Changing the exhaust system by William R Blankley

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Exhausted, that’s what I am. Changing the exhaust system is a real exercise in self-discipline. At the junction of the cast manifold and the exhaust proper is where the shit hits the fan! As there are six M10 x l.5 bolts to remove something can so easily screw up, or stay screwed up as it were. The remedy is to take a number five nozzle to it, assuming that you have one to hand, but the person before did not. What’s that mean? It means a broken off bolt for a start, five bolts with corroded heads and all stuck solid. As far as I know, there is no quick fix for this. Certainly nobody I can afford to pay to do it or will even trust.

Do it the hard way club:-

Lift the front, drop the sway bar (four bolts see workshop manual) saw the pipe as near the engine as can be then return to the top to remove carbs plus manifolds with rubbish attached. My life would have been easier had I removed the thermostat housing from the side of the cylinder head first but that’s showbiz folks..

Here is one that I prepared earlier (cheat!) it is from the previous Manta A exhaust job. To withdraw the bolts without shearing them off the CASTING has to be raised to just short of melting point next to the bolt which is then unscrewed, an operation requiring skill and judgement. I can just manage to do it on the car but with a broken bolt it has to come off anyway which makes the other bolts comparatively easy. Drilling and filing out the stub of bolt is a miserable task if it can be done at all. When you have succeeded the threads must all be cleared with a tap.

In four words .-Strip clean and reassemble.

In Biblical terms we have three score years and ten, exhaust systems have somewhat less so sometime those bolts will have to be undone again. The replacements bolts are stainless steel with lots of anti seize paste (Coppaslip) and expensive (counting overheads seven quid for six) but the costs are out of control on this job and she’s my beloved White Rabbit so it’s done right I hope. Time will tell.

Meanwhile I am told that exhausts are becoming difficult (Timax don’t make them anymore, Oh Expletive Deleted!) I cannot even find a set of rubber rings that are just right to hang things on and the pipes and silencers at the bottom of the pile just will not fit the way we want.

My problem is, who can be trusted to make a good one? Especially in stainless, there is just so much not-quite-right around. Six of my Manta A need exhausts eventually, I think I am in trouble. The problem is that I am one of the people asked for help when things go bad. A case of physician get off thy backside methinks! Perhaps refer the problem to a Consultant Exhaustologist? Meanwhile let us contemplate the twin tail pipes of the SR, if they might be brought back in stainless steel chrome-plated........ Help

Fortunately there is no problem with windscreens, well down here in darkest Sussex anyway, (0424 422938 Hastings windscreens nearest to me) and the purveyor of car glass to the desperate did a careful enough job for me to mention his telephone number. If it had been an insurance job though things might have become interesting. It is all very simple if you go to an approved supplier who is allowed to direct bill the company. Do anything else and it just might be trouble. Correct me if I am wrong time but the Halifax will put your excess up from forty to eighty pounds if you are not a good little consumer. Strange how the money works out. All these goings on are perfectly above board and legal of course, they just seem a little to cosy.

William R Blankley

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