Frustrating, this is.
Today with much effort Nikki and I trecked off in search of the holy grail of scrap yards; one with a minor (or any other A/A+ series cars) in. We set of at halfpast 9 and at about 10:45 managed to find one with 3 minis and the remnants of an Austin 1300. Woot!
One exhaust manifold (and an 8 track with matching speakers, but we won’t talk about that) later; we headed home (via the Freecycle’d hoover collection & Halfords). Having got home I set to on the 8 track, it being so hot that even being outside caused fluids to run screaming from my body and head sunwards in a cloud of evaporation so fast it looked like a steam vent.
Uh, yeah, so we got that to work (well, okay, John cleaned the head and capstan and then we tried it…and, despite 10 years in an open-top’d 1300 it worked straight away. Quality Waltham Product. Anyway, yeah, when it got cooler (after that e’re so funky Dr Who episode) I set to. Angle-grinder in hand the new manifold was reduced to an exhaust only manifold.
It took about 30-40 minutes all in, but there it was… and then I matched it with the ‘log’ MG/Metro manifold I’d been given which I’d ever so carefully assembled onto it’s body…. and made discovery number one.
The ‘log’ manifold is thicker than the standard exhaust manifold. The mounting flanges don’t match. Not one bit. Ignoring this, on the basis that I could ‘design’ a bit of metal to make up the difference, and then ‘slot’ it together so it was all tightened up nicely I carried on.
There’s more pipes on the Ital carb. And yet, where the oil breather goes? That remains a mystery.
As it got dark, eventually even I had to concede defeat, at which point the second query about whether the Ital/1275 air filter would fit arose. It doesn’t.
I can only presume it does when it’s on the Ital manifold. I’ll check tomorrow. Otherwise, I have *no* fucking clue. No clue whatsoever.
But with the log manifold, it no go.
So now I’ve got a chopped up mini manifold that’s sweet f-a use, and a log manifold that I can return to Andrew, and an engine that’s going to continue to run hideously lean :-(
Bleh.
And Trey; she’s gone home for the weekend, so no snuggles :-(
And my hayfever’s fucking sucked today. Bad day. Yes.
