let owners, opinions please.....

cheers guys, ste, thanks mate, i would +rep but it wont count!

They like to crack my mate got a cheap manifold off ebay. Felt a big difference but it cracked then snapped sortly after. One of the bolts had to be grinded down too as it hit the runner.

That one does have a brace on it i can see, wont hurt to try it to be honest. Main cause of cracking is the weight of the turbo, as long as you brace the turbo with a bracket to the bloock should last.

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Originally Posted by ste porter

not trying to shoot you down mate but how many manufactures use equal length as standard? i know thats for manufacturing and price reasons ect but you have got to remember there designed to cope with the most un educated idiots abusing it. also theres alot of downfalls too equal length setups aswell that people tend to over look because saying equal length seems to be the in thing too say you have got
but what you have got to remember the gains alot of the time are canceled out by masses of sharp tight twisty bends and the fact that to get a true equal length they usualy have to be lengthened by in some cases upto 4 times the length of what they could be in a conventional set up. All that extra length has a massive effect on spool times and turbine speed ect due to the loss of exspansion in the exhaust gasses by the time they come to be utalised to spin the turbine they have lost alot of energy due to contraction and heat loss.

dont get me wrong im not saying they are a bad thing by any means but im pointing out a few of the down falls that get massivly over looked when choosing a manifold and normaly people get sucked in thinking there the best because there the most exspensive when in reality for some aplications and the type of use the car will get something simpler would be just as efficiant and create much the same gains at usualy half the cost

there are alot of down falls to the type you posted aswell such as hot spots ect ect but unless your building something with a specific use target torque band and extreamly high out which i doubt or you wouldnt have asked the question to start with because you would have already known the anwser
then something like you posted would be fine for everyday use
only thing i would say in regards to that actual manifold is that the quality of the way its built may be a little suspect and likely too crack over time

there is a mass of info out there on choosing the right manifold for your specific aplication and loads of info on the pros and cons for every type on the market if you want to know abit more and in more detail on pros and cons a good place to have a look is maxboost website alot of god points hints and tech stuff on there for the c20let

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TBH i posted my thoughts based on my experience on those type of manifolds because they are unequal as standard kkk manifolds are and when running higher boosts causes cylinder 3 to become alot hotter than the rest due to it having the shortest track and this is why people on phase kits some times have trouble with that cylinder, i just done see the point in doing the same again with a aftermarket manifold, its only going to see more heat if it has the shortest track.
This is just me opinion based on my 15 years of working on vauxhalls and i'm not saying its right but if i was going to go a larger turbo i wouldn't buy unequal myself or for anyone's car i work on!

David.

i fitted the exact same manifold and elbow to my friends mk3 astra let with a t3 turbo, he bought the lot of ebay and what a waste of money they are!!! the one i had didnt line up correctly with the bolt holes and nuts and bolts had to be grinded down and you basically had to assemble it all together with the turbo before putting it on the engine as access to the back turbo securing bolts would not do up tight and kept blowing like a biatch! plus we had to ditch the power steering setup aswell due to the fack the turbo inlet was right up against the pas bracket.

the weld on the manifold were done by a blind person! you would have better off using pritt-stick to build it togherlol. oh and there were pin-holes in the welds which leaked!!

thats why its cheap mate, but up to you i suppose:p

The most ironic thing is, those manifold are made from 321 stainless which is by far the best material to use. its properties are perfect for the job. But the material is so piss thin and they weld with far to many amps its fooks the properties of the metal before its even used. The only reason people use 304 stainless becuase 321 is stupid stupid amounts of money over here. It has just as good a properties as the 321 but cant handle the temperatures these manifolds see. So who ever said 304 is **** talks ****e !!!

Fuk me you no to much Ste haha lol

Not saying its a bad thing lol

Well I have 200SX Jobbie, cost approx £150 to do, it hasnt yet cracked (15months)

My mate spent about £700 on a Nortech one and its cracked. (6 months)

I can replace mine 5 times over before Ive forked out for a Nortech one, and in that time it may have cracked a few times anyway, so probably need replacing itself.

i may take a punt on one, reason being, i can weld quite well so if it does split its ok. also like has been said it looks well braced, and i dont mind a bit of fab work.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by david dixon

TBH i posted my thoughts based on my experience on those type of manifolds because they are unequal as standard kkk manifolds are and when running higher boosts causes cylinder 3 to become alot hotter than the rest due to it having the shortest track and this is why people on phase kits some times have trouble with that cylinder, i just done see the point in doing the same again with a aftermarket manifold, its only going to see more heat if it has the shortest track.
This is just me opinion based on my 15 years of working on vauxhalls and i'm not saying its right but if i was going to go a larger turbo i wouldn't buy unequal myself or for anyone's car i work on!

David.

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the reason cylinder 3 becomes a hot point isnt so much that its a shorter tract its because its a colator point i.e its the point of which all the exhaust gasses come to gether squash up and try and squeeze and fight there way through a tiny hole together its the manifold that gets the hot spot not the piston directly but as a result of this gathering point being only 7-8 cm from cylinder 3 where as its 12-18cm roughly from cylinders 2 and 4 due to the heat cylinder 3 cops it as its the closes point to the hot spot

in efect yes that is caused by the the fact its not equal length but not for the reasons your thinking the one pictured in this thread will eliminate that problem because even though they are still not even length they dont come to a colator right next to 1 individual cylinder and theres about 20 cm of primary runner before the manifold flange as a pose to about 8cm

think of it like a red hot poker in a fire you can hold the cold end but the further down the poker you slide your hand the hotter it gets

well the closser a head gets to the colater on a manifold the more heat will be transfered

a friend of mine is running the same manifold as what im using only difference is mines got a bigger wastegate and its just made 511bhp without any major isues with hot spots due to the un equal length of the manifold in fact last year at pvs his was the grey corsa gsi that mad 430bhp on the rollers with a k16!

if you have got your fuelling and ignition map right you shouldnt have to many issues aslong as your not pushing silly presures out of a poxy overworked or worn out k16

I guess its each to their own, i just dont see the point of risking it when you can buy a tubular equal length manifold for a evo 4-8 twin scroll turbo for £99, i personally wouldn't take the risk.

Davd.