Is getting Exhaust Manifolds milled uncommon now?

[dvernst]

The truth is they aren't very easy to set up to cut on the ex port flange. Look at the item and look at how you would hold it to be machined. How much would one be willing to pay to resurface a set of almost 30 year old manifolds? I have a price in mind. It's probably about 2hrs worth of work to do them one at a time without a setup. The actual cutting is probably 3 minutes each. So basically you are paying for a couple hrs of setup


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Setup for something like this is very important. I had the flange on my down pipe surfaced, and they got it smooth, but took so much material off one side that the puck when parallel was sticking out over an 1/8" past the flange

 

[Mike T]

After welding my my d/s header I wanted to have them both milled but could not find anyone local to do it. My 2nd choice was my belt sander that I found to be just long enough to surface them. Some areas of the headers protrude beyond the surface of the flange and made it difficult to find the angle to keep the header perfectly parallel to the sander. In the end the surface was good enough (when using gaskets) for a leak free seal but milling would have been a better choice.

 

[Nick Micale]

We have repaired many headers and when using a TIG there is very little warpage of the flange. We then always surface the head flange with a belt sander about 3' long so we end up with a nice flat, smooth surface.

Even if the stock header is not completely flat, it will usually conform the the head as the flange is thin enough to comply and will usually seal.

In many cases in the early years before decent turbo gaskets and high temp RTV, it was common to cut the header flange between the ports so each cylinder would not be "restricted" by the solid flange even if it was warped.

 

[Antbankstwo3]

I had this exact same problem with my headers. When you ask people if they can do it they look at you like you're speaking Chinese. I ended up finding a machine shop that ports cylinder heads that did both headers for me for $40. I know he used a belt sander, and also said he pounded them straight. I bought header gaskets. And never used them, but I did use copper rtv. This was on a TTA , so after market headers are not available. My passenger side flange is about a 1/4" thick now. Grrr! Somebody machined them previously before I owned the car

Ok! That's good to know! Thank u! I know someone who has a belt sander. If I have any issues, I might have him do that for me. Thank u!