Contemplating diving in head first to change my plastic manifold, which I've found out is giving me a big plume of black smoke under hard acceleration and sometimes the Restricted Performance message.

Brand new LR manifolds are a huge wedge of cash, so going to fit a used non-cracked LR one.

I've identified the rubber gasket as LR005898 for the driver's side manifold, but would appreciate guidance on whether this is something best purchased from LR, or are the Britpart, Febi etc replacements ok ?

I've watched the Life as Usual very helpful video on Youtube on how to do it. Looks like a lot of spannering and unclipping going on, which is fine, but concerned about putting the correct blts back in the correct holes. Is it perceived wisdom to put each bolt straight back into the hole it came from and then this gets rid of the problem, or are they all prettty much the same ?

I've changed my aircon condenser myself without too much fuss, so hoping this job is up to my skill level.

Thoughts, tips, help, guidance, advice etc very welcome !

Cheers

Jonny

Assuming you’re talking about one of the inlet manifold/cam covers on the 3.6 tdv8, not fitting new is a massive false economy. It’s quite a lot of hassle because the injectors have to come out. Looking around online new manifolds are £200 or so.

FYI according to LR you also need to replace the injector fitting kits because the pipes and clamps are single use. Sometimes you can get away with reusing them but it can cause leaks around the injector at a later date

Thanks D-9 - won’t an original LR part be better than a new aftermarket part ? Given that the new LR manifolds are £££££ and I do about 6,000 miles a year, the fact that the original one has probably done 100,000 miles before cracking I’m thinking I won’t own the car in 5 years, although no current plans to sell.

Good point re the injector fitting kit and pipes. Will get those replaced whichever way I go.

I would assume that any original LR manifold is either cracked (hence it’s been removed) or about to crack (because it’s at least 14 years old and has gone through a zillion heat cycles on top of an engine and probably done at least 100k miles). FWIW one of my manifolds went at about 115k and one at around 150k, around 8yrs and 9yrs old.