Miata specific fabrication info
 

So I finally got my welder back and I have been looking into various fabrication techniques/best practices.

It seems the rest of the world has this fabrication stuff down, puts even "the best" set ups here to shame. Everyone here thinks you should build a sch 40 inconel manifold that has a perfectly straight down pipe. The rest of the world isn't so concerned.

Is it just a case of sophomoric carport "engineering"? Or, does everyone else's setup fail every 1000 miles?

Do manifolds crack on the bp due to more vibration and heat and therefore need to be overbuilt, or do we just follow the leader?

I read this twice and I'm still not sure what you're asking

Inconel studs are suggested mostly for track cars. Not sure they are as significant for most other builds. If you are planning a ludicrous build, they are probably worth it, atleast for peace of mind. We are probably above average in the number of members who participate in motorsports compared to other forums.

Most people here are very performance centric. Definitely function over everything (at a budget). You will see more people concerned about getting the most out of parts than getting something that works ok and looks nice.

Its not necessarily that log manifolds fall apart or anything, but we definitely have a lot of engineering minded members. Lots of people still use non-tubular manifolds here, I think Luke posted in his build thread about his log manifold. Also, can't remember the username, but I saw a pretty nice build earlier with relatively average turbo parts.

BPs are not the smoothest most advanced motors, but they do fine overall i would say. Especially for the money investment.

These engines suffer from some sort of resonance issue at high rpm, this cracks manifolds.

That being said, most of the shit being built by super baller fabricators to go on so-called race cars would actually fail if it the car was ever abused in the way that a MTnet user abuses their Miata out on the track. On the internet its easy to come to the conclusion that there are numerous super high quality manifolds out there for every car under the sun. In reality, its not really true.
Even on smooth running Hondas Ive seen a lot of baller manifold crack on the street. These manifolds couldnt hold up on a road course on a Honda engine, let alone a BP vibrating like hell at 7k rpm.

Speedhunters isnt reference material on real race cars. Go out to the track and see what needs to be done for a real race car to last and you will not see a lot of pretty welding and thin-walled stainless steel sculptures. You will see heavy duty shit with bracing on top of bracing and its fucking ugly.

+1 to what Full Tilt said

BP's are not power monsters. They are old tech engines that are durable but don't make any crazy power. So they need all the help they can get. So people upgrade the IM and make really well flowing turbo manifolds as well. BP's also vibrate like crazy, which tends to destroy manifolds way quicker than most other engines. So overbuilding and over-engineering is almost mandatory for track miata's.

It's not my intention to shit on anyone's specific setup. I am looking for discussion from those who actually build parts.

I know SEMA cars probably wouldn't even run, let alone make it around a track. But here the rules are written by those who don't weld, and propagated by those who have never seen a track. My goal is to elevate the fabrication section on here, I know there are great fabricators who have miatas but never post here.

Real race cars aren't unicorns, it isn't so difficult to find them and see what they have. We have one of the best ms forums out there and it would be great to see the same for fab work.

There is a lot of DYI custom work on this thread, there are actually many members that like to make parts, i am one of them.
https://www.miataturbo.net/showthrea...=69633&page=31

Rules? What rules? And how do you do it differently?

Yes, Tim. I'm sure he's willing to give you welding lessons, lol.

Usually its better to "elevate the game" first, then talk about it later.

Hows this: you make some impressive parts then come back and talk down to those that don't fabricate or see the race track. Because right now, you're all talk.

Protip: Hardparking isn't motorsport.

Dann

+1 million. Haven't seen him post in the race prep subforum yet...

Oh lordy, this hasn't gone well. It's probably too late to get this back on track. Eh, some days just don't go as planned.

Turbotim and dann, your work is very good.

:hustler:


:cjerk:

to the last question:
From the time I have been in the Miata scene- its follow the leader.

Read back threads to about 4-5 years ago. You will see everyone saying "cast manifolds if you want reliability" go about 3-4 years ago from now and you will see Turbotim offering tubular manifolds and everyone went to that, then Vband manifolds were cool around then because no hardware failures, then people with bolted turbos upgraded to Inconel hardware, etc... its a really trendy car scene.


I don't think that there are really any issues with well fabricated systems, you don't need crazy materials or unreal thick walls.


