Believe me, I was amazed at how bad the bend was in the flange. As soon as I unwrapped it I laid it out on the surface table in work and nearly had a heart attack! I called Garry at Piper and he assured me that all would be fine as long as the flange was pulled down from the centre out. I then called Jon at Courtenay and advised them that these manifold were very bent.
I then proceeded to clamp the flange down on our surface table and it took considerable force to pull it down. So much so that I was even considering putting it up on the machine to skim it but it would have made the flange too weak. I sold it to Mike who fitted it but it then cracked on a weld an he had it replaced under warranty.
Yes I was shocked!
:o