Lee's Garage

[Brian_S]

Cheers guy's, I'm really pleased with my first ever manifold. It's not gas purged, so it's not that smooth on the inside, but it's now fully welded with no holes and it still bolts on to the engine!



It's not been as frustrating as I thought it would be (Well, running out of gas was exceedingly frustrating in the end!) and some of the welds certainly aren't as pretty as the one I asked Lee to put up! lmao but mainly because I don't have a way of neatly cutting the tube, and bridging 2-3mm gaps with TIG is interesting! lol.

Oh, and I couldn't be arsed to make an equal length manifold at my first attempt, plus it's not a maximum effort engine at all anyway so wouldn't be of much benefit.

One more to go!

[Benn]

Looks very good^

[lee303]

looks brilliant dude, nice work, cant wait to see the pair on and the engine in!!

[sbd16vastra]

looks fantastic

[jr@corsasport]

looks excelent brian

[Rallycorsa]

Cracking work on the manifold but you should put the work in now equal length was the way to go. Suppose you will be able to practice the welding again :-)

[Brian_S]

Wow, nice responses, thanks!

Got another one to do yet, so plenty more practice opportunity! lmao Plus this one has a lot less room and needs to take a more complicated route...

[spanishfly]

Brain Sports performance manifold FTW!

[Supermuff]

If you want neat cuts wrap some duct tape around the tube to give you a straight edge, then follow that with your angle grinder. Then once you've cut it you can hold the cutting disc flat against the end of the tube and it will grind it perfectly flat. Works brilliantly.
And use 1mm cutting discs if you can.

[lee303]

righty, so , massive thanks to tony P for sorting me out some side mounts, been wanting alloy ones for ages!!
not only are they lighter but they come out with a smaller bolt centre distance thanks to how they are bent, and the seats can sit lower in them than the old steel items
said old steel items

leaving just the bars in the car

new shiny alloy ones

which means i can get the seat even lower and even further back!!

had to modify the bars slightly to suit mind you, so a bit of metal work required…


all in!

did the passenger ones too but left the seat out as i'm not finished inside yet

can see how far back it is here, i need to move the pedals back ever so slightly, but thats an easy job for the weekend…lmaosteering is now perfect though

[spanishfly]

Nice mate, and that is extreme moving of seat I like!

[William]

[jonlem]

Good skills Brian, manifold looks pukka for a first attempt.

[Brian_S]

Cheers dude.

Seats are looking good Lee!

If you want neat cuts wrap some duct tape around the tube to give you a straight edge, then follow that with your angle grinder. Then once you've cut it you can hold the cutting disc flat against the end of the tube and it will grind it perfectly flat. Works brilliantly.
And use 1mm cutting discs if you can.

Cheers for the info, I've tried wrapping and cutting like that, but for some reason I seem to get better results just looking at the mandrel marks or weld line and just "guessing" lol. I might try wrapping a straight edge again and seeing how I get on. Yeah we have the thin discs up the garage, that's what I'm using.

I started the second manifold tonight:



It requires a bit more accuracy and has to take a more intricate route because of the sub frame and steering column. But it's coming out alright so far. Really need to get this manifold finished for the weekend so I can loom the engine and install the final engine into the car. The thing that is really annoying 90% of the time is tacking the tubes together with the TIG - I seem to need another two hands.

Spoke to Steve Greenald today who will be mapping the car and am taking his advice to move to a standard coil pack. I was going to run coil on plug, but Steve doesn't have anything good to say about them and would rather it just have a coil pack. So, std V6 coil pack it is, and this also means I can get away with a DTA S60 instead of the S80 which I was going to get. He is going to give me a date tomorrow for mapping, it'll be in the first week of May. ECU connectors should be with me soon too.

Reco-prop are now making the prop too. Had a good chat with Scott over at reco-prop who wanted to make the prop out of 2.5" tube because of the V6, but the manta torque tube UJ limits the tube size to 2" - which he reckons will be okay, but he'd rather have the spare capacity of the 2.5". Chatting with him though, we both concluded that this was sort of irrelevant as I'm running a standard alloy torque tube, so if anything's going to break it's going to be that rather than the prop!

Getting there...

[William]

wow thats proper progress brian :!

[jr@corsasport]

i want to see it go sideways soon please brian

[lee303]

righty, so i ventured up with brian tonight to be his extra pair of hands, and we got some more manifold type stuff done and junk and stuff…




looks bloody great! nice tight fit too...lmao




so that will be finished up on the weekend and the proper engine in

[Brian_S]

So much easier with two pairs of hands! lmao

I got really annoyed not being able to hold two bits of tube, a tig torch and the filler rod all at once last night! lol

Cheers for your help again dude!

This manifold will look much more swish. Roll on the weekend.

[Rich_J_Williams]

Brian Manifold looks awsome. top work

seats also look good lee, seems like all the shonkey cars are almost ready

[AJBek]

manifold looks great, what bore are the headers. They look so much more substantial than the std manifolds.

[Jack]

I'm going to start an official "Brian the V6 God" fanclub.

[spanishfly]

Nice work guys. There coming together!

[lee303]

Cheers for your help again dude!

not a problem mate

Brian Manifold looks awsome. top work

seats also look good lee, seems like all the shonkey cars are almost ready

cheers rich, and yes, everyone seems to be getting there, should be an epic summer!!

I'm going to start an official "Brian the V6 God" fanclub.

he'll never get in the garage door if you do, lol

[MikeITB]

Remind me not to go away for a week again, too much reading to catch up on lmao

Progress looks good. I am inspired by the lengths you you go to in order to reduce weight, I'm thinking of having me pancreas and appendix removed for that reason.....

[lee303]

hey every little helps, i curse myself everyday for still possessing my spleen and appendix, even my gall bladder annoys melmao