ugh... begi downpipe fitment :-(
 

last two weekends i've been chipping away at getting my setup installed, only to find out today that the Begi downpipe doesn't fit... it's like the whole thing is just off by about 5 degrees and the bolt holes and pipes don't line up before the end of the pipe (just about where the wastegate tube connects back up with the main pipe) hits the transmission bellhousing...

i was so excited to fire the car up today and start tuning... no dice. hopefully i can get this squared away and get a new downpipe reasonably quickly (that fits...). i know these things happen, just bummed...

I don't know this from experience, just from reading the forums but if you don't install the DP exactly as their instructions detail it won't fit.

well, thing is, the way this is made, it CAN'T fit if all the bolts are connected. i'd love to be proven wrong on this, but i can't see it happening, considering i could't even line all the bolts up with none of them screwed in yet...

FYI: Mine was a bit longer than needed (it was touching the frame at the bottom of the DP and you could hear this driving) - cutoff saw time.. 30mins later it fit well..

yeah, i was just gonna bash a bit of a dent in where it was hitting, but it seems like it's making contact right where the wastegate tube joins back in... bashing is kinda out, because i think i would mess up the joint.

You shouldn't have to "bash" a custom part like that. Calling them in the morning?

indeed. as has been said before by others hwo have had issues, i'm pretty confident it'll get taken care of. like i said, just bummed i'm not driving around boosted right now. :-)

BEGI/Bell eng.ing has had fitment issues with Greddy turbo kits.....Greddy says that they have used the same flange since the beginning....but BEGI has proven them wrong....You are not the first one to have fitment issues....Apparently there are a few different flanges floating around on Greddy turbos...Stephanie is on top of it and actually has a few turbos sitting on the work bench (including mine) in the efforts to make a DP flange that works with all Greddy DP flanges...

What you need to do is take a picture of your turbo-side flange and email/send it to Stephanie at BEGI

You will most likely need to send back the DP and wait for the replacement

eh, it's not a flange issue, flange fits the turbine housing just fine. it was just built with the flange and piping a few degrees off where it needed to be. all the bolt holes line up fine, but if you're looking at the flange with the DP flowing away from you, the flange and wastegate tube would need to be rotated maybe 5 - 10 degrees clockwise. honestly it just looks like it wasn't jigged properly, because it's VERY close, just off by a c-hair.

and yeah, i agree, but at the same time. it IS a custom part, and it was made without my car there to ensure proper fitment. not really fair to be harsh about it with that in mind. this post isn't about badmouthing begi, it's just me bumming about not driving to work in a boosted miata this morning ;-)

I wasn't badmouthing Begi either, i understand that the work they do is difficult and there is a decent amount of room for error. I've also never heard of them not helping a customer with some of their parts. I was just saying hopefully you can get it fixed pretty quickly. No boost FTL.

just got off the phone with them. apparently this is the second time someone's called in about the DP hitting the tranny, so they're looking into it and are gonna call later today with an update.

thumbs up to begi customer service! :-)

It sucks it happens with some of their stuff, but it seems they always make good, which is :bigtu:

a-fucking-men.

It fitting the first time is better :bigtu: :bigtu:

No fitment problems with mine from Shore Motorsports.

how about you eat my ass with a spoon. :-)

Will a spork do?

ouch

I can feel the love, kind of like a sharp stabbing sensation… Any way, I ordered a BEGI down pipe first of September. Corky told me they where going to bring in another Greddy turbo and make some adjustments. I expect mine to ship in the next few weeks (I won’t be home for a few months any way). I hope they have all the bugs worked out of it by then

i'm hoping i can get something on the car sooner than a couple weeks, to be honest...

I had the exact same problem with my Tony pipe- the end of the downpipe wanted to hit either the bellhousing or the subframe (can't remember which) because it seemed as though the flange on the DP was rotated very slightly relative to the mating surface on the turbo. This seems to support Bell's claim as well.

In my case, this was easily solved by spending a few minutes with a dremel and a carbide bit. I simply determined the direction that the flange needed to rotate in order to center the pipe, and elongated the bolt holes in that direction. It was only necessary to take a few mm off each one.

yeah, i was going to do that, but the way it sits, the main downpipe opening would end up DANGEROUSLY close to not sealing against the turbine flange...

i'll see what begi says when i hear back. maybe a few minutes with a torch can put the miniscule bend in it that it needs to clear the bellhousing... :-)

Good! :)

talked to donnie last night after he had a chance to take a look at it, and apparently using the bolt hole closest to the driver's side fender will keep the main DP tube's centerline in roughly the same place.

so using that as a base, i can dremel out the other three bolt holes a tad, making them oblong like the new flange will be. this should give me the extra 1/16" or so of rotation i need to clear the bellhousing.

not psyched i have to modify the part, but was very happy that they took a look at the problem yesterday and got me a solution same-day. thumbs up.

i had this same thing happen. then i tried the exact same thing you are, and once it was on, the wastegate got partially blocked and now i overboost huge.
just get corky to make you another one. this way, it fits right without modification.

well, this one doesn't have that little divider that comes out between the two tubes. it's just a flat flange, so i don't think that will be a problem. i'll check it out when i make the mods, though.

Let us know if what Donnie suggested works. Out of curiosity, what manifold are you using?
Stephanie

it's a standard greddy manifold/turbo. i understand the greddy turbine flanges have presented a couple problems to you guys, so i guess this is just me feeling part of that pain.

The development car had a greddy replacement manifold. We are wondering if the manifolds have a slight machining difference. That could account for the 5% difference or placement of wastegate vent tube.

