Exhaust manifold

[aaaron]

Well I've now done about 120 miles on my mildly restored OTS. Has been pretty good so far, but today I hit a very small road bump and all of a sudden the exhaust note got about 20 dB louder. I didn't know whether I had cracked a manifold or dislodged a pipe. Got the car home growling, coughing and spluttering (the car, not me). Fortunately, it was the connection between the downpipes and the exhaust pipes. The forward flange brackets (both sides) just fell apart as i was undoing the nuts! They had been repaired/welded previously and their time was up.





I found some split flanges on line. Anyone tried using these?



I tried removing the RHS lower manifold (removed the 8 nuts, etc) but it looks to be frozen against the upper manifold. I thought I might try heating it up with a propane torch and seeing if that works. Any other thoughts? If the split flanges work, i dont really need to remove the lower manifold. But for interest sake, i was wondering why it won't budge!

Thanks in advance for any thoughts or advice.

Cheers
Allan

[Whitact]

Hi Allan,
The lower manifold has a spigot that extends up into the upper manifold and can be tight if it has not been off in a while. The studs limit the movement but progressively working and tapping it side to side and front to back while pulling down should eventually get it off.
I have not used to split flanges but they seem like a good solution and as you say would avoid the need to pull the lower manifold.
Good luck,