90 deg bends and the replacements and the JP ones go for the less tighter radius. There might be a good reason why, maybe it creates less stress, I don't know.
Stunning car you have there, a so much cleaner, less fussy engine bay compared to the 500 and I bet you in 10 years time its will be a 4.3 looking like that which will be one of the most sought after Griffs. I will have to look back through your threads and see how it ended up in the pre-cat porn category!
Anyway back to the manifolds, it does look as if the very first pre-cat manifolds, or at least the ones that came out of the factory, do have the tighter 90 deg bends and the replacements and the JP ones go for the less tighter radius. There might be a good reason why, maybe it creates less stress, I don't know.
Ant. said:
Mine.....
This is fantastic - more pre-cat porn 
Looking at these original ones, and again at the JP ones I fitted to my earlier car, these are the ones I like the best. So I wonder; if I asked JP to copy the original ones but using the thicker gauge and better quality stainless steel, it might stop them cracking. I suppose that when they decided to put that strap around their current ones, they obviously had good reason. Having said that Ant's look great 20 years later! carsy said:
Here are mine.
What a nice engine bay Carsy, just what I am aiming for with my 4.3. With regard to manifolds etc as far as I know mine are the originals, cannot find anything in the records noting a change etc. Might be of interest to you guys, When I take my manifolds off to replace the heat shield material, I was going to get them bead blasted and then paint them up with some of the high temperature paint from Frosts. I did the same thing to one of my 6 cylinder Triumphs some years ago and it looked great. Where I get the beading done they take great care and I have had aluminium castings done which bring them up like new. All the best, Pete
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