Has anyone installed one of these Vintage Motorcars type 4 exhaust? I’ve had nothing but issues with it. It is pushing on the drivers furthest rear push rod tube causing it to leak at the engine. I’ve taken it off and on a dozen times any still puts enough pressure to cause it to leak at the engine onto the hot exhaust, any suggestions?
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Been awhile since I messed with a 914 engine - had a '72 bought new (1.7L) and kept near 10 years. I also have a 1.8 and 2.0 sitting in barn for years. If I recall all had an oval and not round exhaust port. Cory D used some T4 stubs from rusted out heat exchangers I had - believe they were oval vs round (Yours appear round in photo?)--- if so then you need more oval bits to connect to the heads. Maybe find old rusted T4 heat exchangers and use the bits to create that short sub used? I may have a set of stubs still?????
Not mine but homemade heat exchangers -
The headers built are never exact science. Make sure all the nuts and bolts are snugged and then tightened a little at a time to let the header move to the needed seating. You may try using double gaskets and or thick, soft copper gaskets to help fill in the area not fitting. Make sure to get the header hot as possible once you have it installed by taking a hard drive then stopping and tightening all the fasteners while hot. This may allow the header to move into a position it likes. At the end it could have been made too far out of tolerance. Good luck this can be frustrating.
@Jsrrags posted:. . . . any suggestions?
Personally, I'd just hammer a dent on each side of the header to give me 1/8" - 1/4" clearance on each side for the push rod tubes. In my case, I would pop the oxy/acet torch and heat a 50-cent size cherry-red spot on one side at a time and form the dent with a 1" pipe hit with a hammer. In your case, if you don't have a torch, you could probably do it 'cold'; just have to hit it harder.
@Jsrrags posted:Has anyone installed one of these Vintage Motorcars type 4 exhaust? I’ve had nothing but issues with it. It is pushing on the drivers furthest rear push rod tube causing it to leak at the engine. I’ve taken it off and on a dozen times any still puts enough pressure to cause it to leak at the engine onto the hot exhaust, any suggestions?
I don’t have a T4, but I can see the issue and I think I can take a stab at this.
You’ve already identified the problem - the stub tubes are pushing on the push-rod tubes. I’d not want them even touching, as the hot exhaust can’t do anything good for the oil temperature, etc. As it stands, they’re causing leaks that will only get worse
At this point, I’m not sure if you can even get them out. But if you can, I think you should.
They need to be “egged” (ovalized) enough to clear the tubes. That’s going to be difficult to do without messing up the orientation of the flanges.
You say the exhaust is “Vintage Motorcars”, but as far as I know, Greg doesn’t make his own headers. If it’s “Vintage Speed” in Taiwan, that would make sense. Either way, somebody needs to fix it.
If the car is a Vintage Motorcars new build, I’d talk to Greg and show him the pictures. Whoever supplied the exhaust really does need to fix it.
I couldn’t leave that the way that it is.
This was the bus T4 rusted out heat exchangers that Cory used for his "Hoopty". It had the aluminum fins molded on it but I put them in fireplace to melt that off -- got a big aluminum ingot! Plus it cleaned out all the carbon. He just used the 4-5" stubs.
Change the damn thing for crying out loud.
With all things considered and since you only need a little bit of clearance, I would do what @RS-60 mark suggested. A simple (if not elegant) and easy to do fix, costing you nothing but a little time...and VOILA, you're back on the road.
@MusbJim posted:With all things considered and since you only need a little bit of clearance, I would do what @RS-60 mark suggested. A simple (if not elegant) and easy to do fix, costing you nothing but a little time...and VOILA, you're back on the road.
That’s nowhere near complicated enough.
Thanks guys, these stubs are stainless and very short, not shaped very easily as some of you might think. Also, Stan is correct if I just start beating on it...it will mess up the orientation of the flange which barely lines up as it is. Im unfortunately going to have to pay a fabricator to make a new flange that has clearance. I did buy these from Greg at Vintage Motorcars $1300 and have had multiple issues with it, and no one will return calls and emails.
imho he ought to take them back then.
@edsnova posted:imho he ought to take them back then.
Agreed.
