Well the heater matrix pipes weren’t the only thing to suffer corrosion in the cooling system. While I was under the car having a usual nose around I spotted some water where it shouldn’t be and eventually decided it could only be coming from the back of the inlet manifold though I wasn’t quite sure where as I’m not particularly familiar with the SPI bits.

So I did the only thing I could, pull it apart for a closer look.

Inlet manifold in place.

Not in place.

The source of the leak wasn’t hard to locate.

The steel blanking plug had clearly rusted through. I removed it using these.

If I had a TIG welder I’d have probably just welded it up but I don’t so I had a rummage around to see if I could find anything that could replace the steel blanking plug.

The OD of this pipe was pretty good.

So I filled the pipe by welding in some bar.

Welded and ground flat.

Pressed in nice and tight.

Job done. 🙂