OK maybe not of interest to the "I MUST have 200BHP" chaps among us, but I'm converting a Rickman Ranger to Zetec, so performance is not as critical as it might be.
I first looked at the Escort manifold that came with the engine, but that exited right where the engine mount wanted to be (I'm using the MkII Escort X-member & RetroFord mounts), so then I bought an Ashley four branch conversion manifold for £200ish. When it arrived I happened to run a straight edge long the mounting face & found the port for No.1 "fell away" by about 5mm. I returned it & was told I was being "too fussy". So what to do?
I have a Ford drawing of the Focus Zetec, & on that the exhaust manifold exits the head & bends up, then turns, meets a 4-2-1 plenum & exits pointing down at about the same hieght as the ports - which gives plenty of room to avoid the mounts. Ebay provided one for £36 deliverd. A call to Merlin had 2 x 2" bore x 45deg bends & a metre of straight pipe in the post to me & I after cleaning the lower flange weld up, the pipe fitted inside, the straight tube fitted that & the other bend at the bottom, I welded this all up & drilled a 16mm hole for an M18 half nut (1/2 the thickness NOT 3 sides of a hexagon!) for the LAMBDA & there you have it, perhaps not the most aerodynamically efficient manifold, but it's had Ford work out the fluid dynamics, so shouldn't be that bad, & it's fabricated pipe not cast, so pretty light.
Anyway, it might spark some ideas if you need such a thing, here's a photo of my nearly completed one - don't look too closely at the welding.
- Manifold.jpg (55.06 KiB) Viewed 1446 times
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