Guide to refurbishing Rover Mini SPI Inlet Manifolds

It’s no longer possible buy new/replacement inlet manifolds for SPI Minis. One solution is just to take the inlet manifold
water jacket out of their cooling system but doing so also means you’ll need to relocate the water temperature
transmitter to somewhere else, normally to the main thermostat housing (new part needed). It’ll work that way but if
you want things as Rover intended, the manifold will need refurbishing. After refurbing a number of inlet manifolds and
being asked ‘how’ I decided to put this guide together to help others prolong their inlet manifolds if they so wished. It’s
not a particularly difficult job but you do need access to a good strong vice, a good heat source, some substantial pipe
benders, a helper, and a bit of care.
There are two SPI manifolds! The
early 91-92 one (on the right) and
the later 92 onwards one (on the
left) where you can see the added
half-crescent ears inside the two
exits of the later manifold. These
ears were added by Rover to change
the air/fuel flow into the siamese
ports and to prevent lean conditions
caused by the early manifold on two
of the cylinders. The ears seem
counter intuitive in terms of tuning,
but they do work so they are
probably better for your engine.
1992-1996 Rover SPI Minis have an
aluminium inlet manifold fitted with
mild steel water pipes and core
plugs. Now 20+ years old, the mild
steel parts a common point of
failure, causing leaks as they
corrode.

Rover continued to use the SPI

setup on Japan/JDM Minis right up
until the end of production.
 As I couldn’t find anything about how to do this, I’ve put this guide together from refurbishing a number of these for myself and
others. I am not an expert, I’m just a guy with a Mini as hobby, wanting to get something fixed so, use this as a guide only and use
practical and common sense if your manifold isn’t exactly the same! I’ve already found that every manifold I’ve done is a bit different,
probably because they were made at different times. Before starting remove all electrical bits (Temperature Transmitter/sensor &
Temperature Pressure Compensator) from the underside of inlet manifold. They get in the way and more importantly you’re going to
use a lot of heat in this, you don’t want them getting damaged. You might want to remove the accelerator cable bracket too.
Put the manifold in a vice, get yourself a set of mole grips and a blow torch. You need to heat up the aluminium where the steel pipes
go in, to relieve the interference-fit of the pipes. Carefully twist the pipes a bit around the pipes axis and they will free and pull out. Do
not use lateral/sideways force on the pipes as you risk opening up the aluminium hole where the pipes need to go in, the aluminium
will be softer anyway but even more so from the heat.
Do this for both the long and short pipes on the manifold.
Inspect the holes where the pipes just came out of for roundness. You’ll need to put the fresh pipes into these holes so
try and get them clean as you can. I always degrease and then let Bilt Hammer Deo X (rust remover) sit in the water
cavity to remove any rust build up before I do anything else. You’ll be amazed at how much residue builds up inside the
manifold!
Making the replacement pipes - The small one is easy but the larger one takes time, don’t be surprised if it takes a few attempts so
buy more pipe than you think you’ll need! You can buy replacement pipes (from Japan & myself now) but you can make your own.
I’ve used 304 Stainless steel, Brass, Copper and Mild Steel pipe. As mentioned the pipes are a friction fit and so you will need 15.8-
15.9mm OD pipes for the job, I have used 15.87mm OD Stainless in this guide. Brass, Copper & Mild Steel are a lot easier to bend and
work with but Brass is more expensive than stainless. Stainless Steel is difficult, especially as the pipe diameter makes them too big for
common 15mm pipe benders, you also need very sturdy bending equipment. The stainless pipe will crush a bit on the bends but
nothing that will be to the detriment of what the pipe needs to do. With a bit of care you can un-crush afterwards using a vice.
I used a 22mm bending set with lead inserts on the former and bend tool to make up the diameter difference for stainless.
You’re unlikely to be able to make exactly the same tight bends and shape of the original main pipe but with some care you can bend
pipes to the best match. Unfortunately it is trial and error, I don’t have measurements.
You should end up with pipes similar to this, as you can see in the picture on the right, the new stainless pipes don’t
match the exact shape of the original.
You will need to roll-top, swage or bead the two pipe ends to prevent leaks when the rubber coolant pipes are fitted.
Doing this to the Stainless pipe is tough going as the pipe walls are thick. I’ll warn you that using standard equipment,
the stainless pipe is likely to break the equipment, all normal workshop kit is designed for soft copper pipe. I initially
used 15mm Pipe expanders for this but they died after making 7 or so sets. I recently found a heavy duty hand pipe
bead tool to do the job which gives much better results (far right pic)
Fitting the pipes - Even though the pipes are friction fit, I’ve used the addition of High Temperature Silicon applied to the end of each pipe
and also a smear inside the holes. The process for putting the pipes in is the same as removal, support the manifold, heat the area where pipe
will fit and push in the pipes but there are a few tips you should follow. The pipes will heat up quickly once you start the process of putting
them in the manifold, put them in a freezer before you do the work. Do the small pipe first as you need that for reference on how to fit the big
pipe. Heat the outside of the manifold (not inside where the silicon is), using mole-grips ease the pipe all the way in. Use a soft hammer to tap
it home. The big pipe is the same process but be careful to support the back of the inlet manifold (2nd picture), you may need an extra pair of
hands for this, as you’re trying hold, heat and tap. Try to get it lined up in the right way before starting. Hold & twist with mole-grips and tap
with the soft hammer. As with removal, only push pipes in and twist, do not move side to side or pivot the pipe as the aluminium is softer with
the heat. If the pipe hole misshapes it will make things tricky, potentially wrecking your manifold! The end result is that the big pipes end
should be directly over the small one. If its too far towards the back of the manifold it will foul on the bulkhead, if that happens your pipe
bending might not be correct. That gap between the pipes should be at least as shown otherwise the rubber pipes and jubilee clips wont fit.
With both pipes there will be silicon to clean up later, I usually leave it for a 24+ hours.
The Cleat support – Whatever pipe material you use, even though the big pipe will appear to be secure, when the manifold
is fixed to the head and you go to put the rubber pipes on, the big pipe could move with the leverage used to do this and
that would be bad news after all the hard work so far. So you do need a cleat. I’ve used 2mm thick, 15mm wide copper
strips for mine for easier fabrication. I did the rough shaping of the cleat away from the fitted pipes and then used mole
grips to get it snug round the pipe itself.
If you’ve managed to get the cleat tightly contoured around the pipe then you don’t have to do this next stage but for peace
of mind, and to best replicate the original pipe design, I’d recommend flowing a bit of solder in between the cleat and the
pipe to finish the job. You can also use epoxy putty to make the join. I’ve had success with both.

