Before I spent £100 on new bits to replace the cracked exhaust manifold I thought I’d play it safe and whip the old one off to see what bits and bobs I needed. “Whip it off” indeed! Turned out to be a bit harder than that. Very messy, very hard work and I ended up having to wash my hair in Swarfega after dunking it in a little puddle The Duke had left to say thank you for his oil change.

Thought I’d take a picture of the engine before I ripped it to bits. Carb and adapter, air filter, suction hose, fuel pipe, throttle linkage and just about everything else I’ve added over the last year had to come off again.

Sadly, I bent the bloody suction hose for the brakes. The nut came free with a jolt and twisted the metal pipe into a knot. Another thing for the shopping list.

Carb came away very easily, but then all the nuts and bolts were brand new.

Sprayed everything with penetrating spray but found that in the end all the nuts and studs came undone without any effort. No problem getting the sockets to the nuts and they came free easily. Most of them could be removed by hand in fact.

Screwdriver and mallet between head and manifold, some gentle tapping and it all fell away nicely. Decided to swap out the exhaust down pipe too as its got some nasty dents where some bugger forklifted it. Had to unbolt it and then chop it with the hacksaw to get it out of the chassis. God only knows how I’ll get the new one in!

As you can see from the picture, the manifold wasn’t cracked, it was totally snapped.

I only want to buy a new exhaust manifold, so I had to get the inlet manifold separated. Not an easy job. The four bolts were stuck in the holes and much levering, spraying, prising and smashing with a big hammer were required. In the end I got them apart though.

So, I now have an idea what new bits I need and can start getting things ordered. Hopefully the engine will be running again within two weeks and I’ll be back on track for the MOT.