mx-5 manifold/exhaust change

[swansea v6]

as the title says, how easy is it to change the manifold and exhaust on a mk1 mx-5 1.6?? planning on doing it on weekend

[swansea v6]

well thats my saturday afternoon planned out then, any tips?????

[T5SOR]

Careful with the manifold studs when removing them. Not alot can go wrong really. Are you fitting a stainless one or standard? If standard remove the heatshields as they just end up breaking at rattling away!


Mike

[swansea v6]

fitting a stainless one, can i just remove the heatshields?

[T5SOR]

The heatshields wont fit on the stainless one anyways so no probs there! My stainless 4-2-1 was very easy to fit. Might be worth fitting new gaskets betwen the head/manifold and downpipe/cat

Mike

[swansea v6]

Yea have all new gaskets for the manifold etc..... had nightmare job removing the exhaust, turns out my car has extra bracing between the rear shocks and the back box couldnt be removed at first. Ended up taking an angle grinder to it!!!!!!

[swansea v6]

had some good and bad news today regarding the manifold/exhaust change.........first off the bloody manifold did not fit at all!!!! how annoyed was I to find after removing everything that it was the wrong one.......then a bit of good news, it turns out after thoroughly checking the car, that at some point it has had a 1.8 transplant in place of the 1.6!!!!!! didnt recognise the new engine because the only way i can tell them apart was the air box, and as mine came with a pipercross instead of the standard one i ididnt know it had been changed........so if anyone wants a stainless steel manifold for a 1.6 mk 1 mx-5 drop me a line