EGR Plate and Manifold

I'd been interested in cleaning up the engine bay for a little while to get rid of some of the multitude of vacuum lines and eliminate some potential sources of air leaks.

No before picture, as I was too busy also draining the oil for the second time in a week to try and eliminate some of the valve train noise.  Now replaced with a new K&N filter and 5 quarts of Royal Purple 10w30.  Engine seems a lot happier now!

Anyway, EGR plate fitted - I couldn't shift the bolts for the pipe underneath, but the studs came out easily enough for the EGR valve.

Whilst I was there, I was looking for some of the causes of rattling.  Spotted this on the exhaust manifold:

I don't know if this is intentional or not - there's about 10mm gap in the manifold flange and the nut was missing from the stud.  It sounds like it's blowing pretty heavily as well, so...

That's a 6-1 manifold with a 2.5" collector, ceramic coated.  The welds aren't the prettiest, but it seems fairly good quality.  Because I have a 1978 with the round manifold ports, there really is very little choice available.

I'm happy with it, so I'm going to arrange the car going into the shop to get a new 2.5" stainless exhaust fabricated.

Parents Visit - Part Three - St. Paul and Minehaha

St Paul is about a 30 minute rail journey away from Minneapolis (which costs a whopping $1.75).  It's the state capitol of Minnesota, and as such, is home to the State Capitol building, which has recently been restored.  We got onto a tour, which was excellent, and saw some of the amazing work that's been done on the interior.

After the capitol building, we headed over to the Cathedral of St. Paul:

This is another incredible building that's well worth seeing if you're in the area.

On the way back, we stopped off at one of Minneapolis' many breweries for a spot of refreshment.

The next day, we rented some nice rides (equivalent to a Boris Bike in London) and cycled down  alongside the Mississippi to Minehaha park, where one of the most photographed sites in Minnesota is located.