I use schedule 10 for all of my manifolds because it seems to be a good middle ground between weight and reliability without going to an ultra high grade 321 that no one with a Miata would be willing to pay for.... there might be 3 or 4 people out there that might be willing to spend $1,500 to $2,000 for a manifold but Im guessing it wont be a hot sale.

Most of those things you talked about were things that were only discovered in the last 4-6 years in the miata world. Up until Savington/Hustler/a few others started stretching studs while on track conventional wisdom was that yes cast manifolds where were you go for reliability. Once track people got to the point where a cast manifold and stock studs no longer worked they started looking for solutions. The Tial V-Bands happened to be the solution that was out at the time. So the track junkies jumped on that band wagon. TurboTim just happened to be in a perfect spot to be one of the few guys known to make good custom manifolds when V-bands were first appearing. So everyone went to him to get the manifolds made. Savington then started working on the Inconel studs. Once he had a formula for ones that would work and not stretch people went back to those, because it is far cheaper then a V-Band setup. So yes there are some trends, but they are trends of what works on a race track. As things break and solutions are found the track junkies tend to move towards those solutions. On mt.net the track junkies just happen to sway the rest of the site heavily.

because of course, all car problems are worked out from day one of release. :jerkit:

Using sch 10 304 stainless on a tubular manifold is a bit of a stretch on a miata, sch 10 mild probably a better idea. And its certainly fine for logs. I even expect my sch40 304 manifold to crack in a few years based on my computer sims. But by then I should be ready for manifold v2 from sch10 or 16ga 321 stainless or inconel to cut weight. The vibration combined with the heat and the packaging in the engine bay is the biggest problem. The vibes are awful on the b engines. The packaging is the worst for making a strong manifold. On any car building a tubular manifold that is going to withstand pulling 1.2+gs lap after lap with 1600*F gases flowing through it sometimes partially on fire with a 20 pound weight hanging off the end and bolted to a big vibrating thing is very difficult. You either massively over build it or you spend weeks doing advanced vibration and thermal loading FEA to determine the proper spots to brace. Put the bracing in the wrong spot and you can make the manifold fail sooner than it would have without bracing.

brace your downpipe and add a flex bellow to the exhaust. it reduces a lot of stress and your shit lasts a lot longer. if you run without a flex bellow of some sort your shits going to crack with haste. I use flexes on all of my kits since I warranty my manifolds for craftsmanship... as long as someone doesn't modify it.

I wasnt even including the issues the downpipe and the rest of the exhaust add into the equation.

What you just described is the evolution of R&D. Failure points - and then solutions - were found as the situations developed.

As Lars said, many of those failure points are specific to a subset of enthusiasts: roadcourse guys with turbo Miatas. There happen to be a decent number on this board, or those aspiring to hit roadcourses once their projects are built, so taking the lessons learned from other people is not being trendy.

It's being smart and profiting from their R&D hours and dollars.


Thanks, Trey, Sav, et al. :2cents:

:dealwithit::noob:

While this is true, the solutions here (Miata world) are usually grossly overplayed. Cast manifolds for example. It was said back a few years ago that it was the only solution that would work- every tubular manifold ever would make you crash and die in a firey mess of molten Miata. Where the rest of the world is doing them (including people with Miata that don't read forums for basic information because they know their shit)


Not a big deal either way, I just notice here (like the op mentioned) that people seem to be really pushing certain things. Evolution happens, but the way it gets preached here (Miata world) is amusing.

In my postings here im not trying to point fingers at people like I may have done mentioning TurboTim and his manifold systems, I was just mentioning trends I have seen here in my time. His stuff when he made it seemed to work well, the design is neat and innovative.

This is obviously hyperbole (exaggeration) on your part, but I think you are misunderstanding a couple of things as well.

The default recommendations come from the perspective of a fast roadcourse package of man and machine. That last part needs some further explanation even though it has been discussed before.

You can take a setup that will perform just fine on the street and put it on the track with a mediocre driver, and chances are it will hold up well for a good while.

You can take that same exact setup - which is perfectly suited for a street car or a car that sees infrequent track time with a slow driver - and give it to a fastish driver who sees a lot of seat time and the same exact setup will be woefully inadequate in terms of reliability.

When your manifold cracks or your studs back out on the way to work or home from the gym, that's a significant inconvenience.

When that happens 20 minutes into your Saturday at an HPDE or TT weekend, that's a much bigger problem. This lends itself to overkill being preferable to "probably adequate."


