Friend offered to help fix the broken manifold studs and drill out to 10x1.5. When we couldn't do it at his place he offered to take it to his nephew's machine shop. So far there has been a lot of putting it off until the next day and the next and then next week etc.

Then I also have been waiting for the stud kit from Trackspeed. They indicated they would have them in stock and shipped out a week or so ago, but that turned out to not be the case and I'm still waiting on it. They said probably this week it will ship, he is waiting for his stud supplier to get him in stock.

I'll put some more up after I get it unpacked and ready to go. Without the manifold in the car it seems impractical to put the exhaust on. Right now the only thing holding up the downpipe is the current exhaust.

Still waiting for new manifold to turbo hardware as well as the manifold itself to be returned to me. Otherwise I'd probably have installed the exhaust by now. Will get pics before install of the exhaust.

My turbo and manifold are proving difficult to get back from the person I gave them to for the drilling and tapping. He has said he was ready to get them back to me several times and nothing has come of this. Being as this is a friend of mine I'm cutting him slack, but it's been quite some time since I handed them over.

Everything else is ready to go back together, though I did drop the injectors off for a rebuild at Marren in Oxford.

Finally have the manifold and turbo back. Turbo holes need a little more drilling to fit the studs through, but the manifold is tapped and ready, though one of the holes is slightly off center. I think that will work itself out once I can actually get the turbo on the manifold with the studs.

Drilled out the holes, lined things up and... one of the new stud holes is not even close to lined up right with the turbo. Options at this point seem pretty limited for the old manifold. I suppose I could spend some dough to have someone weld it up and put a new hole in there, but from what I've read this does not seem like a great option.

So, now I'm trying to figure out if it is worth buying Abe's manifold to replace the one that is broken or just putting something else on the car and parting out all the other Greddy bits.

I suppose it is worth it, because even parting out the Greddy stuff will probably only get me maybe $550. IC setup $200, Tony downpipe $200, turbo maybe $150 probably less. Then I gotta come up with a whole new setup from scratch.

Coming soon from Artech

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1382465222

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1382465222

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1382465222

That looks fantastic.
Is it a Greddy replacement?
I guess it was made that way to fit a downpipe?

It is a greddy replacement.

I'm jealous, my ARTech stuff was originally supposed to be done 2 days ago :( But can't complain since his work looks absolutely beautiful.

Looking good, epic replacement greddy manifold you have coming to you.

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1382984146

That would be a working manifold with 10mm studs that a turbo actually fits onto!

You should go ahead and get the 19t compressor upgrade on that turbo to go with your ballin manifold.

I already have too much into this and I still haven't even been able to use the MS3 that Brain built for me.

Dang that looks nice. Let me know when you part out. ;)

Even the guy at the machine shop was admiring the work.

If I can get another five years out of this setup like I did the previous one I'll be happy enough.

Coated manifold.

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1383794748

Now I just have to wrestle the thing back onto the car. I'm thinking I might disconnect the downpipe from the catback to see if I can get it out of the way as I think that might make it easier to put the manifold and turbo on the car, then I can connect up the downpipe. Otherwise I'll end up having to wedge it back in there and getting it off that way was a pain.

Also, I realized I don't have a damned 15mm box wrench for some reason and the nuts for the turbo to manifold are 15mm and there is no other way to get at them.

What was the coating? Did they do a lot of coating inside the runners? That's no bueno. It will flake off and go through the turbine. You should only coat the outside on the manifold and turbine housing. On the downpipe, you can coat inside and outside.

Exactly what I was thinking. Whatever coating that is, i wouldn't want it inside my turbo manifold.

There isn't really much on the inside of the runners. There's a little bit because he did not mask off that area. He thought I could coat the interior if I wanted to, though we didn't do it and he didn't seem concerned about it flaking off.

It's cerakote high temp.

It should be this... http://www.cerakotehightemp.com/finishes/C-111HQ/

Sounds like this is getting less epic again. :(

I could probably go down to the machine shop and have him grind off whatever residue is inside the manifold, but the interior of the pipes is definitely not coated.