4-2-1 Manifold fitted, what a difference!
Discussion
Hi Chaps
Well after a few weeks of the 4-2-1- manifold sitting round in the garage I had it fitted this weekend and what a difference it’s made. Firstly the manifold was bought from Steve Butts, it’s a Piper item made from stainless steel. It is designed for the S2 Elise but it can be fitted to the S1 just by removing one of the heat shield mounting brackets. It’s a well made item, no weld clag inside the primaries, all of the bends are smooth and the final fit as I will describe later is excellent.
Next I bought the uprated engine steady bar and alternator heat shield from Elise parts. If fitting a 4-2-1 it’s recommended that you fit the alternator heat shield as the primaries sit much closer so heat soak will be more of a problem and potentially could cause failure of the alternator. The engine steady bar is essential if you want to avoid cracking the manifold. The standard bar gives the engine some flex as the rubber bush in one end is quite soft. The uprated one from Elise parts is adjustable for length so you can line the engine up correctly and the rubber bush is much harder so the engine moves much less.
Fitting, this was not a job for me, not through lack of experience but lack of the correct equipment such as axel stands and tools. Fortunately for me though Dan at Jude Performance Services (www.judeperformance.co.uk) offered to fit it. After a coffee both Dan and Ian (Dan’s Dad) started to remove all the usual bits, wheels, under tray etc. and cracked on with removing the old manifold. As usual with these things it was a pain but eventually it came off. I can now see why people consider the 4-2-1 a worthwhile replacement if your aiming for a decent hike in power at a future date, the standard manifold is horrible, full of weld clag, poorly manufactured, yuk!
Re-fitting the 4-2-1 was pretty easy all things considered, it went in with minimum fuss although the engine had to be rocked forward to allow the manifold to move through what is a small gap. The alternator heat shield was fitted with no problem, everything went back together really well. The under tray has to be modified where the old flex section gap is. This is because the new manifold sits a little lower and needs more space, just a five minute job to cut away some of the tray and that’s it.
A big thank you to Dan and Ian for their help, much appreciated guys. If you have a job that you need doing on your Elise, these guys know the script. Dan runs an Elise and recently built & fitted a new, more powerful K Series to his S1 so the knowledge is there and Ian seems to have a boundless knowledge of race car building, racing and tuning. They also cover the servicing side of things, it’s about time we had a specialist independent in the North East! Highly recommended is all I can say.
Now the results. The previous set-up of my Elise was as follows: Hurricane, 52mm TB, de-cat, Chris Neil Exhaust, Super Chip. This gave a good turn of speed, nice sound etc. but by adding the 4-2-1 it has given me a nice chunk of pull from 3k RPM right up to the limiter. The car pulls more strongly through the gears and there is a little increase in sound too, especially at tick over. Many people don’t think that £400+ for a manifold is worth the money and I can see why that’s the case, that kind of cash could buy lots of other bits for your car. If however your aim is to eventually have the head modified, bigger cams, larger valves etc. the manifold will really help things along.
Any questions, please ask.
Wako
Well after a few weeks of the 4-2-1- manifold sitting round in the garage I had it fitted this weekend and what a difference it’s made. Firstly the manifold was bought from Steve Butts, it’s a Piper item made from stainless steel. It is designed for the S2 Elise but it can be fitted to the S1 just by removing one of the heat shield mounting brackets. It’s a well made item, no weld clag inside the primaries, all of the bends are smooth and the final fit as I will describe later is excellent.
Next I bought the uprated engine steady bar and alternator heat shield from Elise parts. If fitting a 4-2-1 it’s recommended that you fit the alternator heat shield as the primaries sit much closer so heat soak will be more of a problem and potentially could cause failure of the alternator. The engine steady bar is essential if you want to avoid cracking the manifold. The standard bar gives the engine some flex as the rubber bush in one end is quite soft. The uprated one from Elise parts is adjustable for length so you can line the engine up correctly and the rubber bush is much harder so the engine moves much less.
Fitting, this was not a job for me, not through lack of experience but lack of the correct equipment such as axel stands and tools. Fortunately for me though Dan at Jude Performance Services (www.judeperformance.co.uk) offered to fit it. After a coffee both Dan and Ian (Dan’s Dad) started to remove all the usual bits, wheels, under tray etc. and cracked on with removing the old manifold. As usual with these things it was a pain but eventually it came off. I can now see why people consider the 4-2-1 a worthwhile replacement if your aiming for a decent hike in power at a future date, the standard manifold is horrible, full of weld clag, poorly manufactured, yuk!
Re-fitting the 4-2-1 was pretty easy all things considered, it went in with minimum fuss although the engine had to be rocked forward to allow the manifold to move through what is a small gap. The alternator heat shield was fitted with no problem, everything went back together really well. The under tray has to be modified where the old flex section gap is. This is because the new manifold sits a little lower and needs more space, just a five minute job to cut away some of the tray and that’s it.
A big thank you to Dan and Ian for their help, much appreciated guys. If you have a job that you need doing on your Elise, these guys know the script. Dan runs an Elise and recently built & fitted a new, more powerful K Series to his S1 so the knowledge is there and Ian seems to have a boundless knowledge of race car building, racing and tuning. They also cover the servicing side of things, it’s about time we had a specialist independent in the North East! Highly recommended is all I can say.
Now the results. The previous set-up of my Elise was as follows: Hurricane, 52mm TB, de-cat, Chris Neil Exhaust, Super Chip. This gave a good turn of speed, nice sound etc. but by adding the 4-2-1 it has given me a nice chunk of pull from 3k RPM right up to the limiter. The car pulls more strongly through the gears and there is a little increase in sound too, especially at tick over. Many people don’t think that £400+ for a manifold is worth the money and I can see why that’s the case, that kind of cash could buy lots of other bits for your car. If however your aim is to eventually have the head modified, bigger cams, larger valves etc. the manifold will really help things along.
Any questions, please ask.
Wako
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