The story of Little Red Riding Hood

[Sparky]

For me it's a no-brainer compared to the cast one in terms of longevity.  Beyond that, it feels like the engine breathes more effectively, certainly low/mid range,  and spool-up is a little faster, but that's just icing.  And it will be soooo much easier to remove if/when required.

[Chillidoggy]

It also adds length and girth to your manhood, and makes you so attractive to hot women, that you'll be beating them off with a shitty stick.

What's not to like?

[Sparky]

And all that despite smaller nuts.

[stephenwhyte]

Where can these tubular manifold systems be bought Sparky and would it fit my '82 Turbo Esprit too? My manifold has a hole in it and we are about to go through the same removal and replacement issues so all advice really would be appreciated at this point. I read elsewhere that they aren't strong enough to hold the Turbo - is that nonsense then? Thanks in advance.

Best of luck with the work on yours Jacques!

[Bibs]

 

[stephenwhyte]

Thanks Bibs - so not suitable for the '82 Turbo then so it's standard cast iron for that one (is SJ Sportscars the best option for buying these?) but may look to buy for the S4s in the future.........if returning the '82 doesn't rob me of all funds and make me homeless??

[Jacques]

He he, I also have a Little voice in the back of my head, that it's not the car, but all of those "nice to have" parts, that a slicing the bankaccount

Anyway, here is some news: after only 7 more hours today, MY NUTS ARE OFF!!!

                                                                                                                 

Ehrm, well, not mine but the manifold ones...

Yes, all 12 of them. No sweat except for the last one, which demanded a modified special Tool. Not even my fround Down spanner could do the trick.

All was done sitting in a pit underneath Little Red Riding Hood, and with a few flashlights plus a table top lamp. I only had to take off the 4 Little heat shields and the engine undertray. Not loosening the engine Mount or anything else. I did not take the left rear wheel off, as it did not give any more access. Actually, it's not that difficult, it just takes a lot of patience and turning many of the nuts 1/16'th of a turn at a time, then out with the arm, twist the spanner, and 1/16'th more turn etc...

Now, NeXT problem is the torbo to exhaust manifold, which have 4 nuts, on some countersunk studs... One off, one loosened and two out of reach. I reckn I will try to take off all hoses etc on the turbo and then try to swiwl and turn the complete unit bolted to the exhaust amnifold up an dout (or Down and out).

That'll be tomorrow then

I need to rest my hands and arms, they feel a Little gelly-like  Little Red Riding Hood is well chuffed.

Kind regards,

Jacques.

ps: Could someone plase post a close up Picture of a K-nut?

[Chillidoggy]

Here you go -

http://k-nuts.com/index.php/products/hi-temp-k-nuts-metric-ecrou-aviation-haute-temperature-metrique-hexagonal/

 

[Jacques]

Thanks for the link.

All right, time for a small update.

Turbo and manifold had to come out together, and to facilitate this, I had to loosen the chargecooler and move it aside. No problem though, and with a friend taking it out from above, I steered clear from below, and voila, it was out and placed on the floor, to access the remaining bolts between manifold and turbo. A slight heating on one nut, and all was off. Turbo is fine, no Wear and tear, and wastegate is also okay, sitting correctly and no Wear on axle as far as I can see and feel. No suspecious oil inside the tube between turbo and chargecooler.

Hmm... I Wonder If I should renovate the turbo and maybe install a 360 degree bearing or maybe ceramic bearing, while it's out anyway?

Any good ideas on this, anyone?

I will use K-nuts on both manifold to cylinderhead and manifold to turbo.

The old manifold, which is in fact not very old, and only done some 4000 kilometers, is intact and looking like new.

The cast manifold weighs a surprisingly low 11,6 kilogram, clearly not as much as expected. As my new tubular exhaustmanifold weighs 5,9 kilogram, I still get a nice saving of 5,7 kilogram. Plus the nuts of course, which I will weigh later. I'll have to save some more other Places.

I am now close to saving 80 kilogram on my Esprit, when I finish installing the parts I have on the shelves.  Little Red Riding Hood is almost finished on her weight saving diet, and feels refreshed and asured that she can dance better, and run away from the big bad wolf (911/996) faster.

Kind regards,

Jacques.

