Hole in Exhaust Manifold?

[Cinbearcat83]

My brother and I got the 1973 Elan+2 S130 running last summer. It has the Big Valve engine. After running it a while, we noticed an exhaust leak in the engine bay. After taking a closer look, I discovered a "hole" in the bottom of the cast exhaust manifold. I have two photos attached. The hole looks like it has been welded at one time or it is there intentionally. Has anyone run across this before? Thanks, Kevin

[rgh0]

I presume you have a stromberg head that orifinally came with the cross over tubes to heat air at idle on the exhaust manifold. Most of these cross over tube systems have been removed now in the US and I would replace the cast manifold with tubular manifolds that were used on non Federal cars
cheers
Rohan