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.