cracked ebay manifold
 

Yes I knew it was going to crack... but I thought I would get more than two weeks/500km out of the thing!

Not only has it cracked, but a bit has actually fallen right out, thankfully it didn't go through the turbine.

The turbo was supported with a steel brace/turnbuckle as well.

Spent the weekend building a schedule 40 mild steel steam pipe replacement. Since I can't weld very well it's not pretty but it got me home and time will tell if it will hold up. At least this one can be welded if it does crack.

this thread should be stickied for all the dumb ass noobs that come in here every 5 minutes with a post like "I'm thinking of getting the ebay manifold, blah blah blah donkey balls, I KNOW IT WONT LAST LONG BUT PROBABLY GET ME BY A YEAR OR TWO":hustler:

Well, some of us just have to learn the hard way!

My only real regret is that it has dictated the position and orientation of the turbo.

:facepalm: owned

Why? Because of the downpipe?

That's going to crack next. Bet you 10 doll hairs.

yes because of the downpipe.

I would have put the turbo further forward and about an inch closer to the head If I were starting from scratch.

Anyway, I'm quite philosophic about it and it is after all just a toy. Figured some more photographic evidence of the pitfalls of ebay manifolds wouldn't go amiss.

+1

Makes me wonder how long my homemade one is going to last with 1.6mm mild steel. Anyone have an idea on minimum thickness these things should be???

...and people think that chinese steel is "good".

Schedule 10 pipe is usually the thinnest used, sched 40 is usually the thickest

Guess I was the rarity that my tacotaco cast lasted more than a year of hard track abuse - but yeah, it finally cracked and I slapped another taco on this spring - repeat stupidity cause the near future holds a 1.8 and likely an absurdflow manifold or one from my builder - if I ever get it together...

Not pretty > broken.

Chinese steel will be as good as you specify it.

M-Tuned rods are made in China are they not? They don't break because the metals specified are of the correct standard.

Just saying Chineese steel is shit is a gross simplification. If it did indeed suck, they wouldn't be able to build bridges that span 26+miles and have the worlds fastest growing economy etc etc.

if you are running a 1.6 get one of these bitches if you are on a budget

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/HIGH-...Q5fAccessories

Got any pictures of everything in the car? I'm curious how your 'steel brace/turnbuckle' was loading the manifold.

Me too.

+1
good read
would read again

All depends on how reputable the vendor/manufacturer is. Chinese manufacturers are NOTORIOUS for pulling the bait and switch which is why you often have to baby sit them like a devious 6 year old. Their willingness to cut corners is blatant and cultural.

This, of course, is a generalization. There are plenty of manufactures there who are very competent and hold very high standards - better then most U.S. manufacturers.

Using their economy as a justification for the quality of their steel is ridonkulous - especially when it's one as propped up as China's.

-Zach

my ebay mani lasted me roughly 2 months, with a brace from DP to Engine. whatever... welcome to ebay

cast iron?
my ebay cast iron has lasted over 6 months with no issues

I haven't seen any cast iron ones for the 1.8

that's because there are none. only cast ones made for 1.8 are brand name like hks, begi, and fm.

I LOL at the ebay listings for cast mani's that say 1.6/1.8... nice try!

This is the best picture that I have of the hanger I built for the turbo

It has a vertical bar that isn't visible that carries the weight down to one of the engine mount bolts.

The turnbuckle was tightened to take any slack out of it... it's not rose jointed so the turbo could still move up a little bit but I figured this was enough to help support the weight.

It wasn't on the car long enough to get any better shots, this one was form a friend's phone in a relatively dark shed, hence the quality.

It is what it is, you get what you pay for to the fullest w/ egay

Yeap, looks about right. I really dont understand how they can sell something that absolutely cannot ever do what it was intended to do for more then a month or so.
Props on getting a mani together that works, pretty or not its a hell of an upgrade.

What I don't understand is why they can't replace that shit stainless steel with some standard like 12 gauge mild steel? Sell them raw, don't coat them in anything. Bet they'd last 10 times longer and be semi-quality pieces.

Almost bet you it'd be cheaper to manufacture out of real steel...

Well, it looked really cool in stainless, especially after it got a little heat in it and went all multi coloured.

Just took the car for a short drive to see if I'd fixed the massive oil leak I've been having and it seems to be going well, although possibly slower than with the stainless manifold, I dunno, could be my imagination, it still gives a good kick in the pants.

With more time I would tack together a better designed manifold and ask a friend to tig it together (that one was SMAW), but that's a project for another time.

Oil leak turned out to be the non OE valve cover gasket that had hardened, I had thought it was the main crank seal because I wasn't happy with the job I did installing it but no, that valve cover was leaking like crazy.

FWIW my cast ebay manifold has been absolutely solid and taken a LOT of abuse.

cast manis work great at lower power levels, start pushing your bottom end and it will go a lot further with a tubular.

I've just done my research and found mine was made out of schedule 5, lame!

What is the OD of the piping you used?

I cannot remember exactly but around 2"

OMG, how did you know??

It lasted two whole laps of Pukekohe :)

My stainless 16G ebay manifold cracked on day 1 on track. Welded it. Braced it. Lasted a couple more days, then it cracked again and warped both faces too. So I actually, can you believe this, paid MONEY to machine the faces flat and welded the f*ck out of it and patched it and braced it like crazy.

