First off just want to say thanks for all the great info on this board. Just wanted to share a few pics of my manifold that I have been working on. I am a complete noob to building manifolds, but after lots and lots of reading and researching I felt confident enough to have a go at it. The manifold is just tacked up for now but I will be welding it together sometime this week.

Btw I am a rebel and I am using the HF $200 tig toaster. Before I weld this thing up im going to setup a back-purge line.






One thing im concerned about is preventing warpage on the flanges when I weld it up. Would it be worth it to go get a 3/4-1" flat stock and bolt the header flange down when I weld it? Thanks

 

Yes pick up metal to bolt it to, and make sure you bevel the pipe.

 

got a spare head laying around? I would just bolt it to that... assuming you have one... then its free.

 

yeah no spare head...

Im just gonna go get a nice slab of 3/4" flat stock and use it as a mini work bench to bolt my flanges to.

 

might want to go about 3x thicker than 3/4" steel....

 

really? so like 2"-2.5"? That seems pretty overkill, but what do i know..

 

Mine is 3/4"....never had a problem personally

 

I use some brand new chinese head casting that were sent to me for a rebuild that I rejected because the castings were crap. The manifold surfaces were flat though so I have 2 clean heads to mount the head flanges too, Aluminum really helps pull heat out of the flange quickly, with steel it will take a while.

 

I don't know about where you are but try to find someone local who has a trashed head. As long as the flange area is clean your set. I got a destroyed and stripped dseries head from a friend who had it laying out in the rain . Try to find something like that

 

Nice! Deff use a heat sink when welding the head/turbo flange. My first manifold was a ramhorn, a little intimidating at first but you just have to get off the computer and do it.

Your collector opening to the t3 flange came out great

 

thanks man, I had to recut the collector after my first attempt lol. Took a while to figure out...had to make a custom jig to clamp onto my chop saw.

 

looks good
Is it the best way to tack the entire mani then weld all at once? Seems like you wont be able to get at all the welds..?

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by turbosi03 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">looks good
Is it the best way to tack the entire mani then weld all at once? Seems like you wont be able to get at all the welds..?</TD></TR></TABLE>

Nope, before I weld it I am going to have to dismount each runner individually, weld it and then reinstall the runner to the collector and the flange....oh so much fun

 

Looks really good. Go HF!

 

my buddy had an extra ls head so im gonna use that to prevent flange warpage. Unfortunatly I ran out of argon today while building my downpipe so gonna have to wait a little to get the mani welded up. Ill post pics of my welds when im done with the manifold.

 

 

 

i've been tempted to pick up a cheapo HF tig more than once. in for final pics

 

should be done this weekend...ill post up pics then...

 

sweet sweet, is it going to be ready to go to the track on sunday hehehehehe i will come pick it up.................

 

man that manifold looks great for your first time.......

 

in for pics homie post em up i know its done and i need to come over and check it out. i will soon...

 

bump for pics!!!!

 

Well welds didnt turn out like I wanted, but I guess it will work lol

scratch start owns me...

 

for a beginner and a cheap welder, I think it looks pretty good. How is the welder holding up? How is it as far as welds and ease of use?