New guy from TX
 

Hey guys, I've been meaning to do an intro, but have been lurking more.

I bought an 03 LS from a friend of mine who semi-stanced it out. It's got 108K on it, and looks really good. Engine is stock except for a RB exhaust. She's already got a hardtop, cheap coilovers (form and function), and some XXR's.

Since I've owned her (three months), I've installed a tablet for the radio (will do a write up on this later, so easy to do on a NB), GS cooling panel, I've got a eBay radiator, fans, shroud, and silicone hoses on the way, and just picked up a 10AE six speed transmission today. Especially since it semi overheated (3/4's way on the highway at 4K with the A/C. Which apparently is somewhat normal according to M.NET) last week on my way to San Antonio (I've read Hustler's posts about using 1 cup of coolant, the rest distilled water, and water wetter already). I also purchased some Morette tail lights, and an eBay hard top spoiler, both of which I've already painted Brilliant Black.

This car is supposed to be my daily, my other car is a 76 280Z, with a RB20. I just finished up the coilover conversion last week (had to weld in top plates and sleeves), which consists of retrofitting some S13 coilovers on to it. I can do some wiring (wired up the RB20) and some fabrication (A/C for my Z, IC piping and some other misc stuff).

Once my Z is finished, and on the road I would like to turbo the NB, but keep it very simple, don't want to spend too much on it.

I honestly was thinking about ordering a eBay turbo manifold, and modifying it a little bit (cutting reliefs in the flanges, and welding supports from the header flange, to turbo flange), then getting the Begi reflash, and run 4-5 psi.

At the moment though, I'm just doing some searching on rear end options for the six speed. I'd love to get my hands on the 3.63 from the 626, but I'm having a hard time finding it, so I may settle on the 79-85 FC 3.9 which at least will put me on par with the MSM's.

overheating is not normal. ever. ever. if you listen to m.net fgts you'll have a bad time here

oh boy, this won't end well :facepalm:

I think you should go back to m.net or clubricer I mean roadster

I'd welcome you, but have a feeling you won't last long here.

I have an ebay mani on my S30 and it hasn't had a problem. I've driven her for a few months with the manifold on, and it's top mounted with a HX35. And I didn't do relief cuts or bracing on it (especially since it's a hundred bucks).

Also, BEGi's S4 mani kinda looks like the an ebay manifold honestly.

Well to my understanding 230 is relatively normal. The entire time I had torque launched, to just confirm my temp reading. The moment I turned off the A/C the temp would drop that rather quickly. I think the combination of doing 4K @ 80 MPH, and over 100 degrees heat probably what caused it to do that.

I've driven to waco and austin with much lower ambient with the A/C on and it never spiked that high. The first time it went 3/4's way, I pulled over and didn't see any bubbling in the res. and neither the lower or upper radiator hoses were rock hard.

According to torque the highest temp I got was 231.8, which is not overheating, but it is on the fine line of overheating.

You should have way too much airflow going through the radiator at 80mph to overheat at nearly any temperature on the surface of the earth, regardless of the state of the air-conditioner button. Check to make sure both fans turn on when the A/C is running. Then, if that isn't the problem, figure out what is.

Go ahead and buy an eBay Mani. You're totally right, Begi just copied the S4 from the eBay vendor, you should just get it instead. We will laugh at you and then you will be banned.

He has an RB. He is a God among men. He has nothing to learn here and is only here to pass on his knowledge of cheap coilovers, ebay manifolds, and hard top spoilers.

That's actually the first thing I checked. Both fans are running, and they are running at the right speed. I could idle in traffic with the A/C on, and she doesn't overheat, only at speed. When I was doing 65-70 on the way back from Austin to Waco, A/C was on, and didn't overheat. I've also got the undertray on as well.

I still plan too actually. Again, relief cuts, and support bracing. If it doesn't work, then I'm out a little bit of my time, and a hundred bucks. If it works, then I've saved a lot of other people money. If not, then I'll just say that everyone was right, and I should have listened.

LoL, I wish. Keep in mind that the cheap coilovers were already on the car when I bought it, I'd like to change them, but as for now, it's functioning well, and I'm not tracking the car. Besides, I've got the poor man's RB, the RB that cost less than a SR.

As far as the Z goes, it's a bit lighter than the L28, and I didn't have to make a transmission mount, just had to make engine mounts. That and it REV's to the sky. I've got an 8K redline on the 20 with the reflashed ECU :)

Thanks for giving me the usual MT.net treatment

If you put an ebay mani on and it cracks, we learn nothing. If you put it on and it doesn't, we still learn nothing because it's still a POS. But don't worry, it will crack.

