Manifolds and engine mounts

Ok, the replacement eBay manifold arrived yesterday and it's looking good. It has a different collector pattern to the old one (which I believe is a Janspeed) - the new one goes down to two pipes much further up which frees up a bit of space to clear the oil filter. I'm not sure of the make of the new manifold but I think it might be a Raceland. It's certainly stainless steel and it weighs a bit less than the old one (a bonus).

Here's the two manifolds side by side (new one on the left):



And on the engine - old one first:





And the new one (note the clearance to the oil filter):





I've ordered up a new fitting kit with wire gasket and I'll get some new studs and hopefully get some time to fit it by next weekend.

My thoughts have turned to engine mounts. I had hoped to upgrade the mounts to reduce movement but on inspection, the drivers side mount is a basic small capacity mount. This makes sense since the car is built on a 1.1 litre shell. To change to a competition mount will probably require fabricating a new inner wing section. So, I'll leave that for now and just replace the mount with a new one (or maybe look at 205 mounts......) The gearbox mount can be easily replaced and the rear lower mount has already been polybushed so that's easy.

Drivers side mount:



Gearbox mount:



Of course, all of this is just a diversion from doing the cam seals. I've rechecked the cams and flywheel are locked at TDC and found I had it wrong first time round. I'm still a bit nervous about this bit.....

Work on the RacingSaxo begins

Happy New Year !

I've taken advantage of some time off work to make a start on fixing the niggles on the Saxo. The main items that need sorting are the exhaust manifold which fouls on the oil filter, the cam seals which leak and a few bits and bobs to get through the MOT.

I started by taking a photo of the engine bay as it was to help me put it all back together:


Then I decided access would be much easier if I took the bonner and the front of the car off.



It would be even easier if the radiator was out of the way so It came out too and then the manifold just slipped off no problem at all.



The old Janspeed manifold is well bent and bashed on the bottom. I hope the replacement I've ordered off eBay is a better fit.



So, that's it all ready for the new manifold to be bolted in to place. I just need to decide whether to splash out and get it ceramic coated to keep the engine bay temps down.....

Next up, the cam seals.