If there is a "trend" aspect to that, I would think it's because there are plenty of people on here who aren't fast roadcourse guys now but aspire to be so. To them, it makes sense to overbuild something with the intent of growing into it.

Worse case scenario, if you overbuild a setup, you end up spending more money on something heavier duty than you need. The flip side is, you try to buy something that is "probably adequate" and it turns out it isn't, you end up having to replace that setup and miss out on track time that you don't get refunded for.


Your exposure might be different because you live in America's Hat and there may not be the same level of roadcourse participation at the same level up there. If 99% of your customer base is street-oriented or leisurely HPDE participants, then the "overkill recipe" probably seems ridiculous.

Maybe I am wrong. Maybe I have no idea what I am talking about because I have seen no data presented in terms of requested and available setups, etc. Maybe we are both talking anecdotes out our respective asses.

It just makes sense to over build something rather then walk the line. Especially when you are going to make the engine pump out two times the amount of power as before.
We are also a community of fellows that don't want to see a part out thread a week later after "I ALLOFIT'ed my Miata it's awesome" in some cases.. in others we want your EFRs and other awesome sex parts.

Either way, it's your car your build.

Could you show these "fabrication things" from the rest of the world that puts our best setups down?

Like I said, there is trends in the Miata scene... its not because the other systems are unreliable- but that's how it is portrayed.

A well built setup is a well built setup. The fact is that overbuilding is overbuilding and regardless of use if its overbuilt you are either wasting money or adding complexity to things that don't need to be overthought.

Im sure this will cause a shitstorm with the way that people here think... but its similar to swirling a manifold pipe all over adding 3 or 4 elbows to gain 3" of length to one of the runners to get equal length on a turbo manifold. Its not beneficial for performance and doesn't help with the tight constraints you have on an inline 4 engine. THAT is overbuilding.


Fixing an issue like studs backing out is for the most part an installation error or using cheap hardware from the parts bin at a local "lowes racing" store. You don't need unobtanium Incolnel bolts.
Next time you install an incolnel stud kit, use the nuts and locking hardware that they provide with them on a normal stud. 100% chance that high grade studs will be fine with proper locking hardware... THAT (incolnel stud) is overbuilding.

You do realize we have something like a 100 page thread spread over a good long time proving that what you just said is false. What you just stated about shows that you do not understand the underlying problem that was trying to be solved. The studs were stretching, no amount of "locking hardware" will prevent that. Savington went down that path with many different studs and had them all stretch.

I ran a standard Begi S3 setup for nearly 3 years with no problems related to their kit. I only upgraded to V-Bands because I wanted to be future proof for the track. Scrappy_Jack hits the point on the head, I will gladly pay more to have things over built, to prevent the loss of track time.

Inconel studs. Almost every OEM turbo car uses them. They cost $6 each. How is that even expensive and over building? I am for using OEM level or better components when I do things. OEM nissan inconel studs and OEM style copper stoffer nuts is whats holding my turbo setup together. I also dont run 6 seconds under the spec miata lap record at any track though so I'm not doing what the stretchy studs people are doing.

I have an over bored, forged internal, ported head, shaved valves, Miata engine running ID1000s and I make 215hp. Yay me.

Yes, I hate it.

Go back to 2008-2009 when the issue first came up. You would have been a godsend if you could have gotten us part numbers then. At that time no one had them or knew were to get them cheaply.

Part of the whole problem is just the frame of reference that people have. Its easy to get the knowledge now as all the R&D has been done. When Hustler was on the side of the track multiple weekends over stretched studs costing him thousands in lost track time, spending an extra $150 on studs does not seem like a bad investment.

I do agree that for 95% of the miataturbo population that the standard Begi/FM setups are more then fine. Most people will not have the problems that get talked about a lot.

Lol go back to 08/09, back then I was too busy dicking around supercharing cavaliers then trying to make them turn and making most of my stupid part choice mistakes and learning my lessons.

Turbotim makes excellent manifolds, at least 1 of them cracked on track already. Artech makes excellent manifolds, at least 1 of them cracked already. Wittyworks makes excellent manifolds, at least 1 of them cracked already. ALL of them are very very high quality top notch design and materials, with top notch welding. Go ahead and point out to us "peassants" what they did wrong and how you would correct their work?
OMG HAHAHAHAHHAHAHA, I can't think of anyone on this forum stupid enough to agree with this statement:laugh:

+1

But hey, its so easy and convenient to show up now, call everyone an idiot that follows the leader and cant' think for themselves, never really put out anything different, and just feel good about yourself cause you're an "innovator" on the interwebz

By the way, is "hellafab" even paying vendor fee's? No? Hmm, I wonder if that should be re-examined.

