Countdown is on... And the exhaust manifold is cracked!!

So, Damian was in the shed getting Booger Mobile all sorted out, since he would be leaving in 9 days time to head down to Broken Hill for the start of the 2014 Camp Quality esCarpade...

And what does he notice?  A crack in the exhaust manifold, right below the carby!!  This was a small hairline crack last year, that was drilled to (hopefully) prevent it spreading... unfortunately, the crack had not only spread, but opened up!!  (The picture really doesn't do it justice).

Thankfully, Damian had a spare exhaust manifold that was kindly donated by Rossco from Angry Birds...  Unfortunately, it was a little worse for wear, and the bolts for attaching the exhaust pipe were rusted and one was broken...

Over to Acreage Driveways, where Angus and one of his staff members Troy just happened to be working on a truck...  Interrupting that, Damian got them to remove the bolts...

They made it look easy!!

Troy sprayed a bit of protective spray on the holes where the bolts were removed...  After several attempts, Damian caught the impressive smoke-show!!

A quick clean up, and it was good to go!!

Next step was to install some bolts...

Remove the old exhaust manifold...

Throw some gasket gunk (copper based apparently) on the face of the new manifold before laying on the actual gasket...

And after some cursing, a few sparks from dropping the spanner on the starter motor and skinned knuckles, it was all installed!!

Tada!!

And of course, a gratuitous sticker shot, well, because he can!!

With 9 days left to go, it's all systems go at Team Booger Mobile headquarters...  The new exhaust manifold has sealed to the engine block nicely (well, technically to the underside of the head, but whatever), however it's leaking ever so slightly around the join where the actual exhaust pipe attaches...  Damian will need to look into that in the coming days.

On a brighter note, Team Booger Mobile have reached (and indeed, exceeded) their fundraising target for 2014, and have thus far amassed an impressive

$10724.80

 

Thanks to all our supporters who have donated to the cause this year!!  There's still time to get onboard if you haven't already, so why not round it up to an even 11 grand?