And another bit of advice needed - fitting exhaust y piece..

[alaric]

Hi all - me again. I'm pressing on as fast as I can with the car build. I have a stainless steel double S exaust for my +2, and have been trying to fit the y piece at the bottom of the manifold. I've already fitted the manifold and bolted it up tight. I'm nervous of cracking / denting etc. Has anyone devised a 'safe' way of pushing the y piece all the way home - at the moment it's got about an inch to go, and I don't want to hit it harder - I've put wood packing behind the manifold branches and been hitting steadily but not hard, and have covered the ends with copper grease and cleaned etc.

Should I undo the manifold branches from the engine and try rotating them? This won't be easy.

Should I just stop farting around and hit it harder?

Thanks for the help.

Sean.

[mcclelland]

Hi Sean,

Ive never had this problem, however when I have fitted the exh system I have left the manifold nuts just finger tight then put on the Y piece which has always just pushed on by hand. I have then fitted the long pipe to silencer in place to make sure allis well and alighned and then finally tightened up the manifold nuts. Hope this helps, good luck, regards George...

[neilsjuke]

I had the same double trouble that is the first manifold had a large kink in the down pipe. SS made a replacement after 4weeks this did not fit the head studs 30mm away and hit the clutch housing bolts.
Y piece did not fit due to it's tube not being round after they formed it.
I had to make it fit.
I have a spare head and a set of exhaust pipe expanding tools so was able to make this very poor exhaust fit.
I would remove the manifold in your case and have a go at fitting the y one pipe at a time. you could bolt the manifolds to a plank of wood in a vice and give Y tube a tap all round with a hammer to try and help it form its shape. Oh and if you do get it to fit the leaks will get better when the soot up over time.

Hope this helps a little
Neil

[alaric]

My manifold does seem to fit well - was a bit tight on a couple of the studs but not beyond the use of bfi. I had to release the engine mounts and jack up the engine to get the manifold in past the chassis - not a problem. I'll have a go at taking it back off again and see what clearance there is.

Thanks for the help.

Sean.

[1964 S1]

Hi Sean, I'd follow George's advice, Eric

[tower of strength]

I had a slight "missalignment" when i fitted my Y piece, I used a trick shown to me by a rally mechanic that has stood me in good stead over the years with sleeved exhaust joints, that is to coat the smaller pipes with a liberal amount of RTV (Silicone) and hammer the (in our case) Y piece home using a stout piece of timber( part of a fence post) and a big hammer. The timber prevents distortion of the pipe you hit and the rtv acts as a lubricant and sealer.

The added advantage of using rtv is that it gives a gas tight seal and releases easily when you wish to dismantle the exhaust, years later.

Try it, it works!!

(RTV is good for 600+ degrees C BTW and i use it on manifold gaskets as well.


HTH

Mark

[billwill]

When I did this last week, I made up a tourniquet of a bit of rope and a socket spanner bar, to PULL the Y-piece forward onto the exhaust pipes.

I couldn't get any effective tapping with a hammer as the long exhaust pipe was in the other side of the Y-piece.

The rope was wrapped around the base of the Y-piece and the other end of the rope loop around the chassis cross member.

I could have used my engine hoist pulleys I suppose, might have been easier.

[billwill]

I could have used my engine hoist pulleys I suppose, might have been easier.

Ha! Why do I get these brilliant ideas & then forget them the next time I need to use them!!!


Oh well next time.... soon.