No one makes an OTS manifold for my application except for cast and tubular logs. OBX makes one for the F22B which should fit, but... it's OBX. So I've been working on creating my own.

I'm almost half-way through the process and looking for some constructive criticism as well as some answers. Here is a brief photo-timeline starting yesterday.





a




b


c





Concerning wastegate placement, I see that most ramhorn manifolds place it straight out the back of the collector or running a standard 90* bend off the back of the collector.



Is there any issue if I choose to use a tight 90* to bring it out of the side? It would save me a good 3" or so of having the wastegate protruding forward. Is there any downside to my idea?







Also, my welder is concerned about being able to reach between the runners at the base of the collector. Are there any tips or tricks to this? This thing has been a pain in the but to piece together so far because my collector places the runners at such a wide starting angle. How are the collectors welded up when the runners are at an even narrower angle than mine?

 

you mean inside the top of the collector? pull the tungsten wayyy out... the collector will hold argon so you won't have an issue with puddle contamination...

as far as the wastegate, what side will the compressor housing be oriented? if the compressor is on the drivers side, put the wastegate on the pass. side of the manifold.... you'll avoid heat soaking the turbo from the dumptube, as well as potential interference between the wastegate/dumptube and the turbo

 

and given your collector is so wide, where it would normally form a little trough for the argon to settle in, tell your welder to put some heat tape around the outside of the collector where the gaps between runners are... this will ensure proper argon coverage for the extended tungsten

 

Great info, thanks! I'll pass this along to the welder to see what he thinks.

Compressor will be on the passenger side, down pipe on the driver's side. I'd like to use that tight 90 off the side of the collector and mount the WG facing the driver's side with a 90 dropping the dump down parallel with the down pipe.

 

Thanks again!

 

Typical welding techniques for manifolds is pretty simple. Tack it all together completely, fully weld all of the joints that you can get to comfortably, but not the runners connecting the flange or the collector. Then you will break runners off, weld each runner completely as well as the collector by itself.

Finally you put it all back together, and you may have to get a little fancy with your tungsten and gas in order to get to some of the tight spots.

 

I would weld the collector up first, then put your runners back on and weld accordingly.

 

Good stuff! Looking forward to talking this out with the welder.

 

You will be making it worse if you place the wastegate 90 off the side like you plan. Once you bolt the wastegate on its going to stick out farther than having the 90 in front and wastegate off to the side.

 

I was waiting for someone to mention that actually. Regardless of how it's mounted, I should have room, but I'll have to check this weekend with the manifold mocked up. The placement will likely come down to personal preference, so long as there are no drawbacks to either design. I think it will look better with the wg recessed slightly into the manifold rather than hanging off the front, but that's purely my opinion.

 

Looks good for your first attempt. The only thing I can forsee being an issue is maybe the #2 or #3 runners (whichever one it ends up being with your engine layout) will be close to if not hitting your compressor housing, and/or be in the way of the oil feed. I guess mock up will tell later on.

 

Thank you. I also noticed the possible clearance issue with the number 3 runner. I'll check that this weekend when I have the turbo in hand. I completely forgot about the oil feed line. I need to google some images of how others run theirs. Since there's pressure in that line, can I simply run it around the side of the head, over the compressor housing and into the turbo with a 90* fitting?

 

you'll probably want to tell your welder to weld the wastegate runner to the collector before he welds the manifold runners to the collector or he'll have a bitch of a time getting to the wastegate runner if the manifold runners are there first. (if the wastegate runner is coming out from the side)

 

Yea getting to the top of the wastegate outlet with the runners already welded would take some serious creativity.

 

Awesome job for a first timer!

 

nice

 

Maybe I'm thinking like a CRX owner... but you should be mocking up in the engine bay with your turbo on. You could be 1/8" away from a paperweight or a huge headache?

 

Thanks for all the input guys.

2point2, you've got a good point, but in the Accord I have room for days in the front of the bay.

Back to what 91TSiGuy said though, I do in fact have clearance issues with the runners and compressor. I'll post some photos up tonight to show what happened. I think my best bet at this point may be to use a T3 to T3 adaptor with a wastegate output to lower the turbo a couple inches. Ultimately, I think the collector angle was just too wide, and caused the flange to sit too high.

 

Here's what I found.



And here's what I'm considering. Thoughts?

 

im not a pro welder but for your first one it seems to be very well done! good job!

 

can you just use some straight pope and make the collector a litle taller?

 

looks great

 

looks good man but I would personally start over with the runner hitting the compressor housing. what would be pretty easy is just to extend the length of the collector, all you would need is 4 straight pieces to bring down the collector maybe a 1 1/2 inches.

 

The angle of the collector doesn't allow it to be that simple though.



The #1 pieces here for example, are converging towards the collector. If you put straight extensions on the collector, you move the entire runner outwards and it becomes too wide for the ports on the head flange. The only way to correct this is to add more curves than the ~180 degrees that pieces 1 and 2 provide to point piece 3 more inwards. The problem with that is the longer the extensions to the collector, the more angle you need, and the manifold suddenly grows much more complex and much wider to the point that the runners would then interfere with the water next and alt/PS bracket.



It's simply an issue of the collector being too widely angled.

 

On another note, I tried out some alternative mounting methods and found them quite interesting.




I even finished up the number 2 and 3 runners today.




I've been educating myself about MIG welding by reading and watching instructional videos on Youtube. Was able to tack these runners myself using my dad's compact MIG machine.




Thought this was the finished product until I noticed runner #3 was looking kinda weird.


I broke it off and tacked it again with a little adjustment.



Now I've removed the flanges and going to mark the runners/collectors tomorrow before I take it to get welded up. Gonna pass along the advice you guys provided earlier about welding the runners separately, then welding them to the collector. I think I'd like to have the ends of the runners machined after it's all welded together so they're all perfectly flush with the flange. Is that a good idea, or no?