Stainless manifold?

[devilscaff]

I'v just been given a stainless manifold for my valver,my whole car is standard at the moment after six months of putting things right.It's going in next week for a rolling road full tune up and have been told it will help the engine out and get somewhere near the original power hopefully. Just want to know is it an easy job to get it out or is there a lot of stuff to be removed or should I not bother?

[VW BUSH]

Can be a ball ache if you snap off the bolts in the head, and down pipe can be a bit tricky to manoeuvre.
Worth doing imo.
Is the down pipe built in or do you need to fit existing one? if so might be worth a new dp to save future knuckle flesh if its old or of unknown parentage

[devilscaff]

The down pipe is one piece with the manifold, does it make that much difference PKU I hope it won't be to niosey as really not after that I'm 41yrs old lol

[antogoof]

i wouldnt bother, unless you get a quality one, and if theres nowt wrong with the one youve got then why bother, ive got one on my g60 and its cack got a g60 manifold and downpipe to replace it with.

it can turn into a pig of a job so id say if it aint broke dont fix it.

[devilscaff]

I've got it booked in at an exhaust centre on mon morning, I know the bolts come undone I cheques them all so now I'm still not sure what to do?

[VW BUSH]

If its a good one you will see some gains especially when combined with other mods.
You will get a different engine note, maybe more of a rasp but noise is controlled by the silencers on your current system so you wont sound any more like a 17 year old than you do now.
As said it can be a ball ache if your doing it yourself but if its going up on a ramp its a lot easier.
Does it have a flexi section and how good are your engine mounts? this is important for obvious reasons

[antogoof]

yep got to have a flexi! vag downpipes have the flexis build in so you will have to make sure you have one or get one fitted.

mine has one and again its cack! but maybe im just having a bad do with it.

a lot eaiser if someone else does it !

[Gambit]

Get a pic up of the manifold some are pretty bad fits, esp ebay jobs. Id only look at fitting a tsr/milltek item

there is not much gains to be had on a std 1.8 the std item flows quite well.

Its a pig to remove old and fit new though, and more so if bolts are seized. Id be inclined to replace all manifold studs at same time

[devilscaff]

It does have flexi but I'm starting to doubt weather or not to open this can of worms might just get the tune done and see what happens.

[Gambit]

If the manifold aint blowing id leave it well alone. Its a big job. The only way to remove the downpipe is to eithe drop subframe or else cut it in half below the downpipe flange above steering rack

If you cut it then to fit new one inlet manifold and gubbins all has to come off as manifold needs passed down from above engine