Hi James
I'm doing the TB, rocker covers, breathers, water pump, plugs etc. at the moment so wanted to change stat as a matter of course while I'm in there (Elite 3.2). I do have a spare brand new link pipe (OE), and was wondering about taking this one off as I done same job on my 2.6 and while the pipe was perfectly fine, I had a lot of issues getting the Bar steward bolt to start back in it's thread.
Now that you've mentioned the shorter flange on the replacement stats that's got me thinking (Worried
) that it may be like this on my 2.6, although there's no signs of leaks or overheating on that so. Appreciate pointing that out, I'll certainly check this with a very careful eye when I'm in there.
Certainly something to think about removing all the backplate but not something I'd planned on doing. In all honesty I think the pipe should be ok, low miler and looks to have been kept filled with proper coolant, although should the worse case be realised then I do have a spare pipe.
As I said the only thing that gave me a bit of concern was putting the bar steward bolt back in due the issues I had last time. When I was running it in it seemed to go quite tight, quite quickly, and it never seemed to tighten firmly, so I was panicking it was not in place right and threads hadn't caught right.
I'd taken the bolt back out several times and restarted it but it never seemed to feel right, I don't know if maybe something was pressing against the side of it or thread had got nipped.
Thanks
G