is the ss autocrhome 1.8 manifold a pos?
 

I don't see how any manifold can be that cheap and last at all. However, its probably easier to find a t3 turbo at a yard than a t28. Is the HKS manifold a piece of shit too?

I just have to get over myself and spend some cash, right? I'm leaning toward the begi manifold and dp right now, but I don't really want to spend that much cash.

I have the cast HKS mani and its real sturdy, though it is T25.

If i had the money I would buy the BEGI units and be done with it, they should never give you any problems and I'm sure Bell will stand behind his product.

Ya, I feel you. It sucks, but....................you get what you pay for. Begi all the way.

HKS is fine, just bad turbo position. Cast Iron is always a good choice.

the SS autochrome cracks. the end.

there are also these guys: http://www.etdracing.com/miata3.html but at that price I'd go with the BEGi.

FM also sells their manifold seperatly, might want to check prices.


but the only T3 one would be the ETD Racing one other than the BEGi.

Good god man just buy something already! The back and forth indecision is getting old. Throw down some money and giv'r. :)

http://www.etdracing.com/escort.html

someone tell me why that's the same price as the shorty.

it's almost like what I have but... upside down. I think I paid 375 for mild with the external wg flange back when they first started making them. DEEEEEAL.

What's so bad about the turbo position...I know its up top, but what interferes? Right now I'm leaning toward that and getting a buddy to do all the tubing (builds pro-stock chassis). Fuck, if the price is right, I might have him do the manifold too, but that's unlikely since I'd just buy the begi unit.

i don't know alot about turbo id and sizing. The t25 and t28 are not interchangeable? I don't want to deal with drivetrain reliability issues, so I was thinking 250w-lb/ft will be enough...with a t25 get me there?

I just found out I'm going to work another 2 weeks out here, which gives me another $3200 to blow out my ass (and I just payed off my credit card).

Then if you have that much money to play around with, why the hell are you talking about ssautoshitty? BEGI!

Its tough to do when you're 1000 miles from home and been living in a hotel. I've been home 33 days since september 3, 2005. I've driven my car 7 times since october.

I'm about to go home for 9 days and I'm going to gut the swap car, swap the rear end and brakes over, then break down the motor and send it to the machine shop...then go to OK and work in shitty ass Tulsa for a few months.

I don't really have the money for that, college debt > my life. I have to use some of that cash on MS and track time. hehe

I wouldn't buy anything but a cast manifold if you're going to track your car.

btw- my SSA rocks. $60 new, flat flanges and well on it's way to 1000 miles of flawless service. ;)

You seem like a pretty cheap (I say frugal) guy who doesn't mind spending time on fixing poor products to save some dough. If that's the case, then go with the cheap stuff. Just be prepared that parts like the SSA manifold MAY incur more expenses like milling flanges and more time like realigning holes for fit (in stainless no less). I got lucky, mine are flat, had to redrill/adjust holes anyway for the FE. You get to do things like add-engineer to hopefully improve the odds of your sub par part surviving- like adding braces to assist the long stainless tubes in supporting the heavy turbo. And when you're done you have a very cool looking, shiney tubular header that looks badass. :eek:

It's the next best thing to building your own parts. :bigtu:

Mine lasted about 3 weeks... the external gate pipe failed. It was because of inadequate support of the external wastegate pipe and vibration. It wasn't a pretty failure at all. With an Internal wastegate this manifold would likely survive.

Mark

PS - I can sell you my old one cheap.

thanks everyone. I'm really frugal, however I don't want to skimp on turbo, manifold, and dp because of what I went through on the last turbo system that went terribly wrong.

Right now I am leaning toward the hks manifold and buying another mig and building my own, very ugly, 3" dp and exhuast.

However, I may be able to get the piping work done in trade from a guy who builds pro-mods, hot rods, customs...

and, Gary Shuhart (trackdog racing) is my sister's neighbor and I'm going to see if he wants to get involved with some of these turbo bits.

I still have too many options. I want to do it frugally, but only do it once. I also have to hype myself up to spend the money, which is really tough. I'm a wishy-washy bitch.

What kinda cars can I find in a salvage yard with turbo's that will fit on the HKS manifold?

Will the t25 and t28 turbos fit on the hks manifold?

Yes it is the standard T2 flange. NOT DSM. So you need to find one with the rectangular shaped flange.

any ideas on what cars run that flange? I can get a turbo rebuilt in trade, but probably not a complete turbo in trade.

I think the earlier turbo 300zx's did and later switched to a T3 turbo.
Some mercedes might have as well otherwise I don't know of any myself.
The Nissan CA18 might have as well.
Take a measuring tape with you the flange is 3.5" long, the T3 footprint is bigger.

Just about anything Nissan will. SR20, 300zx. ect.

Oh and a Pontiac Sunbird came in a turbo model as well and had that style flange.

are all t25/t28's these dimensions?
http://www.atpturbo.com/root/turbopi...s/gt25rdim.gif
http://www.atpturbo.com/root/turbopi...s/gt28rdim.gif

god the gt28 rs is a bad ass compared to the base t28
http://www.atpturbo.com/root/maps/im...rscompress.gif http://www.atpturbo.com/root/maps/im...8rcompress.gif

mark, you really think it might last with an internal gate?

This sounds like a very resonable way to approach it. Then you say this:

and this:

Do you want ghetto or not? My opinion is this, if you have the bucks and no time buy a complete solution. If you have lots of time but not a lot of bucks build it is cheap as you can, knowing that you'll be wrenching on the car a lot. If you enjoy doing the wrenching then by all means have at it.

The old saying is: "Cheap, fast and reliable. Pick two."

From your posts it sounds like you don't have a lot of time. If you've only been at home for 33 days since 09/05, do you want to spend that precious time fixing a cracked manifold or DP? When you only have a couple of days a year to enjoy the car do you want to ruin that with a blown junkyard turbo?

If you can't part with the $$$, then leave the car N/A. If you can, get on the phone with FM or BEGI and call it a day. This is NOT a difficult descision to make.

My father is in the auto salvage business. I can get a turbo rebuild for $100 from an old buddy, from the junk yard.

The last turbo system was a kit from ATP. I am confident that although not world class visually, I can get a mig with flux core and do a good enough job on the dp and exhaust to be reliable. People here think the hks manifold is reliable. I'm not going to spend $3k on a turbo system for this car, just not going to.

Hopefully I'll have a job in town soon.

I'm going with cheap and reliable, not fast...well I hope the car is fast but the process will take some time.

You can get a rebuild kit from gpopshop.com for less than $80 complete with everything and do it yourself. Think they're more like $65 actually.
The balancing is the trick, is your friend going to get it balanced as well for that price?

I have the JGS on a frontwheel drive, the turbo hangs off it, so it it holding all the weight, there is no flex pipe in the DP either, been there for two years now... having a Lincoln 185 helps...

Hey now,
Be careful, thats my home town your talking about..
-Michael-

Yeah, its Mike Brink...http://www.brinkracecraft.com/

He doesn't have any turbo this small, or I'd just get it from him. I may work something out with him to do the tubing.

If they send me up there, I might bring the miata (from Dallas). I might run out to Hallett and need a running buddy.