Why don't you just send me $80 and I'll kick you in the balls? It will be cheaper and less painful.

but he wont learn anything from that.

I have NEVER seen an EBAY manifold NOT crack, even modded with supports and shit. it will crack ANYWHERE and EVERYWHERE that you didnt weld a second layer of Schedule 40 over....

In OTHER words... you are better off Fabricating your own out of Schedule 40 or something else thats GOOD steel, than you are buying an EBAY manifold.

You COULD buy the Manifold, and cut the flange off, throw the rest away, and build onto that.... But im sure the flange will fail at some point too.

This is linking to another forum. I don't know if that's bad or not though.

Ebay manifolds - Please post your good/bad results

Take a look, there's only a handful of people that have had their ebay mani's crack.

Here's more with the T2

http://www.ka-t.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=57729

Seems like a few crack, but many reinforce the mani's without it cracking.

But, those ^^^ were for Supras and 240's, Maybe their design was slightly better, and there was less stress on certain parts of the manifold.... or Maybe the Miata just vibraters ;) too much for the design they made, or generates too much heat for their design.

I dont know, Maybe yours wont break.... Mine did... WITH reinforcements. And so have a Million others. Its more worth it, just to buy a flange, and build your own log style manifold out of GOOD steel.

True, that does bring up a very viable point. The good thing is that the ones that did crack, at least it didn't crack at the flange (runner or collector). However, it looks to be the same thickness as far as the actual material goes too. So I wonder what's the real difference?

I could see for the six cylinder engines being longer, so it may have extra support, but looking at the Ka-T's guys, they are bottom mounted as well, and seem to have a bit of success with relief cuts and bracing.

I was actually looking into the JGS manifold. Ideally, I would like a bottom mounted turbo. The only one I could find was the S4, and Artech's. While looking at pictures of the S4, it really looked like an ebay mani to me. They even have the same support at the collector and flange.

Of course, I could be wrong as well, it's one thing to compare pictures, and another to see both in your hands side by side. Too bad they don't make a cast iron eBay log like they do for the 1.6

SuperCooper, do you happen to have any pics of the way people reinforced them. I am veering away this route, and probably do the tried and true (buy a good mani, and piece together everything else), but I'd still like to see.

The Cast manifolds are MUCH better than the stainless or whatever that stuff is (tin???)

Im NOT condoning this.... as i fear Banishment, and i have much more to learn from Miataturbo ... BUT, ill see if i can find my old pics of that manifold (i did NOT buy it originally, it came on the car) It cracked, i fixed and reinforced it (lots of time with my lincoln welder) and, a month later cracked again, i ended up replacing it with a homemade one i sourced on craigslist built by an unknown (to me) source.

so.... if i have the pics, ill post them... then, you can look at mine, and NOT do it the way i did, because it obviously didnt work for me. lol

OMG how many noobs do we have to tell this.


FORGET EVERYTHING YOU EVER LEARNED ABOUT ANY CAR, IT DOESN'T APPLY TO THE MIATA

SR20 ebay manis don't crack because the SR20 isn't a 1970s truck engine.

Miata ebay manifolds don't crack because they're made more poorly than SR20/2JZ/EtC manifolds, they're probably made to the exact same specifications as far as I know - Miata ebay manifolds crack because the vibrations and stresses induced by specifically the Miata engine are too much for them to handle. It doesn't matter if you reinforce welds, add gussets, add bracing, add relief cuts, wrap it with unicorn placenta, etc. We're telling you this now because when it comes to Miata engines WE'RE SMARTER THAN YOU ARE and WE WANT TO SAVE YOU $$$/TIME/HEADACHE. Compared to the collective knowledge/experience of MT.Net, you don't know shit. If you can't afford American-made hand-welded schedule 40, then you buy a cast manifold. If you can't afford a cast manifold, then you can't afford to turbo a miata.

Perfect answer. fooger you should be added to the FAQ's. No seriously, I kinda wished someone said that right off the bat.

I'm going to do some more looking around.

these... yes...

A homemade Log manifold is surprisingly very very easy to make

We say these things on a daily basis. If you read just the first page of intro threads, i'm sure someone said it at lease once.

We don't like to spoon feed people here. The information is out there, you just need to search and read.

Read build threads too. That will give you a great idea on what you need to do.