Dash Rendar

My previous XS Power manifold developed a small split at the join. I bought a new one to replace it (other makes were well out of my price range), and had Toyota GT fabricate a support for, as recommended by Chris Wilson. James at Toyota GT was kind enough to take photos of the work as they went along. You can see the fabricated support in a couple of these pictures, and I quote... "it will support the world!" I can't really tell what's going on in a lot of these photos, but I thought you guys might be interested. BTW, I've still got the old manifold available if anyone wants it. It would need a minor bit of welding, but this one is flush on all edges, so you'd save a fortune over buying a new XS Power manifold and then spending a couple of hundred extra getting it machined, like I had to. (But yes, all in it was still only a third the price of buying a BL manifold *without* any custom support.) http://supra.just2good.co.uk/myBlackSingle/toyotaGT/workshop002.JPG http://supra.just2good.co.uk/myBlackSingle/toyotaGT/workshop004.JPG http://supra.just2good.co.uk/myBlackSingle/toyotaGT/workshop006.JPG http://supra.just2good.co.uk/myBlackSingle/toyotaGT/workshop009.JPG http://supra.just2good.co.uk/myBlackSingle/toyotaGT/workshop022.JPG http://supra.just2good.co.uk/myBlackSingle/toyotaGT/workshop032.JPG http://supra.just2good.co.uk/myBlackSingle/toyotaGT/workshop035.JPG http://supra.just2good.co.uk/myBlackSingle/toyotaGT/workshop036.JPG http://supra.just2good.co.uk/myBlackSingle/toyotaGT/workshop037.JPG At the same time I needed new bushes, new crank seal, new rear diff seal, new rear wheel bearing, new clutch, plus sorting of leaking oil return line and fuel return line. Not a cheap week! I can try and take more pictures of the support if you like, now it's all in situ.

I reckon that's what I paid for the pair too.

How does anyone manage to go through 8 cars in 3 years!? Anyway, over my 13 years of driving history... * Mini 1000cc, upgraded a year later to 1.3 A Series, plus various mods * Renault 11 Turbo * Rover 216GTi * Rover Coupé VVC... My mum has this now. * Toyota Supra TT (BPU) * Toyota Supra T67dbb... still got this one.

lol

That's better. (See below...)

I personally think this thread is extremely useful, and I'll be linking to it from every place possible from now on.

And so it begins again.

Yeah, getting insurance is gonna be tricky after three ejections! I bet Sky wouldn't offer guaranteed final value then...

Just for those interested, it's more like 8Gs (that a human body can endure) even with a G-suit. Without the suit, blackout would normally occur at about 5s after a few seconds. Modern ejector seats expose pilots to well over 12Gs, but only for a very short duration. The older ejector seats used to expose pilots to around 20, causing such spinal compression that they ended up shorter!

Got to agree with Doug. I'm sure BMS would love to hear the full story.

But even if it did cost as much as the manifold, the overall cost (including custom fabrication of the support) is still well under half the best price I could find for a second hand BL manifold. And I was under the impression the support was a good idea regardless of the choice of manifold, so if you take that out of the equation, I'm still paying only a quarter of what I could get a used BL for.

It turns out that every single surface of manifold is not fit for purpose as it stands, so it's being sent off to be machined. This was not unexpected, given the price. Thought you guys would like to be kept up to date.

That's a fair cop, thanks Chris. I just didn't want anyone to think I'd been making up stuff about the history of the car.

That worries me a lot, since these are the pictures that were taken when I took the car in... http://maxgt.just2good.co.uk/dash.php http://maxgt.just2good.co.uk/dash2.php The pictures in the first page I saw with my own eyes, though I can only assume that the pictures on the second page came from my car. I know he wasn't working on any others at the time.

One hell of a launch.

No, not free of charge... the old one was a couple of years old. And, having consulted various people on here, I've been led to believe that any manifold can crack, but the chances of this can be substantially reduced by having some support fabricated, which is what I'm going to do. P.S. The BL one is literally ten times more expensive. At that price, I'm happy to take my chances with an XS Power one cracking after another two years...

Because my old one cracked. And before you tell me I'm being silly... I couldn't afford a BL one.

... is really rather good! I ordered a manifold from the XS Power Ebay site last week, and when it arrived on Monday, it was the wrong one. So I emailed their sales team and got a very prompt reply, apologising for the mixup and asking when would be convenient for them to collect the incorrect one and drop off the correct one. I said Wednesday would be good, and sure enough, they turned up this morning and swapped them over. Mixups happen, but I was pleasanly surprised with the rapid responses and quick turnaround on getting this sorted. I thought some of you might be surprised...

Yeah, used to be a real fan. He is a bit formulaic, but does do a great job of doing psychotic/twisted bad guys and writing parts of the story from their perspective. False Memory is a great read. Again, not really sci fi...

Well, it's not your only option. Didn't you say you'd been charged loads of money for a different box, yet what they've actually done is repaired your old one? Surely then you've been overcharged quite a bit? Perhaps you should ask for a part refund in addition to them having another go at fixing it? I had a problem like this with a garage once and it was amazing how forthcoming they became when threatened with court action. Good luck with whatever action you decide to take. It seems to me you're owed at least a little luck.

Blimey. Just glad you're okay.

All well and good, but it wont be nearly as responsive or reliable as the XS Power one I've just bought on Ebay for £130. Erm...

I've bought an XS Power one on Ebay.

That's what I was led to believe, yes.

If they are still stock, then that would be... annoying, to say the least! That would imply that I had paid Paul Kent a lot of money for very little. Still, I wouldn't want to jump to hasty conclusions until all the facts are in.