My New Exhaust Manifold

Got this bad boy on the Bay of temptation:

Can't remember if the guy said it was Hartge or Schnitzer - pattern (anyone?), all I know I got it for £170 and it looks the nuts. Proper RHD fit too as the pipes bend around the steering column, and looks like it will bolt straight up to my Ansa system. Missed out on the fully-rebuilt B25 he was selling for £350, rackum frackum..

The old, ugly, cast iron exhaust maniflold. The oil filter sits just nice under a heat source, which probably explains part of the reason why it needs an oil cooler, as an engine without an oil cooler has the oil filter sitting further away from the manifold:

With the tubular manifold. Worth it for looks alone:

Fitting it was a little fiddly as the bolts are obscured by the curve of the pipes, so had to hold them in place while it was offered up, but well worth it.
Eagle-eyed amongst you will notice that the oil filter housing is now facing the opposite way, as otherwise the oil filter would be underneath the manifold :shock: great for third-degree burns with your oil services. I just simply unbolted it, switched it round and repositioned the oil cooller pipes.

Lets Start At The Begining...

I'm a huge E21 fan. I'm onto my third one now.

The first (no photos at present) was a red 323i which I had to scrap and the second one was, well, a red 323i (not by design, just happened to come up in Auto reader)

which had all the rare bits (Recaros, LSD, BBS wheels, Ansa exhaust).
A lovely car.
Until some muppet in a Micra rear-ended me:

...and the, to add insult to injury, legged it. The car drove onto the lowloader with it's head held high while the Micra had to effectively be picked up with a dustpan & brush.
But my heartbreak was short-lived when this beauty turned up on eBay:

It's actually a 320 with (knackered) 323i running gear; the body is virtually rust-free, a boon on an E21, as they can rot like a fruit in a plastic bag if you let them. It had been in dry storage for two years and while it starts, runs and drives, will need full recommissioning to be roadworthy again. The car was up in Lancaster, a 520-mile round trip from London, and as I didn't have a road-legal car to my name, decided to hire the cheapest car possible for the trip. Which happened to be a Smart City Coupe...

Now before  you wonder how many weeks rehabilitation I had to have after that journey in that car, I was pleasantly surprised. In brief, it was a great drive, with a driving position modeled after the Merc S-class (Smart was created by M-B) and an engine that handles motorway speeds with ease, with the only drawback with it being at the mercy of crosswinds. So after covering that distance feeling relaxed and spending 2 hours checking over the car, I paid £1200 and booked a lowloader to bring it home

Got the car home and tried one of my BBS wheels on. Sexxxxy :

Future plans include a built 2.5 lump, totally refreshing the running gear and fitting all the goodies I've accumulated over the years.