I'm getting towards the point where I need to start thinking about the exhaust manifolds for my V6 Sprite build. There's a chance I can use the stock cast iron manifolds, but I'd rather make my own. And this probably means making them from mild steel as I don't have a TIG set and don't want to buy a reel of SS wire and gas just for this. The main problem at the moment is that I have no real idea how many bends I will need as one bank may need to be a bit fiddly to clear the steering column, and I don't want to buy loads only to not use them. Equally I want to have enough to make them in one go.

So who cares to have a guess then? And if anyone knows of a cheap place to get hold of 38mm mandrel bent pipe, that would be great too!

Last awkward pipe I made I used the flexi pipe off the hoover to simulate where the exhaust would run to get a rough idea of how many bends I'd need, made it easier to visualize

Mmmm, good idea that is. Now where can I get a third hoover pipe from....

get some plastic waste pipe from B&Q and use that for a mockup

Simple answer is ............... loads of bends , but not as many as you would think !
check out my Mx5 V6 build thread for pictures of the ones I built .