was jus curious if any one has made mild steel/mig'ed turbo manis?

i heard someone talkin bout this the other day at work...just was wondering casue everyone use's Stainless/tig manifolds. if it does work, what gauge should the tube be etc...

i just wanna either prove this guy wrong.....or learn a thing or two....that is all


limmie kno guys. FAIL pics, or any accepted.

Thanks

 

sch10 mild steel. Mild moves less than stainless when hot, so cracking should be less likely. I think stainless is supreme for its anti corrosive properties. Plus I'm fairly certain stainless els cost less than mild.

 

IIRC the carbon steel weld els are USA made and the stainless are Chinese

 

I had a friend that build several log manifolds from both mild and stainless MIG welding them all. As far as I know other than looking like crap they held up just fine.

 

i can say my first long manifold was mild steel weld els.
i was a novice tig welder, and took a long time to weld, and heated the **** out of the joints, we are talking glowing red for a while....
i had gaps and just filled them with weld.
the manifold cracked in half like a month later during use.

my second one was a tubular mild steel with sch 40 mild steel i tigged with more experience. its still good today, and its like 10 years old.

 

i had a mild migged mini-ram mainifold, held up great never any cracks, had it for years before selling it.. as far as rust, just heat coat it

 

I've seen a few around my parts, and never heard of them breaking. As long as you use schedule pipe, and not thin-wall tubing, you should be okay.

 

ive made two mild steel turbo manifolds, one was schedule pipe ramhorn style mig welded, was a beast. held up good. the other i tried to make out of 14g tubing, i did not support the wastegate and it cracked around the collector. probably would have been ok if i were to make a heim joint for the wg.

both were ceramic coated inside and out

 

I built one and ran it on several road courses and won the SEDIV time trial championships with the setup. Just sold it locally to a kid here in town and expect him to drive it until his wheels fall off.

There is nothing wrong with mild steel. Yes it will rust, big deal, so will the cast Iron manifold from the factory. If you coat it you can get good life out of it. PLus you can build a whole manifold for less than 100$ in material. Now if you are going to be building a bad *** race motor you may want to run something like 321 in a thinwall stainless to keep the weight down, but realize it will have a lifespan.

 

Wich ones were welded w/ a 220 machine?

Any 110s? Any Gas-less?

 

I had a friend ask me to weld his mild turbo header. I told him the deal, since it was .065" tubing. He agreed there was no warranty. 4 years later, one of the wastegate connections cracked, simply because of poor design. Fixed tht for him, braced it up, and he's running low-9's on it and driving it around with his kids.




I still don't recommend it, but with some decent welds, decent design, and coated with ceramic in and out, the results are good for the money. Don't forget, this is tubing.
There are worse ways to try to save money, like welding it for your first project.!!!

 

I made a mess of sch40 mild steel manifolds with a 110v Lincoln 135. Pretty sure none of them ever cracked.

 

I've made tons of sch40 steel manifolds. Never had a single crack or issue. Even with non braced manifolds I did for the baja1000 with 50lb turbos hangin off of them, never an issue. All have been ceramic coated inside and out.

 

I made a mild steel sch40 mig welded front mount turbo manifold that was heat wrapped and never had any issues with it. They just aren't pretty but who cares what they look like.

 

Thanks for all the info guys, i just have always heard mixed thoughts on this issue, but obivously the people who say "it sucks" just plain out never done it before.

now 065 wall tubing....thats about the size of 16 guage steel right? or is this diffrent?



and everyone, schedule pipe<----is this like thick *** pipe? lol and if so where can i find j bends or u bends of this?

again thanks for all the help guys, and post some pics please....if u can so i can get some ideas or wut not.....

 

This is schedule 40 pipe, (stainless) :