Nice work, cheers from Brooklyn NYC. As to the comment from “the dude”, about it being “still warped”, what are you getting on about there mate?, you might not understand what happens to cast iron metallurgically as it is cast and then warps from heat and time. As cast it can have internal stresses from cooling unevenly or other causes, that are relived over time and heat/cool cycles. This is the “relaxed” state, if you were to “heat straighten” it that would be reintroducing stresses. You don’t want to do that.
International 345's were notorious for warping manifolds. When I swapped out engines on an old truck I had, I took a set of manifolds in to see if the guy could straighten them out. He used a blanchard style grinder. Lost a little from one ear on the output flange in the process. It was nice, not having to install new gaskets every time I hauled a load of scrap into town.
Set up gold! Missed your calling Max, should have been a teacher, you have the skills for it. Better late than never. I was trying to think of the engine that manifold came off of. Looks like around a 2 liters motor, pretty small I'd say. I was wondering about that flange on the end of the manifold that is inline, what was that for? Kinda a curious design. Possibly a bypass? Probably not, pretty small diameter for a bypass. I think I've heard of some small tanks that had Fiat motors, but that appears to be quite small and from a petrol motor. Just curious. Nice vid mate! Curious how that badger keeps showing up around your shop!
Very nice demo of “best conditioning” a part. That’s what the machinists at my last job called it. Basically setting up a part (like a weldment or casting) to make best use of available machining stock and end up with a good and in tolerance part. 👍👍
Nice job 👍 Just a guess... made in ina... Products Always have to make them better and give them quality workmanship before you use them. Just for 💩's and giggles I went a checked a 1960's manifold for a 6 cylinder chrysler flathead. There was zero rock on the face. I know there is no made in ina stamp on this 😁😁
Nice setup Max. I had a Fiat 124 sports back in the seventies, remember driving to Albany and refueling at Williams, opened the bonnet to check oil and the exhaust manifold was glowing cherry red. Understand why they warp. I have the same mod 98 level, I was nervous you might accidently knock it and drop it. I bought one of those cheap and cheerful digital box levels and surprised with the accuracy. Not such a great loss if I drop it.
The digital level i find not easy for quick checks , sort of like a digital dial indicator . I use the digital boxes for the T& C grinder & love it there for setting tool angles . 👍
Well G'day Max, second morning with a fresh hot brew, waiting for the sun to come up, and here we are again! 2 videos this weekend is a ripper mate, happy days, thanks for sharing and best wishes brother Btw, 1st fish I ever caught was a gudgeon lol, I must have been about 7 years old and had a go down the cut (canal)
Max, you’re great, love your attitude, it’d be a hoot to spend a week with you in your shop. I have a crapload of similar soft jaws with my Kurt that the CNC shop I bought it from (it was rough though) used to make specialty “tractor parts” if you get my drift. Those sure come in handy time to time. Cheers.
Hi Max. Love hate relationship with parts like these, knowing when and where to clamp and worrying if the bastard is going to go ballistic because you haven't got it nipped enough, but the satisfaction when you put it on a surface plate and cant get a little feeler under it is worth a tinny or 3. Best wishes, Mal.
Someday we will be able to login to a youtube creator channel and download all their knowledge and experience, when that happens Max, yours will be the first channel I visit ! Thanks again for another excellent video.
Seen many a warped manifold when I still turned a wrench. Broken manifold studs and blown out gaskets. My machine shop had a horizontal belt sander that could do straight six manifolds that got me going again pretty fast. Worked like a charm never had a comeback. The heat cycling let them normalize mostly so once flattened they were happy in their final configuration I figured.
I really doubt the manufacturers of automotive exhaust manifolds use seasoned iron before machining. Coupled with the thousands of heat and cool cycles, of course they're gonna warp. Great work Max. Cheers.
Manifolds have to be on of the worst shape things to get a grip of in a machine , your set up looks better than most I have seen. I did see one bloke on RU-vid who was probably cleverer than me fab up a fairly simple fixture out of a piece of heavy flat bar then he clamps the manifold to the fixture then he clamps the manifold face down to the mill table then skims the back of the fixture plate then flips the whole thing over and faces the manifold . No levels or dial indicators needed there is some good stuff out there to learn from people like yourself who make videos of routine tasks that are actually quite complex.
"the mile high club" no aircraft activities or the wacky weed or anything else of that nature - how many banana's did you have to take off to get it to clean up? did you mean rough as an echinda's arse ?
Max, if the piece is a banana putting a level in the middle is of no use. I would have used a long beam level and set the piece level with respect to the ends, and across the width. The middle is of no import as it's going to be either too high or too low, the machining will level all in the end
That's right. Max has no idea what he is doing. It also shows in all the other weird and wonderful things that many others would not take on. I have done a few manifolds myself and they can be a pain especially when adjacent ports are high or low and there is really nothing really flat anywhere to work off. I have then put a piece of steel flat bar that covered end to end. That gave me some sort of reference to work off. But as undaware commented, for Max, it worked didn't it. The idea is take the minimum off so all the ports are aligned and flat. That's what Max achieved - he had something more reasonable to work off. Max is no dummy. Look at the time it took him to set up the job versus time to machine it. That's always the case with exhaust manifolds. They can be a real pain. How many have you done?
It seams strange that the bolt flanges aren’t on the same plane as the exhaust ports . I’m sure there’s a reason for it and I would be interested to know why .
God I hated machining manifolds, although I had to use a horizontal surface grinder designed for cast iron cylinder heads. Does look a bit easier to do on a mill as long as you get a soft one, although I must confess when you were tapping this one in I was thinking "...hit it harder, with any luck you'll break it and you'll never have to do another one!" 😁👍🦘
