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, now it seems as though my manifold is blowing or the gasket has gone . Question is how hard is this to diy took it to my local garage and there was lots of head shaking , puzzled looks , sucking through teeth and being told it would be v. expensive . Got a manifold coming off the bay so that won't be the problem just got worried at what the garage said 
£60 by the friendly local garage. I would worry about doing it myself though, just in case I snapped a stud or something. The hardest bit was trying not to snap off too many of the tiny rusted manifold cover bolts. The actual manifold to head bolts were okay. You should see wisps of smoke. . . 6 . 7 . 8 5 . . . . i . . 9, thats fine no blowing . Its just blowing from the manifold , tbh they really were hopeless . At first they told me the top of the engine would need stripping , until one of them noticed the manifold was at the back doh . Was then told to strip the manifold cover off at home and go back to get new one fitted . Did'nt think it was so bad a job will try elsewhere £60. sounds fine to me they told me maybe £200 to £300 
We noticed that the exhaust manifold was bowed when we removed it, so I took it to the machine shop along with the head. When I left at 5pm this evening he'd taken 2mm off of it and it was still not quite flat...apparently this guy (who builds engines for a living, mainly racing ones) reckons the exhaust manifold is prone to warping on the 4-age, which causes leaks such as you are experiencing. When you get it off, worth placing a steel rule on it to see and get it machined flat if not.... (I did mine on a work bench cos I thought it would be easier..and i was right!!). If you're patient, shouldn't be too much trouble though.. 
Just check the manifold were it joins the exhaust to be doubly sure though, my Janspeed is an absolute git as far as this goes. I have to re-do the joint every 1000-1500 miles. There is no flexi on the Janspeed (just a spring joint) and I think the torque mounts on my car need replacing, which isn't helping. TBH the manifold is pretty easy to do yourself, I think, if I remember correctly, you only need to remove one cover to get at the nuts that hold it on (sorry if not!). If you have another manifold coming, and the small bolts are seized, then you can just shear them off to remove the covers, there is no other way, if you get really into it, you can drill and re-tap them 
Undo the manifold nuts that you can reach from above, then jack the car up, remove the exhaust and then the others are pretty accessible, you will need a long-reach 3/8 drive socket though to reach in between the manifold. (with the new alloy rings) as you re-assemble it. I would estimate this shouldn't take longer than an hour to do, so possibly the "financial reward/pain" ratio may work in your favour , thanks for your help guys should get it sorted as soon as manifold comes cheers, where do you get them from cheers£150 Tis good but then if you can get the AE101, AE111 20vsilver/black top engine manifolds they are VERY good gas flow wise and only go for about £40 problem is they are rocking-horse poop.