Headers on an esprit?

[dos Santos]

I must admit, I really dont know exactly what the exhaust manifold setup looks like on the esprit, but i was just wondering...

...since there are always problems with the manifolds cracking, is there an aftermarket header setup to replace the stock one?

What are the stock ones made from? Cast iron or something? What if they were made from steel or something like the ones you can put on american and japanese cars.

I dont know... I'm just wondering if the option is out there.

[The_Del]

The cracking manifold is generally on the Turbo cars and the mounting and high temprature of the turbo are the main problems.

The standard manifold is made of cast iron as it has very good strength properties under high tempratures as apposed to standard steel.

Under high loads the manifold can get extremely hot, hot enough that standard steel would go malleable and start to deform, especially with a few pounds of turbo stuck on the end of it.

A few people are looking at alternative manifolds in the UK and US, the results have shown that a steel manifold has to be of serious construction with extra bracing and extra engine mountings to stop any deforming during high temprature. Not sure how much this is going to add to the weight of the unit, and also extra strain on studs, engine mountings, engine balance etc. Also the cost appears to be considerably more than a standard manifold.

I believe that SW lotus have made up an alternative casting that uses a slightly more malleable cast alloy to help prevent craking and is a compariable cost to origonal.

Non turbo cars can of course have alternative manifolds created and there are some good performance based alternatives.

[karmavore]

A good explanation on this exists on LEW under Maintenance. Basically we're stuck with the stock stuff.

Luke.

PS, they crack because rain gets on them. Don't drive in the rain, they don't crack. :-)

My baby's from SoCal/Arizona and has great pipes.