Yea so a while back i replaced my turbo. I put in a Stage3 t3/t04 hybrid from bnr. I guess with all the messing around the exhaust manifold decided to want to **** me off. I drove around a while with a nice lawn mower for a while untill I bought another manifold off ebay. It said no cracks! Yet when i had it in my hot little hands I found more cracks on it than my original manifold. I had somone I know tig weld the sucker. It looks like he did a really good job with 4 layers of weld on the crack. Yesterday, in the rain, I switched out my original manifold for the welded one. I drove it around a bit, and the damn manifold was still leaking. I went to an exhaust shop to confirm this. Later that night I started my car again. To my suprise the car was twice as loud as with the original manifold. The guy i know can't weld for crap. Anyways for a couple months now this has been pissing me off. For those months ive been running with hardly any boost. I can tell because my BOV sounds like a hiss instead of the normal chirp. Do you guys have any other suggestions on what it might be, besides the exhaust manifold? Maybe somthing internal?

No more s4 turbo exhaust manifold, they **** me off. Does anyone have a s5 turbo exhaust manifold for my s4 motor? I don't need the stupid twin scroll.

Thanks.

 

Actually, does anyone know of any "Professional" welders who would repair the crack?

 

i don't know about repairing the crack, i'm sure he can, but i do know he can build any turbo exhaust manifold for any car you desire. but he's down here in oly.

 

Not running boost on purpose? Or it's just not boosting? How much boost do you get (please tell me you have some type of boost gage installed)? What type of management system you're operating (hopefully a standalone with a hybrid turbo)?

Welding a manifold is 90% of the time not a good idea. Especially when the guy "can't weld for crap". That should have been your first clue that this is a bad idea. Where was the crack? If you welded a crack on the mating surface, good luck not blowing a gasket within 1000miles. Welding can very easily distort the metal, making a flat surface warped (=blown gaskets often), especially if the guy doesn't know what he is doing. Not properly cleaning the weld area prior to welding will make a weak weld. Hopefully nothing breaks off and flies into your nice expensive turbo. Welding is not something you can easily learn in a day or even a month. It's more of an artform. Especially when you are taking a pre-existing object with flat surfaces, welding it, and keeping the surfaces flat. The cycling thermal stresses that the manifold is under will break the weld very easily if not done right. That's probably why your car sounds twice as bad when you started it up again.

Most manifold cracks are livable with. Finding s S4 or S5 manifold without cracks is almost impossible. My manifold has some cracks but have no effect. Any crack of decent size or that penetrates to the outside, or that is on the surface of the gasket mating area is of concern. How are your gaskets? This is my first bet. Make sure you are using the good quality stainless steel sandwich gaskets. Yes, they are around $65 a piece but are worth it.

Invest $50 for a good manifold and save your $1000 turbo.

http://www.mazdatrix.com/faq/tbcrack.htm

 

If you are going to have it welded again drill holes at the end of the crack(s) then have the guy weld it. even if it is welded the crack could continue that should stop it

 

my 87 TII stopped making boost a little before i wrecked it... it was from the intake gasket going out... u could hear the turbo spool but not feel the power it was giving and not see anything on the boost guage...