Ok, me being the welder I'm going to settle this....


Yes there are gaps, noted. But comming from someone who as far as I know has no experience in the feild of pipe fitting I think he did a pretty damn good job. I did his last manifold and there where gaps also, but when I welded it I made the necessary corrections. I will build a heavy duty jig, mostly made of 3/8" plate or thicker, that will hold and locate the flange locations as well as give support for the runners and keep them in the necessary locations. Then I break each runner free, weld off the collector, weld each runner, stress relieve it in an oven, then refit them to the head and collector. when it's all said and done there will no longer be any gaps, and the welds will be nice and purdy like they should be. A little more work? Not really, It's no different than when I build a "ram-horn" or a "top-mount" manifold for a B-series honda for somebody thats located in southern florida when I'm sitting on my ass drinkin a beer at my welding bench in mid-eastern wisconsin. Mike can't tig weld yet, but I'm sure he will be someday. If not then oh well. All of us here that have built our own manifolds know that fitment is the hardest part of the whole process, but we need to remember that everybody has to start somewhere. You never remember anything better than a big mistake. And the only way to get it right is to practice practice practice. Besides, its only a turbo manifold. If it was a 17,000 psi hydraulic line like the one I just patched up this morning then it would be a different story. But at least he's only in ohio, It's not like Vancouver B.C. where they take 3 days to x-ray your shit and send it back and I need to find something to do for the next two...



edit: I know most of you are probably messin wit mike and I'm expectin someone to give me shit about what I said. But when it comes to welding and fabrication I don't care to joke around- so this was mostly for future readers that someday dig this post out of the depths by way of the search button...

Creative thinking? Ingenuity? Hell, It's just an obsession!



99 Eclipse GS turbo: MSpowered, everything custom built, 223.8 HP-199.8 TQ @8psi through auto-tranny. The first time around...