All, I thought I would put this out there. I know I had something on the old site way back in the day about it. And maybe everyone knows so I apologized is this is already known. I bought one of these Stainless Manifolds and downpipes off of ebay. Attached is the picture of a typical one. Be forewarned! This is typical Chinese imported quality. While the manifold itself was welded well, everything else about it was jacked up. You will need to de-burred all the welds inside the tubing. You will also need to go through each tube with a wire brush THOROUGHLY as when I was cleaning my from de-burring I found various balls of weld material that fell and stuck down in the tubes. Which would end up being knocked loose and pushed through through the hot side of your turbo. Lastly, nothing is square even on the manifold. You will need to find a good automotive machine shop(or have a buddy who is a machinist) who can grind everything square and flat. Fortunately it didnt cost me too much to have all this done. The manifold works quite nice. However, it definitely requires heat wrap which is a PITA. So all in all it may or may not be a good deal for you in the end. Im curious if anyone else out there has used these and what their experiences have been with them.
yeah, but if you are a welder, why not right? it's cheap. besides, if you go for a real performance turbo, then i'd think you'd also get a proper manifold...built to spec and such
For what it is, the welds on the manifold I got were good. The only issues I had was the mating surfaces werent flat or square. If your using the CT-26, and you dont mind some extra machine work then its not a bad deal. But like Mafix said, if your going to a different turbo then its not worth it. Get something else.
anyone got any advice on building or having a manifold built? ive never even attempted it, im a pretty competent welder.