Donnie is still working on it some today. Let us know if altering the bolt holes work, or if you would like to send it back and we can do it.
Stephanie

well, got it to fit, finally. used a dremel and carbide bit to oblong three of the four bolt holes and got it to fit on the turbine housing. then i noticed that the flange extended out past the turbine housing casting and would have blocked the wastegate from opening fully...

had to spend some more quality time with a sawzall and the carbide bit again to cut a decent sized notch out of the flange to allow the wastegate arm to clear.

all is well now, but to begi, please double check that this isn't a problem on future greddy downpipes.

all in all, i'm psyched, though. car pulls great and the pipe's doing it's job. they were excellent and helped me out when i called (on top of sounding actually concerned about my issue. can't ask for too much more than that with custom parts)

do u have a photo of the finished product, Devin?

i don't at the moment. i was too excited that i got it to fit. lol

i'll take a couple pictures when i work on the car again this week.

I was going to ask for photos too! If you could send me some that would be great.

Also, Donnie is fairly certain he has the w/g arm issue fixed. When did we ship your downpipe?
Thanks!!
Stephanie

shipped right around the beginning of sept. i think i received it the 5th.

i'll try to snap a couple of pics this week.

I'd like to see the pics of the fix as well, since my BEGI downpipe is sitting in my basement waiting for my car to come back from the body shop.

One other thing that I've noticed is that the divorced wastegate portion meets back up with the main pipe before the swaged (expanded) section of the downpipe. While I don't doubt that the design is better than the puny drinking-straw stock downpipe, this seems to be contrary to the design for the BEGI turbo-kit downpipes which have the divorced wastegate pipe meeting up after the swaged out section of the downpipe thereby making a small 6 inch section right before the slipjoint a tiny bottleneck in the whole scheme of things. Was this done due to space considerations or was it an oversight in design?

Much appreciated.

BTW... for those that has installed their BELL DP. Any tips for the installation? Procedures?

Thanks,

ummm ... i have no experience with divorced wastegates ... but why the hell would you want to reintroduce it after the flex section? If thats what I am thinking you are saying that would be an extremely dumb idea because when the exhaust and engine started moving around all that stress would be transmitted through that little pipe and I could see it failing in no time.

So what downpipes have you seen that reintroduce after a flex section?

I don’t think cyee is talking about having the divorced wastegate tube reintroduced after the flex section, but rather having it enter in a wider section of the down pipe. There by reducing the bottle neck. Isn’t that the reason we wanted the larger diameter down pipe in the first place?

Ah that would make sense. I didnt quite follow where he said "the main pipe before the swaged (expanded) section". Is "swaged" a term I need to know (honestly, no sarcasm intended)?

swage
n.
1. A tool used in bending or shaping cold metal.
2. A stamp or die for marking or shaping metal with a hammer.
3. A swage block.
tr.v. swaged, swag·ing, swag·es
To bend or shape by or as if by using a swage.

Personally, I have always used the word to describe a crimp e.g., a butt connector.

I recieved my BEGI today, Just want to know if DEVIN MAC could show me your mod to the Flange.

Thanks,

ok, i modded it in two ways. one i won't be able to show you since i'd have to take it off the car. this was just to oblong the bolt holes in the flange to make it clear. hopefully this won't be an issue for you anyway.

the other i can show you, and it was just to cut a notch off the engine side of the flange to allow the wastegate flapper arm to clear the flange. i'll take a pic of that and post it tonite.

That's exactly what I meant.. Thanks for clarifying that for me.

alrighty, as i mentioned, i can't get a pic of what i had to do to the bolt holes since i didn't want to take the pipe off.

but i did snap a crappy cameraphone pic of the notch i had to cut out of the flange to allow WG arm clearance. if i had known my batteries in my real camera were toast i would have recharged them and got a real picture, but this will have to do for now.

Attachment 215746

Devin, Thanks! that looks alot more taken out that I thought it would! I would guess the holes that you oblong are pretty big also.

they weren't too bad, to be honest. only off by like 1/16 to 1/8" an hour with a dremel carbide bit and checking/re-checking the fitment took care of it.

+1

i still havent received my replacement dp in the mail yet.
when i call, they just say its in the mail.

Oh, man, I've heard of that same thing happening to someone else before!:eek5:

You know, like when a vendor has shipped something, it's in transit, and that's pretty much all they can tell you because they aren't the friggin' shipping company?

hey retard, you'd think they'd have a shipping number to check or something.

How is it being shipped? UPS? Is it possible there's an inability to track due to the international nature of the shipping.

So did you ask them for one?

In case you're still worried, I highly doubt one of the biggest Miata aftermarket vendors is going to rip you off.

i guess i'm just pissed because i'm one of the very few who had any problems with the begi downpipe.
everything about the downpipe kicks ass other than the fitment, which is why i'm dying waiting for this thing.

Just recieved and test fitted mine! Doop... no luck, fitting issue!

unlike what Devin_mac's problem with the wastegate pipe touching Bell housing. Minds never gotten to that point, my greddy exhaust Manifold is in the way of the wastegate pipe, both flanges are 1/2in apart.

Now, waiting for Stephenie from BELL to advice on solution.
:sadwavey:

Nope

How many issues has BEGI had on the DP?

Jason at Enthuza suggested the Bell DP, but now I am having second thoughts....anybody have an update on this issue?

Call BEGI, they will have the latest update for you.

Is this problem only showing up on cars with Greddy kits installed?

^ seems to be just us Greddies having fitment issues. Luckily I'd seen all the chatter online, so I took the sawzall to the Begi flange to make room for the WG arm (I verified on the car that there was interference) and when the pipe insisted on touching the transmission (I removed the stock bracket to make some extra room for the DP too) I wasn't surprised.