[Jacques]

I forgot to ask: is there any gain or just looks, in another wastegate actuator? I mean one of those nice aluminium ones with a  stainless rod?

Kind regards,

Jacques.

[Advantage]

That's one of those "Depends" questions. If you're running a standard car with a standard turbo on standard boost then the standard actuator is perfectly fine as long as it is in good condition. Once you start chasing larger numbers then it would be worth considering an updated unit matched to your turbo's requirements.

[Jacques]

Thanks Advantage. I think there are two matter in thi: one is the finish, which surely is better, and the other is the perfomance, which will increase a Little over time. It will anyway be new, so it should last long from then on.

Any particular to recommend?

Kind regards,

Jacques.

[Advantage]

A personal recommendation is something I'd leave to Dave (Changes) or Dave (Superdavelotus)!

[esp88]

So, Jacques

Finally, out the old manifold,

well done

 

[Jacques]

Hi Yasuo,

Yes, thank God and some help from you Guys, with some sound advice.

Next is alingning the tubular manifold to the cast one, which have proven very hard on cyl. 3, as it's really hard to move, certainly backwards onto the collector. I've tried force, heat and NeXT I'll try to make a gig to use some tough metal wires and Wind them up and see, it that helps. It may be slip joints, but there sure is not much slip, only a joint.

Kind regards,

Jacques.

 

[Barrykearley]

Found a novel use for your old manifold that you are keeping 

 

[Bibs]

Nice

 

[franjipane]

1 hour ago, Barrykearley said:

Found a novel use for your old manifold that you are keeping 

 

 

 

A mere couple of steps away from some avant grade hifi speakers!

 

 

[Jacques]

Which I happen to like, as I'm a HiFi enthusiast  For example I enjoy the last ever made Tandberg tcd-3014a.

-------

So, today I made a bit of Progress, as I have modified the alunox tubular manifold to actually fit the cylinderhead bolts, which it did not. Now it's a slip on manifold like it's supposed to be. I am much more interested in the performance, but that will have to wait, as we have snow, ice and lot's of salt now. Anyway, I'll go over the turbo, flush the oil channels, oil hoses etc. and reinstall it.

As can be seen in the pics below, I had to take off the oil hose from turbo to oilsump. Much easier to Work on installing the new tubular manifold.

I installed it with K-nuts of 10mm, but they have an outer diameter like a 13 mm nut. Should hold well. A Little tricky to install the small nut on cylinder 1 on top, so I reached Down from above, sitting in the trunk, and reaching Down with a slim 10mm open end spanner. Easy peasy, 1½ hour to install the manifold, washers and nuts and tighten everything up, ready to install the turbo.

There is a slight problem though - as I shave off quite many kilo of weight from Little Red Riding Hood, she raises her suspension and looks like a Landie. Solution: new adjustable suspension me thinks. I can already hear my bankaccount cry. I'd like Öhlins or Nitron.

More later,

Jacques.

[Jacques]

Are these the women you mentioned Ian (alunox manifold needed) ?

(Pictures are not mine, but belongs to their respective owners)

 

[Jacques]

Okay, bolted the alunox manifold on, then the turbo, and now the chargecooler adn turbo hit each other, and no way a silicone hose can get in between. It's like th eturbo sits differently as the tubing on the manifold is wrong? Have anyone experienced this? Also, the heat shield at the end of the cylinderhead cannot get on? We are talking a few centimeters...

Kind regards,

Jacques.

[Jacques]

I've started a seperate thread on this topic (installation of alunox exhaust manifold), to gather info for solutions and experiences, so future people can benefit from this.

Jacques.

[Jacques]

Finally an update with a Little Progress.

