4 BRANCH MANIFOLD ADVICE

[steeley-r]

Hello all! Is there anyone who can advise me how much of a pain it will be to add an Ashley 4 branch to my 1800 mk1 without removing the lump? If its an engine out job I may go the 16v route, but I am really keen on keeping the car & engine together, (its fairly original, in lhasa green).

[doosam]

my mk1golf gti recently had the head taken off and had some work done. it had the manifold removed and refitted easily which is an ansa 4 into 1. i hope this may help you.

[lewis]

Hi there

I can't tell you the specifics about the Ashley manifold but I know you can take the original one out without removing the engine. You will need to remove the inlet manifold first which I believe there are 8 Allen bolts in total, you will be able to see the exhaust manifold now. There are again 8 nuts to remove. You will need to detach the exhaust from the manifold which can vary whether you have two or one branch. I have a two branch pipe which connects with a flange with 4 nuts. Then you can slide the existing manifold off. I took mine out from the bottom but I removed the whole exhaust which gives you a lot more room, try from the top first as without the intake it should fit that way. Change all gaskets for new and clean down the surfaces you will be attaching together. Be careful when taking the nuts off as the pin can unscrew from the head and I carelessly snapped one in there. Give everything a good soak with WD first and let it work in. My car is a1983 (Y) with a DX engine so it may vary depending on the age of your car.

[steeley-r]

Thanks people. I have ?500 to spend on the old beast. The engine is bog standard & dirty so I'm having a bit of a stripdown at the moment. Any VAG parts you can suggest to keep it a bit standard looking under there, but pep it up a bit. I'm doing the usual K&N thing but anything else that genuinely helps would be good. A portion of that money is going to do the brakes (new discs & pads, braided hose etc) but I,m unsure on what 16v parts to use (e.g m/cylinder etc).