I understand and have seen the 1.6l manifolds cracking. Does anyone have First hand experience with the 1.8l manifolds?

 

People are saying they are made out of sub quality steel and have very thin walls.

Look at it this way, for the price you can always get another one. In fact I think there is one on there right now thats 130 bucks.

Me personally, I believe in doing it once and doing it right so I wouldnt get one.

 

It will crack...over...and over....and over again....dont bother.

 

once again, brace it and pray or buckup and dish out

 

Are you guys all talking from experience or what people say on the forums? I understand that the quality might be sub par compared with Begi or fm. Does anyone know where to get the cheapest HKS manifold?

 

Experience, if you get this manifold be careful how you brace the wastegate. I broke mine but only because I was stupid. The steel was actually pretty thick wall. The wastegate mount is particularly sensitive to having weight suspended from it.

Also you will need to likely surface the flange to get it flat, and I had to redrill the holes as well to make it fit. No problem with the steel itself. Mine cracked in 3 weeks but was repairable, I decided to go with a BEGI after that. It also interferes with the radiator hoses.

 

jobambo-
You will find it very difficult to get first hand info, I couldn't find one positive post on using these manifolds on a Miata (they seem to work fine for other cars though). Internet wisdom and rumors are self perpetuating.

I have Markp's old manifold, I did a very poor weld on the crack that I didn't think was that bad. I ran it about 1,500 miles with no bracing. No cracking or anything falling off. I have since braced the turbo and external wastegate and still no problems.

After 3,500 miles (3 double driver autox's, a trip to the dragstrip and 3rd gear wheelspin every day) the cheap chinese ebay turbo(T3/T4), wastegate(38mm), bov(SSQV knockoff), intercooler, piping, silicone connectors AND the exhaust manifold are all functioning perfectly.

With the WG on the #4 primary it only has enough control to creep to 10psi at 7400rpms. I now see this as a feature. Running a very light spring in the WG gives a fairly linear boost rise to redline. A flip of a switch enables the boost control solenoid and it becomes a completely different experience.

 

Rob at Flipside was messing around with the 1.6 16g manifold on his Miata. The tubing itself cracked in a couple places. I don't think he even got 3k miles out of it.

 

The manifold im looking at does not have an external wastegate. here is the link

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Turbo...spagenameZWDVW
anyone have experience with this one directly?

The main reason im asking this is because "XO racing" has been selling their cheap 100% ebay kits for the Supra crowd for a long long time and not a single complaint about the quality.

 

Whoa! major miss representation alert!

That E-bay ad is using pics of Corky Bell's S4 manifold from the BEGi website. MarkP, somebody, anybody, call Corky so he can put the smack down.


------- Edit ---------------------------------

I am referring to the pictures of the manifold mounted on a motor. I've stared at those pictures for hours, while making turbo spooling noises and giggling uncontrollably. :gay:

 

so basiclly this is a begi copy?

 

Yup, that's a BEGi S4 with a Garrett turbo. I've seen those pics before... I think it's a red NB.

 

There is a lot more to the story than that. Corky is aware that a manifold that looks identical to the S4 manifold is available on Ebay. I would venture to state that you would be hard pressed to figure out which was his and which was Ebay's. The BEGi is available with an external waste gate which you will not find on the Ebay model. That manifold (Both EBay and BEGi) flows really well, well enough to cause boost creep when the internal wastegate can't bypass enough of the exhaust flow.

Mark

PS - Someone did a really good job of copying. And yes, I sent Steph an IM and emailed the Ebayer about the copyrighted photos they stole.

 

o really thats a begi knock off. so will a begi DP fit that.
from looking at the pics , i would say, it will not work with a/c, or p/s.
aside from missing the egr bung.
i was looking at this also., its cheap enough see how long it takes berfore it cracks.
i wonder if the begi DP will fit.

 

Mark--more than a copy, those pics are literally lifted from BEGi's website. Just checked and saw them there.
http://www.bellengineering.net/Image...Miata_S4_4.JPG
http://www.bellengineering.net/Image...Miata_S4_3.JPG

 

Can't believe I'm agreeing with this guy.

 

Yes, I know the pics were lifted, but I am talking about the actual manifold.

I told steph to go whomp on him.

Mark

 

I won't guarantee it but I would be willing to bet $10 bucks that the BEGi downpipe would fit given the same garrett turbo.

Mark

 

Were getting a little of the subject, So how can you tell that it will not with PS or AC?

 

Ask begi if their's is ac/ps compatible. If it is then I would say this one is too.