I took everything off Again, and went home and brought the old cast manifold. I sanded the 4 primaries and the collector lightly, where I could reach, and lubed all with Wera 1400 deg cel. antiseize paste (like I also did on all studs, nuts and bolts). Then I inserted the 4 primaries loosely into the secondaries, and held it up to the old manifold, adjusted the tubes a bit more (they are tight, but not as tight as I wrote in the separate thread about how to install the alunox exhaust manifold), as they nearly fell out, and slotted some 8mm bolts through the two and spun on some non-locking 8mm nuts. Then I held it up to the cylinderhead, and voila, it went on. Not 100 % easy, but I'd say quite okay, not to need any further adjustment. Okay, let's do some more! All nuts on, but only two rounds. Then turbo on, and voila, 30 mm or more between the chargecooler and the turbo. All 12 nuts turned slowly inwards, but the 4 flanges came home by themselves. Prior to that I had installed the heat shield. As I went on tightening the 12 nuts successively on the 4 primaries, the turbo unfortunately kept creeping upwards, to now about 4-5 mm distance, not 30-35mm as before. Now the turbo sit's a bit too much forward fixed to the exhanust manifold's flange, 1cm, and too high, but still far better than before. I have not installed everything on the turbo and no support bracket, as I want to follow a friends advice on letting Things settle a day or two. I have to find a way to lower the turbo a Little more, then I think I can squeeze the silicone hose into position. Before I left the workshop, I placed a lead hammer of 1 kilogram on top of the turbo, so it may lever it Down a bit under it's light pressure.

Tomorrow, I will try to make up a wedge of Wood, and place it somewhere on the secondaries, and see if I can find Space to knock it a bit backwards towards the engine, It won't jiggle any more now, as it's rather tight, but I have no slip joint brackets on and as I said no support bracket, so Things should move with relatively Little force, I hope And I have to protect the cylinderstuds as well.

Ah, if only the manifold was made with precision...  Then I could have spent a few weeks doing more important stuff

More later.

Kind regards,

Jacques.

[Chillidoggy]

You're going backwards Jacques, that looks worse than before, what on earth have you done, rotated the compressor housing or something?

Again:-

1. Unscrew the forward brass coolant fitting out of the turbo.
2. Fit the heatshield.
3. Put the turbo on its flange.
4. Report where it fouls, if anywhere.
5. Measure how much clearance you have between the turbo and the heatshield, and post it here.
6. I will tell you the dimensions of the new coolant elbow you require.
7. You will need to fit a silicone coolant hose from the new elbow.
8. If I'm wrong, I will buy you a beer next time I see you.
9. Yes, I know my money's pretty safe whether I'm right, or wrong.

 

[Jacques]

Ha ha, no, you Money is safe with me, I am a former banker, and I have an alunox manifold that sit's correctly now. Well very near correctly.

Since I don't drink beer, I'd like a juice or something

Is Margate close to Lotus factory?

- I did the above procedure I wrote, and which you can see on the two Pictures above. Since I let it rest till' this afternoon, I then went on loosening the 12 nuts on the cylinderhead a bit, say two rounds.

- Then I jiggeled and pushed the secondaries towards the engine, (with a Little help) so they came nearer the primaries.

- I did that successively, while all the time checking how much the turbo came closer to the chargecooler. 4 times in all.

- When I was satisfied with the distance between the turbo and the chargecooler and engine, that is horizontally, I noted that the tyrbo also had come further Down than on the Picture from yesterday (above), as it is angeled: the closer it comes to the engine, the further Down it comes. See piture below.

- Then I tightened up the turbo to manifold, and installed the silicone hose between the chargecooler and the turbo. It fitted as intended.

- Then I went on installing the new free flow cat and it's prolonged tube (void the ebpv), and blocked it's hose, plus installed the new oxygen sensor.

- Then jiggleing everything to take tensions and ensure exhaust gasket (rear) sits correctly. Then tightening the 12 nuts on the cylinderhead.

- Then installing the last remaining hoses, waterhoses, oil hoses etc. and connect the plug for the oxygensensor. Need new rubber grommet there.

- Then thightening the cat to turbo and once more on cat to exhaust.

- Prime the oil, Water and then start. Let it heat up to normal driving temp and turn off to cool Down.

- Will retighten all in a few days after a few heat cycles.

- The waterfittings and heatshield do not interfeer and sit's normally and detatchable as intended.

- Everything seems normal at this point. Engine is running smoothly and normal. I'll connect the aldl to my laptop and inspect on that next time I start the engine.

- need new locking clip for the wastegate actuator.

I have not installed the two double slipcoupling bands, and not installed the adjustable support bracket, only the brackets. Will do later, when everything is setteled. If anyone have specific advices for thses, I am open ears.

- One free beer from Ian

- BIG thanks to everyone here, and Peter H.

Cheers,

Jacques.