Manifold Woes
 

I am getting ready to install my EFR6258. I have decided to keep the AC and PS. It is daily driver with occasional Track and AX.

I had the manifold fabricated by a local race shop (well known among local racers and they do a lot of RX7). The ram style manifold has two sharp bends in the runner tubes leading to the collector. It can be clearly seen in the attached pictures. The fabricator tells me that it is acceptable and will not affect performance.

What do you gents think?

PS: I didn't want to wait the six weeks quoted by ARTech. Otherwise Abe would have been the choice.

lazy and shitty imo. no reason they couldn't get the proper tight radius elbows to make that better. even pie cutting those would have been better, again, imo.

in practice it probably wont hurt much, but why wouldn't they just do it right to begin with when everything else about that mani looks so nice.

edit- also just noticed the round pipe wasn't crushed or blended to the oval port shape on the head flange. they fully welded the inside which is cool, but it looks like they are relying on the weld to blend from round to oval. I would have asked for my money back.

Pretty much all this!
They clearly have the capabilities to do good work, but were just looking to make the buck from you and sending you on your way..... Curious, what did this manifold cost you? I would take a die grinder and smooth out the transitions at the head flange.

There are pictures of my manifold in my build thread, it mounts the EFR turbo and also keeps the PC and AC.

It was about $900.00. Wouldn't grinding the transitions make the part of the runner tube thinner and more prone to cracks?

That's almost as bad at Tuning Done Wrong.

Sorry to see it sir. Just as others said, it should work fine but just clearly is not top notch work.

The owner of the shop has multiple cars that do under 7s in the 1/4 mile. So they definitely know their stuff. I am planning on going back and asking him to at least fix the bends.

If you look at these pictures, they can do quality work.

For 900 bucks....yeah I'd make him fix it.

Yes, in the states 900 is a LOT of money, it's definitely not good enough.

Dann

$900 for paying someone to do that, seems fair. If it was $1200 I would have expected none of the pinched bends and crappy transitions. Dont worry, in less than a season its going to crack at the nasty bend in picture 4 and they'll have to fix it anyways.

At first i was thinking, aww you guys are harsh and haters. But 900 bucks. Holy hell man... I'm not sure i'd accept that for that much money. Who ever did it seems like they have the tools to do it right. But looking at that, it seems they didn't take their time.

I wouldn't worry about that sharp bend though, really. It's only going to affect it so very little, you'll never see a difference.

I paid less for my Absurdflow manifold new from Turbotim. At that price I would take it back and make them fix it.

god damn, $900? its like half the cost of a miata. :/


I don't much about turbo manifolds, but I would want perfection for that price.

For what it's worth, you'll get ovaled tubes from Abe at the head flange, and anywhere the welds come close to the stud holes is ground out with a counter bore tool to make enough room for the flanged exhaust nuts. No sharp bends, great looking welds, a gorgeous 3" separated gas downpipe with a flex section. All for $750.

I seriously hope you got a damn good looking downpipe for that price. I'm not sure I'd worry about the sharp bends too much, but for $900 I'd really expect a 1/2", laser cut 3D flange with ovaled tubes and blended welds. Yours looks like a shitty 3/8" burnt unit.

Super, super shoddy work. You never grind bends at an angle like that. I wouldn't have paid for it.

e: "Fixing" those bends correctly will require him to rebuild much of the manifold. I hope you paid by CC, because it's time to drop it off at his shop and do a chargeback.

no affiliation with the manifold above, but...

-3d flanges are not lazer cut.
-there is nothing wrong with a flame cut flange (assuming it isnt warped)
-1/2" thick flange is REALLY thick- 3/8" is a standard for a reason. i would bet your manifold bolts would need to be replaced to be long enough for a 1/2" flange

$750 is a good price for a manifold/downpipe combo, is that a stainless manifold or mild steel?

he could replace them with tight radius elbows with no ill effects. problem with those elbows is that you dont design a manifold to use them because they are 4X the cost.

Not if you want it done correctly.

DP was mostly SS, I think the weld els he used were mild, but I did only get a log. Not as flowing as OP's, but still a big price difference.

My mistake about the laser cut flanges. I sorta meant laser cut as in prettier edges, or a 3D flange, which from what I've seen would be milled.

And no, nothing wrong with a flame cut flange, but as I said, for $900 it looks shitty.

My 3/8" warps like crazy. Along with a bunch of others I've heard of. By the time you sand it flat once or twice, it just warps that much easier. I could of sworn I've seen a few 1/2" manifolds floating around.

My 3d flange is 1/2" 304. I got from those dudes in texas that make the 3d flanges, whatever their name was. Thing was tits. Flow theoretically isnt as good as the inch or so taper you get with the squished pipe, but you dont have to squish the pipe, and it all fit up perfect.

I welded few 3/8's flanges just fine without any warping.

Just need to clamp it down and weld it properly. It's a non issue unless your process is wrong. And no way it should warp after it's all welded. Heavy track use may require relief cuts, or just heat treating the thing. Again, it should be a non issue.

Dont sand the flange without getting it really really close first.

Take a peice of rod or somethign with thickness and put it in the high spot that you would sand out and use some bolts to pull it down (think of it as warping against the warp). you should be able to flatten the flange pretty good by pulling it back against itself. then sand lightly just to clean it up.


You really shouldnt have to do it though if the flange is welded on a head or on a bolted fixture (properly)

I know that this tread is going of track but my eperiense is that the flanges tend to warp mainly when i do a poor job at fitting the bends, if i leave some gaps when tacking the manifold together i always end up warping the flange so i do two things first try to have tight joints and seccond is not to weld the runners to the flange until last, if i see a warped flange i simply cut the tacks, sand the runners on a long belt sander untill they are all ligned up (sometimes i have to bend one a little) and then weld the falnge on, and that takes care of the problem without sanding or machining the flange.

That.

Dann

In my experience all of the stainless flanges I have used have warped to the point that they needed to be belt sanded. I only use 1/2 inch flanges, and no you do not need to replace the head studs for 1/2 inch flanges.

The bend in picture 4 is horrible, I wouldn't be able to give that to a customer.

What size pipe are your manifolds? 1-1/4 or 1-1/2 in?

1.5"

Depends on the customers goals.
;)


I change the size based on head port size, spool and power goals.

I went back to the shop and he is unwilling to budge saying there is nothing wrong with it and that he has built enough turbo manifolds and that I should trust his word. He was explaining to me that NASCAR uses manifold runners @90 degree angles (not sure if this is correct). I tried explaining to him the the bend is @45 degrees on my manifold but to no avail. I have already paid in cash so I really have no recourse.
I will caulk it off to learning experience. Moving on, should I have it fixed by someone else, or put it on the car as is and drive it until it cracks then have it fixed the right way? Who can I send it to have it fixed the right way?

PS. While I was at the shop he was working on these two beasts.

Dude. Put it on your car. It's fine...

When it cracks, bring it back to him and make HIM fix it, properly, or demand money back. If he still doesn't budge, well, the power of social media is a nice thing.


Edit* that viper looks like a bit of a hackjob. Can't even tell what's going on there other than unfinished bullshit.

Agree with the previous post, don't sweat it and go enjoy your car, deal with it if and when it breaks.

I think that viper looks like a salvage title special, but why chop up a good car.

Nascar mandates pushrod engines to so I guess we are all wrong

^This; now that you've left and can't kick him in the nuts.

I agree.

That is 1.5" shedule pipe anyways.... so it has way more than the cross sectional area than you need unless your pushing massive massive horsepower on a 35R