well.....i think i learned more building this manifold than i ever learned in any of my higschool or college class's combined. this is how i have wanted to do my manifold for about the last 3 years now.....however i know people are going to come along and say i tried to copy full race's manifold.....yes its pretty similar, but i was in no way shape or form trying to copy cat somebody elses stuff. i have ALWAYS wanted to do a top mount manifold. now that that has been said.......

this took way longer than i expected. i worked on it from 5pm till 11pm last night, and then from 8am till 5pm today. and i still havnt done the wastegate.

i decided i suck. i am so inconsistant welding to peices of pipe together. and its so obvious where i start and where i stop. im not doing something right, and since nobody has ever showed me anything....all ive been doing is guessing to try to figure it out. i can weld a pipe to a flange nice and pretty all day...but not a pipe to a pipe. please god somebody tell me what to do!! hahaha

also...even though after i tacked everything into place and double checked if i would be able to weld all the spots that needed to be welded.....holly **** was i wrong. i though tfor sure i had enough clearance everywhere....i think that was just my brain lying to me because after all the hard work of everything..i didnt want to have to cut any tacks to weld peices of pipe. i barely know how to weld...and i had to weld some spots that im sure some of you that have been welding for years would have had some trouble with.

my left hand is useless. i think its a firehazard for me to hold the torch in my left hand haha.

other than that....here are some pics................


Modified by Turbo-charged at 9:01 PM 11/27/2004


Modified by Turbo-charged at 9:01 PM 11/27/2004

 

keep in mind this is my FIRST manifold.....so be gentle with the critisism!!!! any words of wisdom or any kind of advice greatly apreciated.........btw the manifold is going to be JETcoated...

 

wow thats pritty cool looking, how does the radiator fit ? and are you going to make a brace for it so all the weight is not hanging off the head ?? but looks good man , i havent seen anyone try a diy top mount before you , i can see on the one bend right out of the collector you must have touched the torch to the work peice , let us know how it performs , i think you did a great job for your first time making a mani and it being a top mount also ,

 

thanks!! yea i wrecked the torch into the manifold a bunch of times.... the radiator will actully fit...it might be like 1/2 too close.....i'll just dropkick it over a little bit...not too worried about that. i think running an air filter is going to be impossible as well. i was kinda worried about hood clearance...but hood shuts fine. it was such a pain in the *** b/c i was by myself 100% of the time so trying to hold 4 cut peices of pipe and mark everything then line it all back up etc etc was a royal PITA. NEVER AGAIN will i tack everything THEN try to weld it. thats why half the welds look like crap. im curious how it works...i hope it makes some power! thats not even a real motor in the car...i just threw that in there to make the manifold. broken GSR block, busted up type R head, and transmission with no interals. you can pick the motor up and carry it around...its kinda cool

 

that actually looks pretty good, is it mig'ed?

 

no it is tig welded,

 

i wish i could weld 2 tubes together good. all the welds to the head flange or to the turbo flange look great. why the hell cant i do that to just 2 straight peices of pipe?!?!?!

 

its pretty good looking for your first time...and remember, when designing an exhaust manifold, there's nothing wrong with copying others, so long as you're copying the best (corky bell). just dont try to market it or you'll have to be renamed OBX man.

 

doesnt look bad at all bro for your first one, think it looks dang spiffy

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by tharptroy &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">just dont try to market it or you'll have to be renamed OBX man.</TD></TR></TABLE>

if thats the case, we would be calling cody obx king...

 

Doesn't look that bad to me, I can't do any better!

 

Don't be so hard on yourself. How long did it take you to learn to tie your shoe laces? It's very ambitious to make THE header you want right off the bat. If you really don't like it, make another one... as you know it isn't that expensive for pipe, and I bet you could do the second much faster, using the first as a template, changing what you didn't like.

As far as the welds go, there looks like there's contamination on a lot of the welds, like the gas flow is either too low or is getting hit by drafts. Also looks like too much heat. Practice, practice, practice. We all start with zero experience.

Maybe I misunderstood, but I get the idea you tacked the whole thing together before final welding, yes? Yikes! No, tack the primaries tubes together, and remove each tacked-together primary from the mockup and fully weld it all by itself on the bench. Then after all four are done, put them back on your jig, the last welds you should do are the ones at the flanges.

 

I've got a really good quesiton I think.

How in the hell do you oil that turbo with the drain on top and feed on the bottom? or is that just my dsm t25 like that?

 

heh.......you can completely rotate the center section 360 degree's.......so the feed will be on the top...and the drain will be on the bottom....and in my case...coolant on front and back also

you can not rotate your T25 like that though!

 

looks like a good first try to me!!

 

Like other people said don't be so hard on yourself. There is only one way to learn and that is to practice. I think the manifold looks pretty bad *** espically since it is your first manifold you made. I know once I get a tig welder I will be lucky if the two pieces of metal i weld together don't fall apart.

 

you just a bandsaw to cut the bends ?

 

Hey Tubo
Your design,setup,fiting whatever you want to call it is very impressive
Welding is everything KB58 said and I was wondering if you had gaps in the real hot joints I think I would clean up the welds you can get at with a wire brush and sand down any high spots and then lay a low heat bead over them ,but practice on
some scrap tubing first using the biggest cup you have.

 

Looks pretty cool. Dont forget your cell phone when you put your Valve cover back on .. *hey, have you seen my phone laying around here anywhere?*

 

nice work
is it me or that head is spray painted black? on the inside???

 

well the head is no good, so i guess overspray isnt a concern

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by mmuller &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">nice work
is it me or that head is spray painted black? on the inside???</TD></TR></TABLE>

he probably just uses it for "mock up".

 

looks nice!! i like it....I wish I can one day make a manifold of any type...hahaha..

did you use a bandsaw to make the cuts and the collector?

 

looks good

 

I dont think that looks bad at all.