16 valve conversion exhaust manifold????

Hi after seeing all the nightmare stories on here about 4 branch manifolds, I was just wondering has anyone fiteed a 4 branch to a mk1 cabby 16 valve without problems?, I tried a dubpower on but the simple truth of the matter was that it simply did not fit properly, too close to the floor of the car in one place, also millimeteres from the steering rack boot,the link pipe supplied was completely useless as it had an angular bend in it making it impossible to join the middle box,
they were very helpfull when I expressed my issues, they recommended that I modify my rear engine/gearbox mount to make it fit, however they were more than happy to let me return it which I did they even had it collected from me here in Ireland. WOW! they gave me a full refund, thats 110% for service, also there very nice people to deal with.
However my point is that if you buy a manifold surely it shoul fit without having to alter your engine mounting? I accept you will have to heat wrap it and manufacture a heatshield, however with the dubpower manifold fitted to my car the clearances were so tight there was no room to fit a heatshield.
I,m currently using a combination of 16 valve and 8 valve down pipe welded as done by rubjohnny,
any advice or experience of others much apprecieated.

Its because all the manifolds are designed for LHD, so never fit RHD that well.

The best combo I ever used was an ABF cast manifold and a TechTonics Scirocco 16v downpipe. The ABF exhaust manifold is pretty damn good for a factory cast job.

My next manifold will be custom made I think..

ive just fitted a dubpower manifold to my 16v abf…
that said i paid a local exhaust company to help modify to fit.. and it was a nightmare as the company messed up initial alteration to the manifold..
but £200 later + a week and a half at exhaust company and it's all good now…
on a different car we are doing mk1 with tsr 16v engine that has an ashley 4 branch and that was tweeked to fit on the car, not 100% finished but clearing steering rack and drive shafts
but thats a mild steel manifolds…
hope you get this sorted
adrian

I've got a storm developmentsone on mine and it fits fine, the issue I had was the pipe to centre didn't clear the strut brace I have down the bottom, I used a 4lb lump hammer to cure this. 

Whatever you do, protect the boot, I didn't enjoy watching my cabby burn one bit. 

Yes I saw your photo and tbh it scared the sh** out of me, hence my post, anyone had any experience of these vwheritage parts center manifolds, there UK made so maybe they will fit rhd cars, i,m not too confident about my home grown downpipe. I,ve so much money spent on the car now if it caught fire i would freak it, there is a company in Austrailia making a stainless 2 branch downpipe to fit, I found the link onetime and never saved it,and now I cant find it again.

I'm sure the heritage one is ok but I think it looks ugly 

If you get a normal 4 branch an exhaust place could modify it, they ideally want the flange cutting off and chopping an inch off the pipes and welding up again (on mine anyway) 

If you struggle with ideas for the rack boot, plenty of pics etc on my build thread. Or pm away more than happy to help. 

if i was to do this again i would opt for getting one of the local stainless steel exhaust places to make mine from scratch…
was quoted £450ish when i first started to look into doing my conversion…
probably would have saved a few £££ by going this route, but thought it would be cheeper to go the way i did…
i was wrong…
the mild steel manifold was easily tweeked by the way..
good luck
adrian

great thanks for all the advice, any of you guys going to Dubshed? or the Republic of Ireland trip? it would be great to see some other conversions,

will take some pics if you want on weekend…
see if i can use my mates mot station to use lift to get under, its not too pretty at moment just wanted to get it in and running..
was going to start tidying it up then after the summer..
cheers
adrian

Theres a company in Canada called pgperformance.com  selling stainless downpipes to fit directly on to the factory manifold, They have several different types,ones for cars with cat, and ones for as they say "race use" thats non cat to us, I have emailed them to see if any would be suitable to fit to my car.
There stainless and come with a modified gear linkage, I will update when I get a response.

