Well, all done with a pal of mine last weekend and the car has done about 700 miles since. The job wasn't as bad as I was expecting TBH. Just took loads of stuff off for ease of access. Yes, it was time consuming - especially with all our tea breaks.
All the manifold studs bar one came out dead easy, the other one was very solidly fixed in place so we left it there & used it again. It was the front one - up behind the tensioner.
The gasket itself didn't have any breaks - but there were signs of a blowpast right next to the rear section. Also took the opportunity to totally remove the O/S SAI pipe & fitted very short stub pipes that had been welded up. These aren't even visible now from above.
It was interesting looking at the manifold casting as the SAI connections route straight through the manifold into the head - so the SAI air goes into the head and then into the exhaust - not straight into the exhaust. This isn't quite what I was expecting & I wonder why they did it that way - I guess there is a reason as it's a more complex routing than straight into the exhaust gas stream.
Was especially pleased to see that the breathers were spotless and that the coolant had no nasty sludge.
Many thanks to Amba for all his comments and encouragement on this little job - I hope I never have to do the N/S as that looks much tighter for access.
The ticking on a cold start has now totally stopped - although I would have been really hacked off if it had continued.
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Topic: O/S Exhaust fanimold gasket done .......... (Read 1102 times)