#1. I did nowhere say anyone was an idiot.
#2. I said that people here follow the leader (trends). I didn't say why they do it.
#3. I have lost touch with people who have some of my early Miata manifolds, but none of them have been back for cracking.
#4. I don't build Miata manifold specifically- I weld whatever people who come to me ask for. I have built a few dozen manifolds for people over the years as a hobby and I only post here what I do as that hobby. I'm not a business trying to market anything, though I have done some Miata work recently. Being that I have my own Miata like to browse here and as such I post pictures here. If me posting welding pictures is a bad thing I can stop- I just like to share my hobby with others to get more insight into design, process and for inspiration.



The point of my commenting was to revive this thread that was so destined to fail about a discussion of why people do things-specific to fabrication that ended up off topic regardless. Think what you like, there are more options for things out there than whats available for us.

Look I'm gonna be honest with you: I actually enjoy looking at your fabrication pictures, and I think fabrication discussions are great, but I think its extremely disrespectful for you to discount all the efforts of prior fabricators and racers here by calling their work unnecessary and overcomplicated, and that they could avoid all that by properly installing and welding their manifolds.......As if you have some crazy new awesome solution to all the problems encountered on turbo miata's at the track, and everyone else has been "doin it wrong".

Anyone can make a manifold for the street. Race track is a completely different ball game though.

Understood.

I have my views on what is a worthwhile modification and what is overbuilding; which I believe is the purpose of this thread. I didn't say they were wrong or that it didn't work-to discount them in being that they have a proven product. I knew that mentioning my thoughts on overbuilding would stir up some dust, but its just my educated opinion. Me saying that wont change who does what and for what reasons, and people will still want what they want (which is usually a trendy thing when it comes to discussion boards)

I do some things differently than others with my fabrication but I don't want to get into it because I'm not advertising.

I like your fab projects as well. I hope you continue to share them.

I also hope your opinion is educated by experience building stuff that is used on cars that run several seconds under Spec Miata lap records.





In case that is too subtle, I am making the point that you may have zero experience that is specifically applicable to the demographic I keep referencing (fast road course guys).

On the other hand, in my professional life I make it a point to challenge my assumptions and to try very hard not to take stake in ideological perspectives so I really, genuinely am open to being proven wrong.


But, considering the number of Formula 1 and WRC manifold pictures that get tossed around on this site, I would be very surprised if there is something being done with other marquees or in other geographic locales that has not been considered here.

Anyone who can weld can build something that can make 200whp on the street for highway onramp pulls.

Come back when you have setups which both make massive power, and survive half a dozen events of 6x30min sessions in a row without needing to lift the bonnet.

What is being constantly said, and I am just reminding again, is that the serious Miata guys are running Porsche GT2 and GT3 times, for an hour straight.

They are NOT running 10 seconds at a time or 3/4/5th on the highway.

Dann

Not cool. He contributes just like you and I.

Play nice.

Dann

+1. This.

If there is a problem with studs stretching and the answer is to go to Inconel or other heat-resistant materials, why do we not have problems with the threads being pulled out of the head? Maybe the answer to stretching studs is to go up in diameter so the threads in the head can hold more and there is less stress on the studs. I don't know if there is enough meat in the heads to do this, but if you are going to fabricate something with strength being an issue, this may be the answer.

First off, because the studs in the head aren't the ones having issues - it's the manifold to turbo studs/bolts.

Second, nobody is really looking for a solution any more because the solution has been found - inconel and locking hardware works great. We've moved on.

Side note: most setups are using M10-size hardware which is already oversized compared to the M8 stuff some kits use. My setup uses inconel M8s and is surviving the track abuse just fine.

-Ryan

Apparently you've never heard the following words: Honda, Volkswagen, 240SX, Hellaflush, and 2JZ. If you think people applying what others figured out works on track is "trendy" a quick Google search of the above words will likely make you vomit. If we were trendy, we wouldn't bother to turbo Miatas, we would all just "drop a 2J in it bro!" and call it done :rofl: