The Water Rail and Exhaust Headers

This morning I wanted to install the Raceline water rail. It is a very nifty bit of kit that does away with long hoses and pipes to bring hot water from the back of the Duratec to the front.

My first move was to temporarily install the exhaust headers, just to see there were no issues with that bit of the work. I found that the two rear lower manifold studs would not go in, because of the chassis strut.

I had previously had the cylinder head modified to accept the water rail, but this was without the headers in place.

Then I removed the first three headers, leaving the last one in place, fitted the rail and saw immediately there was interference from the exhaust flange. Off came the rail, out came the header and I used a disc grinder to remove metal from the flange. This was a trial and error process, with at least 3 fittings before it fitted. Note the ever-present rubber mallet, this was especially useful to discover binding points. With everything put together, bash the rail a couple of times, and on disassembly, touching points show up on the aluminium. Grind them off, and retry.

I repeated this for the two middle headers, grinding away a bit at a time until the rail fitted. I used the die grinder to remove some from the rail as well.

The last header to fit was #1 cylinder, and this was the big one - a lot of metal had to go from the rail. There was a big flange cast right above the header.

I just removed enough to clear the header, there was about 3mm clearance. The rail will now go to the welding shop where they will place a circular aluminium disk in the top and weld it up for a good seal.

Just to make sure I fitted the rail plus the headers again and it is all a good fit.

I now wanted to fit the cooling hoses and the electric water pump, but I have no clue how the hoses run, especially with a water rail thrown into the mix. So that job will wait until Birkin supply me with some guidance.