Turbine Housing Hitting the Lower Intake Manifold
 

Hey guys, as the title states, my turbine housing is hitting the lower intake manifold. Godspeed GT-45R with eBay tubular manifold I bought off a member on here. It looks as if the manifold needs to be spaces out about half an inch. Could I buy a header flange from Racing Beat and use this as a spacer to space out the manifold? I could grind small amounts away and gain some clearance but defiantly wont be enough. I was also considering heating the manifold and bending it a little to gain my clearance. What's the thoughts on this? I can post pictures later too. Thanks for the help!


Btw: This is not a post to tell me that "It's ebay junk, throw it away" because frankly, I don't care. Anytime somebody seems to post questions like this it just becomes a troll fest of people talking trash about parts that they have never tried before. So please, keep those opinions to yourself.

These are the pics. You can see how far forward the manifold places the turbo. I am doing all of this myself so I had no way to take a pic of the turbo held in place to see the clearance issues but you might be able to see the marks on my intake manifold where it was rubbing while I was test fitting.

You could try the RB flange with 2 gaskets, but that's just another point to leak. You'll also have to get longer manifold studs. If I were you, I'd get a proper T4 flange, chop the old one off, extend the runners a little, then weld the new flange on.

Or you wouldn't even need to chop it off, just weld the right flange to the old flange.

I was considering doing that. The problem is, since the intake manifold sticks out further the further up it goes, if your raise the turbo by adding another flange, it could make the problem worst. My idea was to grind down the side closes to you in the pic to make it angled then weld another flange on top of that one and do the same to angle the turbine housing outwards. Think that may too much stress on the manifold though?

My exhaust studs seem to be plenty long enough to add a half in thick flange between the exhausting exhaust and the block. If I did this, I would make a brace to help keep stress off the studs

have you tried another Turbo flange?
if you put another t4 type flange between the turbo flange and the turbo do you think it would raise the turbo up enough to clear everything?
It would be pushing it out instead of up due to the angle.

I haven't bought a flange yet to try that but I did hold the turbo up ~ 1/2" to check if that would work and from what I saw, it would make the problem worst but like I said, it wasn't with a true 1/2" flange in there though so maybe it would work

Maybe a little grinding here and there combined with spacing the turbo slightly out will get it to fit.

Sounds like you have a manifold for an FD, because there lower intake manifold sits a little higher and gives more room for turbo stuff.


Edit: after looking more at your pictures it looks like you would be best to space it off with a flange at the block. And depending on much you need to space it you might have to build a spacer manifold. ie: turbo racing beat flanges and weld some exhaust pipe inbetween to bolt to the engine then bolt the manifold to the spacer.

This is correct, that manifold isn't meant to be used with FC3S intake manifolds.

Why not just buy another chinese manifold thats intended to work with your engine? They are only around 120 bucks new.

Why not just cut the flange off the manifold and weld in and extension pipe from the manifold to the flange if your goin to keep that manifold? No spacers or extra gaskets needed...

...

What turbine size housing are you using?

I had the same issue (on a totally different setup). At the time, I had a 1.0 turbine housing, and by going to the next smallest size, the issue would've been fixed. I ended up making one of these with two divided flanges. Both flanges were at an angle (offset), and problem solved:

https://www.rx7club.com/attachments/...bo-adapter-jpg

EDIT - Found pics of the custom spacer, they are found on post #29:
https://www.rx7club.com/single-turbo...2/#post6680132

^^^^This may be what i need to do. The turbine housing is 1.00 and .70 compressor housing

I have experience putting a 1.15 A/R with a 6 port N/A intake manifold. When I first started working on Turbo N/A blocks I would space the turbocharger out with a stack of divided T4 flanges. I am in Lowville area, cool to see this build locally. I can build the part you need at my shop here.

Cool to see someone else around here! There is a guy in Watertown with an FC too that I bought my housings from. This is a 6 port but with turbo intake manifolds. I can build the part, I just have to get some stainless wire for the welder. Not cheap.... Lol

How did they 1.15 A/R work? I'm running 1.00 turbine and .70 compressor

Client wanted more spool. We dropped down to .84 a/r. I like the bigger housing because it allows the engine to expel more heat. I dislike the bigger housings because the lag is not worth the result. Not until you start maxing out 4000cc worth of fuel do the bigger housings shine.

What engine management system are you running?

Not sure yet. Probably Megasquirt

cut off the crap ebay manifold flange and weld on a quality T4 one at a slightly less raked angle.

and less than a .96A/R hotside won't gain you much spool, that is the happy median point for these engines to where they are just beginning to run unrestricted. if your turbo is laggy then you need a better turbo or more compression, not a smaller hotside.

stick a finger in one of your nostrils and note breathing is more difficult with just one but the same amount of air is entering and exiting. now you see the point and also that i got you to stick your finger up your nose. ;)

^^^ So what makes it crap?....

It is a turbo N/A so 6 port and 9.4 rotors. I'm in the process of doing a Pineapple Racing Aggressive Street port (just the exhaust left to do, and it really, really sucks to do....) so I would imagine I got the compression and flow down

Look at the shape of it compared to a real T4 flange. The D-shaped ports, the itty bitty divider in the middle... that's why it's no good. Just saw it off and weld on an better flange. And like he said, weld it at less of an angle so the housing won't hit and you'll be in business.

The little divider in the center will allow the turbo flange gasket to burn out almost as soon as the engine starts for the first time. Then the divider won't even be effective.

low grade stainless steel, cracks.

don't get me wrong, i install quite a few of them but they are always plug and play units. in short, once they break you buy another for $100 and swap it. but yours will have to be modified, so it is just going to cause you headaches. if it was my car i would do as i said, but i do my own welding, if you're paying someone to modify/repair it each time it would be better to have one made for your setup.

it looks like it already has a year of use, so you may have another year or 2 left before those problems start cropping up.

my point is it seems like you're tripping over a dollar to pick up the dime. sometimes cutting corners doesn't save you a dollar at the end of the day.

Pics of Finger in Nostril....

^^^^ That's hardcore.....


I do my own welding as well so modifying it is no big deal. I would build a complete manifold but don't have a way to bend the tubing and cannot afford a $600 manifold.

Am I going to have issues with the turbo hitting the body or strut tower at all? I won't have the motor done for another month or so to test fit stuff so I would like to get the manifold welded while I am waiting for some spare change for the rest of my rebuild kit.

If you can weld, just go with the type of spacer that I posted. With it, you can custom make it so that the housing doesnt hit the manifold nor the frame/strut tower. An added benefit is that whenever you replace your manifold, you wont have to cut it and reweld it.

What rectangular tube did you use between the flanges?


This btw, is my Cherokee. This kinds shows some of my welding.... Built a new unibody frame in the back, boxed in the "bed" and 4 link rear end. Was my daily driver too until more computer issues. Now I'm tracking down a small block chevy and 700R4 transmission for it and 1 ton axles...

The tan was before it was finished hint the raw steel bed and such. The blue and silver is as it sits now.