16v mk1 cabriolet gear linkage hits exhaust??????

Any one used the original cast exhaust manifold on a KR 16v engine in a mk1 cabriolet?
According to popular belief this set up works but I can't get 2nd and 4th because the intermediate lever hits  the
exhaust.
The gearbox is O2O type from a mk2.
I've never worked on a VW before but to my eyes there are only 2 solutions
1 different exhaust manifold
2 different gear linkage
any ideas/links  greatly appreciated.
cheers

MonkeyTrainer said

According to popular belief this set up works

Hmmmm, "popular belief"…..

The "popular belief" is that you need a conversion manifold, to avoid issues as you're experiencing. I'd not fancy trying to modify a gear linkage to go round a non-standard collection of exhaust pipes and connections, etc. I'm surprised you think the Mk2 KR manifold fits, I was led to believe the thing is too long and contacts the bulkhead, and/or anti roll bar, and/or steering column or rack. The Mk2 Golf has a larger engine bay, different steering rack and different front suspension (similar but not the same, attached to a subframe not straight onto the body).

Some people have cut & shut the original manifold but its difficult to do this without losing power. The gas is flowing at quite high speed in this area (high temperature, etc) so any small imperfections in the tube's internals will disrupt the flow and result in turbulence and power loss. So if you can shape it, and weld, without creating a flow restriction or roughness (probably need to be TIG welded, pragmatically) then its ok but otherwise expect a bit of power loss by bodging this aspect.

Thanks for the quick reply Paul.
Theres a bloke down the road with a 2.0 L 16v in a mk1
with a cast manifold on it, if anything its longer and comes even closer to the bulkhead
but the gear linkage clears it by a few mm.
He doesn't know what manifold it is .
Tubular manifolds are expensive but if thats what is has to be
then it will have to be.

hi mate ive got the cast manifold on my 16v with a welded up mk1 bottom pipe and kr top bit i had to cut the gear linkage and reweld it so that it missed the manifold it works fine

Paul is bang on, I have literally never heard of anyone using a std KR manifold without requiring cutting/welding/customisation of downpipe.

Your friend may be using a Scirocco 16V Manifold though.

Dear baz
could you try to desribe what you did with the gear linkage please
I have made a fuctioning exhaust out of the mk1 and mk2 downpipes
but itcouldn't be any more "in the way"
does it involve cutting the bit that bolts to the steering rack?
moving the pivot closer to the bulkhead or the block?
cheers

std manifold can only fit with cut n shut downpipe as above,use top half of mk2 8v/16v gti welded to bottom half of mk1 gti and put a big kink in it to clear and it almost fits.

but even with this I had to cut a round notch out of my input shaft to clear. luckily the metal on the shaft is very thick so its still strong enough, but if you have to cut out loads then you should consider adding more metal to the other side to get some strength back in. you may have to bend it a little to clear, plus my downpipe had the big metal cylinder things missing off the side (think it started life as aftermarket mk2)

a scirocco 16v relay shaft comes kinked to clear from the factory, but unfortunately these were NLA when I tried to buy one.

this is what my downpipe looked like:



scirocco 16v relay shaft, to give you an idea of what you need to do:

Thanks for the input jonny
looking at the first picture my relay shaft hits the downpipe mounting flange on
the mounting hole on the right but closer to the block just below where your finger is.
no ammount of shaping will ever get enough clearance.
even without the downpipes on it still hits the manifold stud.
in neutral its only 10 mm away
to get 4th or 2nd it would be halfway inside the downpipe
0———————————————————————-0
the photo of the scirocco linkage is very interesting
it seems to sit a lot lower in the engine bay
closer to the driveshaft .

---

this weekend will bring the answer ..or a tubular manifold
cheers

yeah i vaguely remember i bent my shaft downwards/flatter a fair bit to get it underneath all the gubbins, then cut it for a bit more clearance to the pipe. sold the car ages ago and never thought to get a good picture!