making a turbo manifold for the first time
 

304 stainless steel tubing, mild steel flanges except wastegate (those are stainless)
309 filler rod, all tig welded

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any input? mainly making this for a friend..ill be making another for myself

Excellent so far!

i think i made the first strait part of the tubing too long, its 3 1/2" long then starts the bend, also i need to figure out the wastegate location, i had it all figured out bu since i made the first piece 1.5" too long my wastegate runners are off by a half inch....

Looking good...

thanks elliot :)

interesting..

looks nice man

Nice job! How do you go about making the jig, just by measuring and welding?

i have another manifold that i bought locally, problem was that i needed to run a 1.3" spacer so the turbo cleared the front wastegate, also the wastegates rubbed the tubing a bit, so what i did was this


bolt 2 13b flanges together and weld a nut on the 1 of them, then the one i welded the nut i welded to a piece of 1.5x2" steel tube


removed the other flange and bolted the manifold i have to the new jig. then i added my spacer and another t4 flange and cut some more tubing to locate against my manifold with spacer

once that was done i measured and put the wastegate flanges where i wanted them and welded it in plate

pretty straight forward from there...much respect for people that make amazing manifolds...alot of time goes into making one of these

for this manifold i used 2 90's and 1 U bend, ill make a note of how much 1.5" tubing i used once im done

i think if i make a few of these, ill be buying some iceengine clamps for sure, getting witness marks lined up perfectly is tough to get tacked unless the faces of each tube is perfectly flat to the other one...ie no air gap for tig tack

what gen is this going in?

would u be willing to sell these or custom fab for others?

i might need a custom mani, and idk if i want to tackle it...

this is going into a 2nd gen, i wouldnt have a problem selling them, im still learning, and still learning to tig weld..obviously not too bad at it :)

for your custom manifold i would love to tackle it..what did you have in mind?

well, its a tough one, and i havent completely committed to it yet or found out if it will work or not.

i am planning a 13b fc3s s5 TII swap in my 92 b2600i 2wd pickup that is airbagged and bodydropped to the rockers. it lays frame, and i have swapped my steering to rhd minus the steering box which i am still trying to source.

i have been told i am retarded fof going rhd, or atleast trying to go rhd, but i think it can be done.

the mounts i have found put the mani coming out right at the frame rails, so i am going to need something custom to clear them and also the steering column.

my brake setup is custom. no brake booster and my m/c and clutch m/c will be mounted 180 degrees on the inside of my cab firewall. i have performed a complete firewall shave on the truck using a piece of sheetmetal(no holes, no wires, no clutch or brake lines visible).

so ya, that would be what u have to work with. if the rhd is not doable, then i will ditch it, but i would like to give it a reasonable shot ya know?

i have done a bit of research and am still looking for the right engine. hopefully i can find one within the next week and get it here soon. but i have been looking at them and i dont see why i wouldnt be able to make the rhd work.

so any ideas or whatever u think, hit me back, and lemme know if u wanna tackle that project or not. i will run the stock turbo if that makes a difference on price or whatever...

sounds like an awesome project!! anything can be done with time and money :)

you can always mount the turbo ahead of the engine turned at an angle so the downpipe will be headed towards the corner of the engine bay then route down and to the back if that makes any sense...

how i can come into play and help im not so sure, i mean there are a few ideas i have that can get you going but that would requite you to weld me a simple fixture that has the location points of the header flange and turbo flange, then you would just box it up and mail it to me...can be made with scrap tubing and a 13b flange/turbo flange

to me that seems the easiest way since im so far from you...have any other ideas?

its either that or take it somehwre local here..

my buddy has a tubing bender, so thats not a problem to mock something up. i was thinking the same thing to bring the turbo up front also since there will be tons of room up there..

you dont really need a tubing bender...just bolt the 13b flange to the engine, then bolt the turbo flange to the turbo, have some people help you hold the turbo where you want it (keeping in mind the actual tubing that i have to weld has to be around 18" or less).

just weld a square or round tube straight from the turbo to the flange etc...ill see if i can find a picture or when i mock up one for the other car ill take a picture :) all you would have to do is mail what you made to me and i will know the start/finish locations and can fabricate the tubing from there!

ok, what kind of price we talking here?

that shouldnt be too bad. i could do that

well im still learning so welds wont be flawless pretty looking obviously....welding stainless steel is hard for me

materials and consumables are about $400 right off the bat, figure another 400 for labor isnt bad at all, lots and lots of time goes into it :)

k. ive never tried to weld stainless lol.

ill let u know what i decide when i actually get the engine alright?

that looks amazing..

thanks :)

Curious, did you purge the tubes while you were welding them? With the amount of heat that those things see and stress from the weight of the turbo, they can fail easier.

Also with a turbo that size, do you plan on maybe adding some bracing to it?

Its funny how many people have no idea how much time goes into making one.

Keep in mind that smaller wall tubing also cuts fab time in half, the time spent cutting, grinding and fitting is greatly reduced. Heavy wall stuff adds a lot more time. Also merging two more pipes together for a single waste-gate is usually the hardest part of making a manifold. I love when people order twin wastegate manifolds. Makes life easy.

Try this on for size if you really want a challenge; single waste-gate with a divider going up to the waste-gate valve.

sorry ive been away for a bit, laptop died...

yes i purge the backside of the welds with argon.

i havent tried the heavy wall stuff yet, dont really think id want to anyways....seems like the stuff im using is more than good enough, lighter weight, smoother bends, etc....less welds the better i would think :)

I've got a question about the piping. It looks like everyone makes these tubular manifolds with two pipes going from the engine flange to the turbo flange.

Why (or why not) doesn't anyone merge into a single, larger pipe immediately after the engine flange. Then just have this single pipe mate to the turbo flange. Wouldn't this simplify the construction process?