Turbo brace Idea's?
 

Right. I have at long last bolted my turbo on to the car. And it is working pretty damn good. I think my BOV is leaking a bit, or I just wasn't expecting all the noise under boost, but it is working.

I bought my turbo (DSM T25) from a member here a few months back with the D/P and mani. Both those parts are from "x02 racing". Same shit they sell on eBay, only with an actual brand name on it. I have been clinging to the hope that this is what the eBayers are imitating and not the same shit, but I know I am just blowing smoke up my own ass. At any rate, he used it for some time and it looked very solid when I got it, so perhaps they are not the same tin foil eBay stuff.

I also know that while we don't all say it out loud, there are more than a few members here running this manifold. And I also know we all tell everyone running one to "brace the shit out of it". However try as I might I cannot find a single thread on the subject.

So has anyone here actually braced one up and have pictures? I am planning to use a couple of pieces of steel strap from the outer turbo bolts down to the engine mount. I just have not come up with anything to let me adjust the tension on it once it is mounted.

Idea's?

Heim joint.

Hustler is quite correct. Use a pair of heim joints, left and right threads. Crank the thing up with all the pre-load you can manage by hand w/o a wrench and anchor the left/right lock nuts.

I would suggest the life of the typical SS tube manifold w/o brace is about 1000 miles of vibrating annoyance.

A brace ought to get the life up to about 20K min.

Corky

Well I suppose that's that settled then. I have found a reasonably cheap source for kit car steering turnbuckles on the eBay. I'll order one tonight and do it this weekend. May even post a picture so the next guy has an answer waiting. Thanks guys.

I'm in for pics

Just ordered a pair of heim joints and a turnbuckle. Going to make a pair of L brackets, one at the turbine to exhaust manifold flange, and one at one of the engine mount bolts on the block. I'll do my best to take pictures but it is tight in there so no promises. I'll be doing it all monday morning. I'll post up what I have, once I have it.

in for pics also

In for pics as well.

And its done. Here is what I bought. (phone for size reference)

Attachment 198734

That's 200mm bolt center to center. The advertised adjustment range is 170-210mm. Got all of it for £15 delivered (round $22) from a company supplying kit car makers. Called and told them what I was doing and that the cheapest shit would do. VERY nice quality stuff for the cheapest option.
Did a bit of measuring and mocking up and these are the brackets

Attachment 198735

Attachment 198736

Then bolted the bastard in, this is viewed from below looking at the front upper engine mount bolt on the block. You will need to find a longer bolt than stock to allow for the thickness of the bracket (1/4 inch in this case) as they are pretty much "just" long enough as standard.

Attachment 198737

and here is the mount at the turbo

Attachment 198738

and again from below

Attachment 198739

and these two are the best I could muster for the whole thing. Very difficult to see it all at once as it is really buried in there.

Attachment 198740

and this is looking from behind and above the turbo

Attachment 198741

So that's how its done. Followed corkey's advice and turned it by hand as tight as I could then tightened the lock nuts. I don't know if I am imagining it or not but the engine does now feel smoother. I did take measurements of the brackets as I did it, so you could just have a shop fab up a set for you (presuming that most of us don't have the equipment to properly bend up 1/4 inch steel, I am lucky in that I know a guy who does)
I'll draw up a set of plans tonight and add it to this thread for future use.

Oh and all thanks to Barry Spiers on this forum as he was/is "the guy" with the tooling, and made short work of fabbing up the brackets.

I may do the same thing for my turbo with the same pointing point.

hey where did you pick the heim joint up at?

Very cool! Going to do the same thing asap! My local hardware store has lots of turnbuckles to choose from!

I'll stop posting like WonTon now!

I got it here-http://www.mcgillmotorsports.co.uk/i...d&productId=14

But they are in Scotland (I am in the U.K.). All I did was google it and go to the first shop I found. I have to assume there are people in the states supplying this stuff as well. Failing that I am SURE good old McMaster Carr would have it (God I miss them).

I couldn't be bothered to dick around doing the math with all the part lengths, so I just called and told them what I needed.

Busy couple of nights. I will draw up plans for the brackets this week sometime and post them up

I need to do this as my welds at the flange ate beginning to seperate from what I guess is too much weight.
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Drawings and specs would be great. I need this mod for mine as I don't fancy swapping the manifold too early. Cheers.

How would you suggest we do this with our manifolds? Ours sits much lower and the turbo flange is on the outer side.

This is how I think we could do it.

Attachment 198272
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https://www.miataturbo.net/diy-turbo-discussion-14/opinions-diy-mani-how-make-stronger-26848/



check ittttt

On the AF stuff we will go from below and connect at the CHRA/turbine flange clippy thingies.

And where will the other end go?
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Engine mount, AC mount, and up your ass.

Will you be personally handling that part?
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you void all warranty when you brace an AF manifold. Who is "we" anyway?


Jk. So you brace to one of those tinyass tial bolts? How do you fit it? they are not very long. Pics? I could weld a bracket tab onto the inside collector area, or to the turbine housing itself or whatever you think would make life easier.

I like this. I'm thinking a tab or bracket that has a little bit of spring to it.

Welding a bracket to the manifold would provide no benefit to users that do not have vbands. Isn't the whole point of the brace to support the weight of the turbo directly?

Yea thats a good point. It would be better to just brace the turbo directly.

Abe/ARTech will make it if I ever do it. I suppose he could weld something to it to connect the heim there. All the F1 cars were braced at the CHRA.

I don't really know that I'm going to need it though so I'm a little hesitant. Full Race doesn't need it, maybe AF won't either. Time will tell I assume, and Andrew and I have a lot of time on these manifolds now with no failure. Kind of ironic that everything else is breaking but the turbo is fine.

Just an update, The damn mani has cracked. As I said before I bought it 2nd hand, and I can only assume the prev. owner did not brace it. I ran ity 2 weeks unbraced and 3 with it. It has split right next to the turbo flange and the way it has cracked leads me to think I put too much preload on the damn thing and caused that wich I was trying to cure. So while the idea still seems sound to me it looks like the setting on the brace should be "snug" then tighten the locknuts, rather than "as tight as you can by hand". I "may" have it welded and try with a less aggressive setting on the brace, but I will talk to the welder and see how much he wants to just fab up a replacement from weld-l's.

On that subject, is it common practice to use the exhaust flange from the stock manifold for a custom made turbo manifold? I can give him that and I have found a correct turbo flange on eBay.....