I think you'll find USA or Canada manufactured will also be LHD fitment

I got a dubpower one for my kr conversion and it was absolutely spot on  

Can you post some pictures of your Dubpower one fitted thanks

Well taxed my cabrio for 3 months, 179 euro! OUCH!!! so went out for a proper spin since fitting the 16 valve engine,it,s going very well but when I got home I checked around the engine bay and the heat off the stock 16 valve manifold and my mk2 mk1 combi downpipe was unreal, the bulkhead was roasting almost too hot to touch, I had a heatshield fitted to the downpipe as per stock 8 valve downpipe, bit the heat was still unreal, no way can I drive it any distance with this going on.
So the plan is to get a 4 branch and give it a good dose of heat wrap to try and get the heat in the rear of the engine bay under control, I will probably go for an ashley as the cost is less also I have read that they are a good fit to the jetex exhaust system I have, apparently TSR recommend them, or used to.
I dont see the point of a stainless one and then wrapping it up, I think there is such a heavy flange on the stock manifold it would be very difficult to wrap properly, so hopeing to have all the bits needed by next thursday, anyone else running an ashley? how do you find it???? any advice would be most welcome cheers everyonecf_emoticons__BangHead:

CRANKY said

Can you post some pictures of your Dubpower one fitted thanks

sorry for the late reply,pretty sure theres pics in my build thread from ages ago

I'm at the stage of finding an exhaust manifold and the rest for a 16v kr for my mk1 and don't no what to go for either :-(

CRANKY said

Well taxed my cabrio for 3 months, 179 euro! OUCH!!! so went out for a proper spin since fitting the 16 valve engine,it,s going very well but when I got home I checked around the engine bay and the heat off the stock 16 valve manifold and my mk2 mk1 combi downpipe was unreal, the bulkhead was roasting almost too hot to touch, I had a heatshield fitted to the downpipe as per stock 8 valve downpipe, bit the heat was still unreal, no way can I drive it any distance with this going on.
So the plan is to get a 4 branch and give it a good dose of heat wrap to try and get the heat in the rear of the engine bay under control, I will probably go for an ashley as the cost is less also I have read that they are a good fit to the jetex exhaust system I have, apparently TSR recommend them, or used to.
I dont see the point of a stainless one and then wrapping it up, I think there is such a heavy flange on the stock manifold it would be very difficult to wrap properly, so hopeing to have all the bits needed by next thursday, anyone else running an ashley? how do you find it???? any advice would be most welcome cheers everyonecf_emoticons__BangHead:

I've seen a few customer cars on Ashley manifolds but never fitted on to a 16v conversion…though lots on 8v's…they all needed tweeking to some degree so be prepaired.

I've run a customers engine on the dyno with one making 194hp so they work well enough, tho a bit short on length.

A std cast manifold works well enough in terms of power on a std engine.

Be carefull with heat wrap…steel manifolds can crack due to the excess heat held in…normally around the flanges. I'd make a heat shield or just wrap a heat blanket around it so it can still breath top and bottom.

Put some heat proof material over the rack boot.

I fitted a dubpower 4 beach to my 16v kr... Delivered and fitted personally by Peter, the owner of dubpower himself, as he was testing a refined design idea so their manifolds fit kr and abf... We deducted that spacing the rear mount by 5-6mm using shims the manifold an link pipe fitted perfectly with clearance from the steering rack and the anti-roll bar... And it looks lovely too

Well in the end I got an Ashley manifold, heat wrapped it and it fitted just fine without shimming the rear mounting or anything, however even after doing this the bulkhead was still getting too hot for my likeing, so I took it off again and made a heatshield that bolted to the manifold using u bolts, thanks BRAD for the heads up on doing this, I used a cover from the intercooler pipe by the turbo on an audi tt to wrap my steering rack boot also, it fits like a glove. Drove the car all the way from Cork to the castlewellan show in Northern Ireland with no problems and a cool bulkhead.
Sinve then I removed the Jetex exhaust system and had SOUIHAN,S in Trim Co Meath manufacture a custom stainless exhaust system using Magnaflow silencers, what a difference!! more power and way better sound! could not recommend this company enough, Souihans.ie Trim Co Meath.
In September I drove to Belfast to Titanic Dubs no problems whatsoever with either exhaust or manifold.