I would advise that you pressure test a refurbed manifold. You should be able to do that, to a certain extent, with a water
mains hose pipe etc. or your own lungs! You’ll need to put the temperature sensor back in order to do this.
Replacing the 3x Core Plugs
Before you celebrate, check that the 3x core plugs on the manifold are still ok, if they’re not you will need to replace them.
They rust from the inside out so even if you cant see anything on the outside it’s probably not good on the inside. The core
plug which is on the same run as the big pipe, needs replacing with a 19mm Core Plug, and the other two require 16mm
Core Plugs. You can buy mild steel, brass or stainless steel of both core plug types. The smaller plugs seem less prone to
corroding or leaking and are a lot tougher to remove and replace so my recommendation is to only replace them if needed.

19mm Core Plug

2x 16 mm Core Plugs
Knocking out the old core plug is the same as you do for the engine block core plugs but be mindful that the aluminium is softer than
an engine block. Support the end of the pipe opposite the plug on some wood to prevent damage to pipes or the manifold. Carefully
but firmly tap one edge of the old plug inwards with a punch or similar, after a few stout taps, the plug should beginning to spin, once
it’s spun enough you can carefully lever it out with some pliers. The 19mm plug is easier to remove than the 16mm ones, with the
smaller ones, you’re fighting geometry / physics so they aren’t easy at all to get spinning and much higher chance of damaging the
manifold, this is especially the case on the older (91-91) non-half crescent manifolds!
Clean up the receiving hole, add a touch of high temp silicon in the hole and on the leading edge of the plug. Then line up the new
plug and using a best-fit socket tap it into the hole making sure it goes in straight & true by gently tapping around the edge of the
socket to seat the plug. Once its going in straight you just tap the whole socket face. Repeat for all the plugs that you’re replacing. Take
your time! Clean off the excess silicon.
The other area that can mean your manifold could be junk is the threaded hole that the Temperature Transmitter/sensor
goes in. I’ve seen quite a few with stripped or close-to-stripped threads. You could try and re cut the threads. You can use
PTFE tape around the sensor to prevent a leak but if you put the sensor in and it wobbles then you’re likely to get leaks as
the cooling system on the SPI Mini is pressurised.

Pops_Guild Last updated: 24th Oct 2020