DIY 4 Branch Manifold
 

I was wondering if anyone else had gone this route as from what I've seen so far these are quite expensive to buy off the shelf! I was hoping to be able to make one a bit cheaper so that my exhaust pipes come out of the engine at more of a right angle to enable me to place the engine a bit farther back as the downpipe at the moment is very close to the passenger footwell. Does anyone know of any good guides?

Not a how to guide but i came across these on my internet browsing,seems quite good price really.

https://www.europaspares.com/175/EXH...MANIFOLDS.html

That's not bad actually compared to others! Any idea if it's considered better for the engine to go 4-2-1 or 4-1?

I think a 4-2-1 gives more torque over a 4-1 system.
Personally i would go for the look of the one you prefer.

My exhaust is a bit of a butchered job. I got the cheapest 2nd hand, kitcar, exhaust I could off Ebay, then proceeded to modify it. Took a good week to cut it all up and re weld it. Looked awful so I put exhaust wrap on it. Its not great, but in total the manifold and backbox cost less than £100, so I'll put up with it.

depends if you want a decent one or not, they can be made to work for cheep but chances are they wont provide great flow or look that cosmetically pleasing, if you want to get the top performance potential out of the exhaust then it will cost you either way, i made a full tube SS system from scratch for my blackbird engine and the whole system inc Cat and back box cost about £600 in raw material add onto that the hours it took to make and the cost of argon and SS tig filler ...... im sure you are getting the picture, i have plenty of comments on how nice it looks etc and it also does the business of giving about an extra 10HP with no other mods to the engine.

i have to say im not sure what the going rate is for a bespoke manifold but i expect if you went to a pipe shop with a CNC tube bender they would be able to do the job very quickly, too a very good standard at a good price.

hope this helps

tilly

when making your own there is always a trade off between looking good, working well and the space you want to fit it in.

the idea is to keep all the branches the same length of tube to get good cylender ballance :D

Baz r is right , do the best with what you have . Primary lengths, collectors, exhaust length and silencer are all a science . Primary length alone can make a huge difference when playing with dynos,same applies to the order they arrive in the collector , but one thing is for sure in that whatever you do it will be better than a stock cast iron manifold.

Bob

Fair enough, it sounds like its not really worth taking a cheap route on this whether modifying an existing manifold or buying a cheap one. I'll just have to keep the engine a bit farther forward and at a later date when I can afford a really good manifold then look at moving the engine back then :)

After getting my engine mounted I think i'm going to have to do something about this before IVA as the stock one that came with my donor is sitting really close to the passenger footwell and is likely to heat that area up... Does anyone know if one from another car would fit like a 1.6 cvh? These guys seem to have a good range and the prices don't seem too bad for a performace 4 branch. http://www.speedshack.co.uk/FORD(EXHAUSTS).htm

Westfield cvh on the bay sometimes.

I got my from the bay a month ago its a westfield 4-2-1 stainless, 4-1 looks nicer but this should give more torque. Think it was about £85 quid and its a 1.8 cvh. Need to change the diaganol to make it fit but no major issue.
I thought as everyone who fits a cvh is on a upgrade path to a zetec these should start to come up more often, but rumour is they can be modded to fit the zetec head also. I'm hoping mine will do both when the time comes. Pics in my build thread.

M

The stock CVH manifold will fit in the area okay and will pass the passenger footwell okay without causing a problem. For a cheap solution i have seen these used from a 1.6 turbo cvh, there not the best manifold but they give you a lot more room to play with:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/escort-mk3...item3f0caf0dbd

Andrew

Ya those 4-2-1 westfield one's that you've got look pretty good mike. Good to know those rs turbo 1.6's fit as well. Would stuff like escort/fiesta x2/3ri ones fit as well then if they had a 1.6/1.8 engine? Trying to keep my options open I guess to try and get the best one I can for a reasonable cost. That one on ebay spud looks like it'd be pretty good but it's pickup only and letchworth is way to far, would end up costing 100 quid plus once you factor in fuel :( Would a zetec kit like this fit then? http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/WESTFIELD-...item4a9e25cabc

Spoke to these guys http://stores.ebay.co.uk/PepperPerfo...4634 .c0.m322 today and they'll do me a custom 4-2-1 manifold kit based on dimensions that I supply for £110 posted as apparently they do quite a few for roadsters using different engines. I'll post some pictures once I get it assembled :)

Thats the same manifold I have fitted to my CVH engine , as Spud says it gives more space to make it easier to fabricate a down pipe so that it exits the side of the car easy.

Why not ask if anyone on here is located close to Letchworth & collect it for you then post it on etc ;)
I,m sure if there is a forum member close by they,d help you out :)

cheers
andy

That manifold makes a lot of sense. I spotted that on someones build here but cant remember where. Easy side exit and the few horse power lost will probably never be missed.

Bob

I recall a guy on the forum( i think from holland) ordered one of these and ended up sending it back as it was a big pile of s%@te.

Thanks for the heads up ozzy! Still tempted to try and make one by just making my own flange using the gasket as a template then buying a few mandrel bends. Only thing I can't really seem to find is 4-2 collectors and then 2-1 collectors.

On a different note are these the same in terms of being able to bolt onto the cvh head ok?

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.d...=STRK:MEWAX:IT

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.d...=STRK:MEWAX:IT

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.d...=STRK:MEWAX:IT

Any of those should fit a cvh engine.

Good stuff, I've bought the one for £25 so just need to sort out some mandrel bends once I've got it attached :) Thanks for all the help with this guys. It's a shame really that more companies don't offer decent quality kits at a reasonable price, seems someone is missing a trick here.