Anyway, it went for one more full day of lunacy (YouToob video here) before cracking again.

Now I see tacotaco calling me with their cast iron cheapness. Will have to check the orientation though as I will be sticking a T3/16G convertor inbetween...

I have a ebay knock off S4 manifold with over 20,000 miles on it. True all that stuff is very thin SS but what I did was weld a brace between the turbo mounting flange and the exhaust flange, also modded the oem downpipe support bracket ( taking the weight off the cheap ebay mani. ) to this day no signs of cracks ?

That's a different one to mine - my 1.6 looks like this:

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1310836373

Except it doesn't now. Imagine that being crapped on by a Seagull who ate too much welding rod.

:bowrofl: classic!

just adding a pic
after being rewelded dozens of times
https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1336512516

I think it looks like your turbo just said "F' it!" and quantum leaped to the finish line without the rest of the car.

Hahahah that steel looks like its paper thin.

I welded up Coke™ cans and made my manifold. Better than Ebay!

I hope none of you live in San Francisco...Looks like the bay bridge is getting the same quality!


http://www.npr.org/2011/09/16/140515...new-bay-bridge

Soooo let me get this right, they are sending our tax money to build our ---- in china.. any one see a problem with that?

Exactly. Reality is there's cheap steel and there's expensive steel. I worked for a metal company and we were able to get cheap American steel and expensive American steel. Guess which they bought for us... the rusty crappy cheap steel that had imperfections and hard spots and surface rust nearly 1/4" deep all over it. I can count way too many times where we have gotten a round 5" piece 2-3 feet long and it has literally cracked in half on a hard spot. I can also say I've worked with an expensive piece of steel that cuts like butter everywhere. Were talking manifolds here and there's 1 main problem with the ebay junk.. the steel they use is too thin. If it was 1/8" thick wall it wouldn't crumple in your hands. Make a manifold with paper thin "American good steel" and see what happens...yes it will also crack. Say it was the proper thickness for the application and it cracks even then.. now you can say it's cheap or not cheap Chinese steel.

I cant believe I didnt see this thread earlier, I think I was the only person in EXISTANCE that had a good "S4 style" single runner 100 dollar ebay manifold that lasted, and all that turbo weight was pulling that fucker down with its homie gravity... now it is lost in the mail somewhere, probably cut up and welded in some raped position on a UPS employee's civic.

I think I'm on my 4th s4 clone now, they last me about 6 months or so. Its just a $100 part of routine maintenance now lol.

Now if I could only find a good use for all these cracked manis I have lying around lol. So if I re-weld them think they will be weaker? useless? stronger?

@ giblets, Ebay sometimes is ok as long as the part isn't coming from China or a cheap company. You will sometimes find trustworthy sellers for car parts. I have a brand new turbo and manifold I had bought for myself from Precision but it looks like I'm not getting my car back together for a while. You can't go wrong spending more money on a great quality part that won't make you wan't to pull your hair out like with cheap ebay parts.

(mods - please delete this post)

The raw steel in China is generally crap. I know because I used to manufacture over there--not any more. We'd control (somewhat) the quality by bringing in ingots of aluminum from Australia, or bringing in complete extrusions from out of country that were simply machined and assembled in China.

It's also true about spotty quality. It would usually take a couple of shipments to get the quality right, but then a couple of shipments later problems would crop up.

No, you can't pigeon-hole the most populous country in the world with one sentence declarations, but there's a reason why I no longer purchase from them.

(mods please delete this post)

You're right... That's not pretty.

I wonder how much the collector (runner convergence) at the turbine flange has to do with the failures. Seems like there's a lot more of the quasi-log styles that fail than the long tube style. Flange loads are completely different. The top mount basically sits on the flange while the other is cantilevered off the tube wall.

My log style chinabay mani lasted 15 months...that's where it finally failed.

So a quick question (given I'm onto cracked E-Bay/N-Power mani #2) - what are you guys finding available as a good replacement, and are the cast iron ebay versions also linked in this thread any good?

Can this thread be locked and dead already?! Use the damn search bar.

Yeah make sure you get a 1.6 manifold for your 1.8. I hear those are the best.

Wow - the doucebaggery begins early today.....

I'm not some noobie f#cktard - I was getting good advice here many years ago - probably even from you - when I was doing my build up. That's why I looked in the sticky - almost expecting THAT'S where someone might have put the answer to this problem.

All I want to know is if people have found a good replacement which meets the same fitment as the shitty ebay manifolds which crack. I'm sick of welding the f#cking thing up, and don't want to have to rebuild both the dp and manifold. If there aren't any easy options, then perhaps the elite members here might be able to say so?

Otherwise I'm gonna have to pay to have one fabricated locally - and I'm in Australia so there's no point me telling me the details of your local fabricator.

Basically. No.

User your fabricator or ours.
Nothing else available that's not utter dogshit.

Ebay manifolds are garbage. If you want something reliable look at fm, begi, absurtflow, or other of our vendors here on the forum. From memory those 3 are the common biggies.

There was a diy thread few days ago that was also very good guide.

https://www.miataturbo.net/diy-turbo...anifold-66261/