Wow, this intake project has really had its twists....
I just talked about this problem with Aki on the phone, and somehow it seems, the idea of using the stock exhaust manifold had missed him. Thinking about it, even with the OE intake manifold, there's hardly any room between the mani and the K24 turbo, so there can't possibly be enough room for the Volvo intake runners, if the stock turbo sits in stock position.
This is all very frustrating, and frankly we all would already have wanted to see all the pieces just drop in place, but that's not how it's gone... I don't know who it was that originally misunderstood the starting point, but as the original discussions were so long a time ago, nobody can really remember now. Aki just told me 'of course it won't fit like that', so I believe he hasn't realised a stock exhaust mani would be used, at the time he was making the intake.
To be able to use the intake, and use its very real benefits, maybe the exhaust manifold can be flipped? Or maybe an extension welded onto it, like I have on my 1Y exh mani? I think there are possibilities. Switch to a stock intake now? Two steps back IMHO. I would very much like to see everything find its course, and this to become the FrankenMotor it's always promised to become, also with a proper intake manifold
About the breather 'hockey puck'; Aki quoted some people have shortened the connector, and the rubber piece it sits on, and some have fitted a slimmer puck, found on some IDI engines. The valve cover going on and off without pulling the manifold - I think that may be impossible though... ...use easy-to-open intake bolts, I guess.
Anyone with good ideas is welcome to assist, how best to make things fit.
I think us sad, mad diesel heads of Finland, we can sometimes forget someone's using stock parts on their engines
As always with custom parts, unfortunately there can be surprises, and definetely when people have a different memory of what was the plan originally. The forum shutting down when it did and erasing most old PMs didn't really help here I guess. Some creative tinkering is bound to be necessery at the best of times when doing stuff like this though. I just hope a solution will present itself, so everybody can be happy.