Fitting a Raceland 4-2-1 Manifold to a Saxo VTS: A step-by-step guide
Inspired by FincheySaxos VTR thread, I have put together a little guide for fitting a Raceland 4-2-1 Manifold to a Saxo VTS. This task should take you around 5 hours to complete but if you enjoy taking your time like me, then expect 6-8 hours split over two days. I carried out the job this past weekend (29/12/08). I hope you find the guide helpful as it took me a good few hours to write!
What you will need:
1 x Citroen Saxo VTS
1 x Raceland Manifold
1 - 3 new manifold gaskets (although not essential)
Tools – at the very least you will need a 10mm open ended (OE) spanner, 10mm ring spanner, 13mm OE spanner, socket set with 10 and 13mm bits, axel stands (or a decent 2 tonne jack), copper grease, wire brush, WD-40 (or other lubricating spray)….
Fortunately, as my father is an engineer, I had access to excellent Snap-on® and Britool® tools including ratchet spanners, short and long OE spanners, a socket set which included bars of various lengths and a 3 tonne jack that hilted the car right off the floor! The variety of tools available made the job that little bit easier
Removing the old Manifold
Using the appropriate spanner, remove the heat shield which will expose the old manifold. Give all the nuts on the manifold a good spraying to help loosen them and break the seal. Leave for half hour or so. If the manifold is stone cold, pour hot water over all the nuts/threads to help them expand – again to help break the seal. Believe me, the combination of WD-40 and hot water made it a piece-of-piss to remove the nuts and they came undone with virtually no effort at all. Preparation is the key here.
When ready unscrew each locking nut fixing the manifold to the head using the 13mm ring spanner and/or socket set where necessary. Once completed, move underneath the car and unscrew the 3 spring bolts holding the manifold to the exhaust. Again give the spring bolts a good spray before attempting to remove (note: the car will need to be jacked up or on axel stands in order to complete this task. I positioned a 3 tonne jack underneath the wishbone on the passenger side and used a piece of square wood atop of the jack to help distribute the load evenly – seek help if you are unsure of the location of a safe jacking point).
If you are having difficulty removing the spring bolts, using two ring spanners will help (see picture below). Once all the nuts have been removed the manifold should come away from the head and the exhaust quite easily. Carefully feed the manifold down so that it drops out underneath the car, and then detach the lamda sensor. The following pictures summarise:
It is not absolutely essential but as a matter of best practice clean up all the nuts and bolts using a wire brush and/or emery paper. Apply copper grease liberally before re-fixing as this will make it easier to remove the new manifold if required at a later stage.
Clean all the dirt, grit and gunge from around the head and manifold gasket. Doing so is very important as it will help prevent the gasket blowing when the manifold gets hot. In my case the original gasket supplied appeared to be made up of three smaller gaskets – I simply cleaned each one in turn and fitted them back to the head. No need for new ones.
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Fitting the Raceland 4-2-1 manifold
Once cleaned, re-fit the manifold gasket. Feed up the Raceland manifold through the engine bay and position over the threads. Hand-tighten each of the nuts but don’t do anything more at this point. Move underneath the car and hinge the manifold bracket over the gearbox mount. Refit the 3 spring bolts.
At this point all nuts attaching the Raceland manifold should be in place and hand-tightened. Beginning with the head bolts, tighten each one in equal increments until all are fully tightened. Two of the nuts are bastards to get back on (see picture below), just persevere with the 13mm ring spanner and you will get there in the end. This job took me around 2 hours because of a couple of troublesome nuts – make sure they are hand-tightened as much as possible in order to prevent the nut catching on the manifold branch come spanner-tightening time. The next task is to tighten the spring bolts at the manifold-exhaust interface. I recommend using an exhaust putty of some sort to seal the gaps (to prevent blowing) before tightening the spring bolts up.
Refit the lamda sensor to the manifold and plug it back in at the engine bay. Note: the lead is not too short! Simply feed it up the back of the engine and reconnect there – this will work no problem
If all has gone well the finished product should look like this:
What can I expect from my Raceland 4-2-1 Manifold?
Noise (idling): A Powerflow exhaust and K&N Generation 2 induction kit were already fitted before the Raceland was added. These two modifications gave the rear of the car a fairly loud purring/humming sound on idling however the front (engine) sounded like a sewing machine due to various belts turning. You all know the sewing machine sound lol.
The Raceland has increased the overall volume at idling with the front now matching the back as having a nice burbling/purring noise. The ticking sewing machine can no longer be heard.
Noise (under acceleration): Raspy. Very raspy. And much louder, to the point that it is antisocial and sounds a bit farty as well! lol I think this is because the manifold may be blowing somewhere (see my other thread) – I will get the car back into my garage shortly for further investigation.
Performance: What I am particularly impressed with at idling is the car revs much more freely. However under acceleration I have noticed a slight drop in performance. This may be down to the manifold/exhaust blowing somewhere. Again further investigation is needed.
Once the system is fully sorted I expect the noise levels to drop (especially the farty/raspy noise) and the performance (under acceleration) to improve slightly. At the moment I’m pressing the accelerator pedal and the throttle response is ‘sludgey’ – not acute or rapid enough. I’m pressing it down but the power ‘aint coming. There is a definite drop in power so there must be a leak somewhere.
Anyway I hope you find this guide useful when fitting your Raceland 4-2-1 manifold. If you have any questions please ask! Also if you can help with my problems (see separate thread) that would be much appreciated.
All the best people!
Fitting a Raceland 4-2-1 Manifold to a Saxo VTS: A step-by-step guide
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