Exhaust manifold fouling chassis

[Chasmon]

Some time ago I purchased a Dunnell Zetec exhaust manifold 2nd hand from here. I have cut the hole in the body which is fine and the manifold almost fits but when doing up the bolts it fouls the chassis diagonal.

So far I have put two metal spacers either side of the opposite engine mount and also slotted the engine mounts to allow the engine to sit lower in the exhaust side engine mount. Both on the recommendation of Westfield.

The manifold now just touches the chassis in that its touching when the bolts are done up. I'm guessing I need 5mm clearance minimum here but am at a bit of a loss as to what to do.

I know spacing the engine mounts off on the opposite some more is one solution but I don't want to get the driveline too much out of line.

Any opinions gratefully received!!!

Charlie

PS I'll post some pics tomorrow.

[nikpro]

Bin the manifold and get one that fits - less hassle.

[Terry Everall]

Locally flatten the offending piece of manifold

[Chasmon]

Locally flatten the offending piece of manifold

Think I will try this as haven't got much to lose at this stage. Hopefully it won't effect the performance of it too much.

Thanks both

[scott beeland]

Keep an eye on your oil pressure too if you tilt the engine any more than you already have. You might compromise oil pick up from the sump if you're tilting pick up much away from vertical.

Flattening out part of the manifold doesn't sound ideal to me either....I'd bite the bullet and buy another system (ebay the other one to help with cost)

[pistonbroke]

lets have the pickies posted up so we can better judge the problem  

[Chasmon]

Off out to the garage now to take some pictures, been christmas shopping but I've finished now Can almost taste the turkey and wine as I type.

Chris B (who had it before) has just PM'd and told me it brushed the chassis on his so he ground the chassis down locally to allow clearance (westfield said it was OK)......

Not sure I want to go that route.

Edited to add: Picures will be a bit later as I've left my camera charger and lead at work... Thankfully I know someone with the same camera up the road.

[Hammy]

Not tried any of these but my thoughts in a similar situation would be.............

It might move slightly if you put pressure on  it - e.g with a jack/clamp  then apply heat to the manifold by way of reving the engine up...or a blow torch .

If there is a lot of meat on the ex manifold face then grind to a slight angle to give the desired clearance when you  tighten up - critical to keep faces flat tho' and a last resort -keep checking with a straight edge

If you know a good welder you could slit the tubes close to the manifold partly through with a hack saw , bend and reweld

Don't fancy grinding the chassis

[pistonbroke]

Not really a good idea to grind the chassis

IMO  

[CedricTheBrave]

Grinding the chassis or denting the pipe is a bodge IMO and both may cause problems in the future.

do the job properly and either reform the primaries or get a system that fits.

[perksy]

Photo would Help  

[chazpowerslide]

Move the motor over slightly to get it to clear, it's the only sensible way to go here.

You can get it to fit perfectly by re-mounting the pedistal part of the mount on the chassis in the position you require.

I really would'nt want to mod the chassis or the offending header, this is firmly in bodge territory.

It will make no difference that the drive train does not run in a straight line down the center of the car with the minimal ammount of offset you produce by moving the motor (Just look at the prop angles on the bike engine Westies and they seem to do ok)

All MHO of course.

Chaz.

[Chasmon]

Thanks for all your opinions guys.  Agreed I don't want to damage the manifold or grind away at the chassis.

I have already moved the engine over into the lower part of the engine mount - slotting the mounting holes to achieve this and raised the other side by 12mm. I'd need to raise the engine by about 26mm total one side to achieve clearance maybe even more and I'm not sure the effect on the pickup, maybe its not that critical

Do the bike systems have a UJ on both ends of the prop as the zetec prop uses a rubber donut (mmmmm donuts) to accomodate any missallignment not as good as the type 9 setup IMO.

I'm currently trying to work on a way of mounting the manifold so I can skim the mounting face to create a (very small) angle that'll give a few mm of clearance where I need it.

Looking at jigging it so I can fly cutter it on a milling machine or maybe hold it on the cross slide of a lathe and mount the fly cutter in the chuck....

I think this would be the best and neatest solution if I can mount it all up which although not that trivial should be possible.

Any opinions apreciated Oh and HAPPY CHRISTMAS!!!