i've posted this before in the forced induction or drag racing section but i didnt get the exact answers i wanted other than people saying ebay brands suk which to me doesnt mean **** cuz you can sell a POS item on ebay and also a top of the line item. basically i had a owner of a shop tell me that i should get a ram horn setup on my car but i told him that i hadnt yet due to them being too expensive. he told me to get the new manifolds that they sell at cxracing which i know sells chinese stuff. he told me that the new manifolds that they have were done by a local welder he knows here in socal and that they for sure arent from taiwan or some ****. i went to go check them out for myself and they are definatly not your average ebay ram horns with thin runners, shitty welds with no beads, and crappy ports. the new manifolds were thicker, heavier, and were actually ported evenly at the collector and the wastegate flange was trully 38mm and not all oblong shaped.

even though they are physcially heavier, thicker, and hand ported i know that that doesnt mean that the manifold is a legit quality piece.

basically what i want to know from you welders and fabricators is

-are the beads on the welds done correctly
-does the actual physical steel material appear to be cheap in metal quality
- is the angle of the wastegate flange correct or does it appear fragile and will crack from daily driving
-are the welds "purged"

HERE is the actual manifold

http://www.cxracing.com/mm5/merchant...gory_Code=HDMF

i know the owners of the warehouse and their willing to sell it to me cheaper especially

 

Can't tell if the welds are purged from the pics, would need to see the inside, my bet is no, because I see grinder work inside the runners.

The beads are eh, again, without being able to see the inside there is no way to tell. Looking pretty on the outside means nothing.

11gauge is in the right direction, but it still looks cheapy chinese metal. Granted, there is certainly more of it. Understand, most manifolds are made out of cast schedule 10 PIPE, not tubing.

Wastegate is not the worst, nor the best I've seen. Also, why it's so long I don't know, and I DESPISE 2 bolt flanges with a passion. They leak, every, single, time.

That's my honest assessment, I don't know if I'd drop $500 bones on one, not to mention the thing just looks really funky.

 

maybe its the light from the taking the photographs, but it still just looks cheap. It does not look like a manifold that would stand up to many heat cycles

 

You can buy a proven quality ramhorn for $200 more, and can you even buy a 2-bolt wastegate anymore? Even the chinese **** is v-band. If it was $250 - $300 I'd say screw it try it out, but when you're only a few beans away from a proven product, save your pennies and get what everyone knows works.

 

Eh... Hard to tell. Buy it and take pics :-P

 

if you want a nice cheap ram horn look for a used nsr tech ram or hit up nate on facebook under nsr-technologies. he sells them brand new for right around that price and they work great and last.

 

i would run that....looks good to me especially for the price...

i have a spark racing mini-ram tubular manifold that everyone said would crack because it's "****"....but it's been on the car since 2004-2005 and i have over 100K daily driven kilometers on it. been to many track/lapping days and hundreds of dyno tuning pulls and over 400whp+.

i guess its all in the install....have a good support brace...and a good flex section in the down pipe.

 

good old cheap knock off manifolds. Seriously i don't even know how you make a ramhorn that bad. It's all deformed looking.

 

the collector looks like it off center as well....

 

A buddy of mine had one for over 2 years. Not one crack, or problem with creap, or anything. No dyno comparison on hp #'s, but it worked well for him. NSR sound like a better route though. If it were too much more money, I'd try my luck with it.