It's been awhile since I have done an update on all the changes. Recently decided to make the car quieter so I can get under the limit at a few tracks that I run. The dump tube is now routed back into the exhaust and it's extremely quiet now. The brakes needed to be upgraded so I went with the Trackspeed BBK, thanks Savington. So far getting bit by the track bug has been one of the best things to ever happen to me. It's really changing the way I want to mod the car.

Unfortunately I haven't been able to make a single event in the Miata and today wasn't any different, had to fall back on the SLK again. Last night after finishing up the exhaust I made a few pulls and the intake manifold burst under 17.4# of boost. I'm planning on pulling it this week and will post some pictures when I do. For now, here's a picture of the from when I was test fitting the calipers.

 

I hope nothing major happened when the intake bursted. How did the SLK do at the track?

 

Whoa whoa, wait....The intake manifold that Flipside made for you "Bursted" open?

 

Your car is sick!

 

How did the school go? Sucks to hear about the manifold. In for pics.

 

I told you. You're going to blow the welds.



Maybe that engine bay could use some more uplighting

 

So do I, I'll find out more when I pull it apart. The SLK was fun out there, but I should have bought her a Boxster.

Yes, this is the Flipside manifold and the planned changes to prevent something like this from happening had NOT been done yet. From what I can see it came apart across the entire top seam where the plenum is welded to the runners. I left a message for him this weekend, but I haven't heard back yet. Even though I don't think he wants to continue working with me on this project, I would think he'd be interested in seeing this. That's all I can really say at this point until I get the manifold off and get some trained eyes on it. It's all part of the development process and as disappointed as I am, I was more upset about not having the car for the track yesterday.

Thank you.

It was awesome, it's been over 12 years since I've driven on the track. I'm learning so much right now and driving on the track is better than crack. Here's a pic from the yesterday.

 

That is really upsetting. I expected more out of FlipSide. Perhaps you could send the manifold to Begi and they might rework it for you.

Do you still have your factory manifold for the time being?

 

A factory manifold isn't an option. This wasn't a bolt on part so it's setup for this now and would be costly to revert back.

 

Good to see you turning some corners! That 1/4 mile stuff is a kick in the behind but 1/2 a dozen 11 second runs is not the same rush as several 20-30 minute sessions of flat out driving on a road course.

I'm sure they'll get that Mani buttoned back up and reinforced.

 

Always post pics of destroyed parts. It's more fun and you already paid for them.

 

Log laps on that Merc...a 250whp miata is a challenge to maximize. Its like a Chinese puzzle for me from time to time.

 

I'm hoping to have it off tomorrow morning and I will post a pic of where it split. At the latest it will be sometime on Friday because Rob's going to be checking it out this weekend. I'm anxious to hear his thoughts on it.

The V6 in the Benz made it fun to drive, but I could be in a Yugo and it would be more capable than the driver at this point. I have so much respect for the instructors that are helping people like myself learn to drive on the track safely. Hopefully someday I will be able to give back to the sport as well.

 

I finally got it off the car today, it wasn't fun as I had to lift the engine up an inch or so to get enough room to remove it. Here's the pics as promised, enjoy.

 

Hard to tell from the pic, but it does appear to have ballooned and then 'torn' at the seam due to the weld not penetrating all the way.

<- not a welder, so strictly opinion.

 

That makes me worried about my own manifold as I am running over 20psi. Could it have been caused by a backfire maybe? Can you tell how thick the metal is? If it's too thin, Jeff's theory of it ballooning could have put extra stress on the weld seams.

--Ferdi

 

I too vote backfire. I am doubtful that 20psi would tear that weld apart in the middle like that.

 

I can assure you that it wasn't a backfire.

 

Well, as I was the only other person there, I'm going to go ahead and chime in to avoid speculation. It wasn't a backfire. We started up Jason's car and got it to the shop where he had some exhaust work done. After his car got down off of the lift, he did a few WOT pulls to test everything out. Everything worked as expected at that point. On the way home, the car was running fine for a while, but we pulled off when Jason noticed that his maximum boost level kept getting lower and lower. He then proceeded to putt the car home where we then noticed the crack.

To me, this says that it was forced open under boost pressure and then ripped apart. If it had blown open due to a backfire (which once again, the manifold was fine when we started working on the car, and it never once backfired) it would have just blown out, not slowly been torn apart.

 

Could it be that they ground the weld down too far, trying to make it look pretty?