GTA Exhaust manifold

Hi - I'm new to this Alpine masochism game so be gentle. Came into ownership of my car several years ago free of charge, but it then spent a couple of years down at Paul Sage's place in London acquiring dust and bills. All good work though and the drive back up North convinced me to keep it. Since then, because of one thing and another (mainly moving house) it's lain dormant again. This weekend past, in an effort to get it roadworthy and MOT'd for the summer, I've been replacing the badly bodged exhaust system (bodged by a previous owner and not by Paul Sage I hasten to add) with new manifold studs and gaskets. The collector box/silencer is on its last legs but I was hoping it would hold its puff till after the test at least. Thing is there still seems to be a slight chuff from the manifold at the middle branch of the left hand cylinder bank. I think the manifold itself might be distorted. Is this common? Mecaparts seem to do a system for £500+; ART seem to do the same one for £750 (don't know what the postage from France will be), but if anyone has any spare standard mannies for sale in the meantime, I'd be delighted to hear from them. Otherwise, this car is like a 2.8 litre go-kart! Fantastic! Rear-wheel drifting and huge 'over-drafting' seem to be on the menu this year. Now where did I see that full leather interior for sale..! Cheers.

Meca isnt £500. You need to add on their 20% tax and 80 euros shipping.

Steve Dell might have some standard manifolds...

DG
Are the A310 manifolds the same as the GTA's ? If so then I can help 'Andrews'

Cheers
Mark

Honestly don't know. Never seen the A310 ones..

DG thanks

Checked with other source, and the 310 and GTA manifolds are not the same.

Problem solved guys, and thanks for the correspondence. Apparently the tester either didn't notice the leak or didn't think it worth commenting on. So that suits me. I'll save my pennies for a proper system and yes DG, I take your point - £500 PLUS tax PLUS shipping makes it a lot more than £500 (also I said £500+ and even then that was for the NON-competition manifolds - guess I better just drop you a line when I've got £750 worth of spare room on my credit card. Watch this space) One other problem - the tester said the headlight 'image' was too low. Not the aim, the 'image'. I'm hoping this means at worst the refletive coating in the lamp unit is defective, but if that is indeed the case, do I have to remove the whole front subframe assembly and windscreen to change it? One of the jobs that Paul Sage carried out was replacing a headlamp glass and it didn't sound easy. Therefore, should I (a) Let Renault themselves do the job, and worry about the cost? (b) Order a headlamp unit, do the job myself, and worry about the complexity? (c) Just worry?
Thanks again for your time guys, and while I'm on the subject of worrying, is it normal to be up after 1:00 in the morning talking about Alpines while my lovely girfriend lies asleep upstairs? Your thoughts please.

My babe is in the room next door too, the garage!
What a Valentines day, rather quite on here this evening, I hope no one is wasting too much of their Alpine-funds tonight.
Did you know that 15th Feb is the busiest day for florists all over the country..... ...... ...... they have to spend all day putting the prices down.

As for your headlight, I think you can change the light unit reasonably easily, DG is breaking a car, call him and see what he has left.

[stephendell]

I've got a good headlamp. Cancelled order

Easy to change if you take the bootliner out.

By the way the atmo manifolds are almost always distorted. They usually need re-levelling when out and re-drilling as they won't even line up on the studs anymore.

Thanks Stephen and Simon. Once again however, my problems vanish and rematerialise as more serious problems. The headlamp issue was 'solved' - or rather it wasn't mentioned again. So I chose not to remind them. The only remaining task was handbrake performance. Here I must admit that I did have the opportunity to adjust the handbrake, and nipped it up to what I thought would be acceptable but it obviously fell short of the tester's requirements. More fool me. I've just been informed by the garage that while they were taking it back into the workshop, smoke appeared from behind the dash and the battery went into meltdown. That's all the information they can give and I now can't get out there until tomorrow. I'm hoping that the best case scenario is the starter solenoid has somehow shorted to the engine block or perhaps the exhaust - I did notice it is pretty close and perhaps it's been disturbed while I've had the manifolds off. That I think is the best I can hope and all that will be required is a new battery (and that bloody handbrake cable adjusted..!) But maybe I'm being too optimistic. Is there any other common reason for Alpines to spontaneously combust, other than as punishment for the sins of their owners? Should I have spent more time attending to my girlfriend on Valentines eve. All suggestions (and prayers) gratefully received. Andy.