Forced Performance Manifold Group Buy #2

[Evan K.]

Came across this thread on Monday evening and placed my order. Amber called Tuesday afternoon, took my info and shipped the manifold. I got it today (Fri.). Awesome service. Thanks Robert and the FP crew.

[esoung]

Originally Posted by Ludachris

Wish I would have had the bronze coating option... oh well. What's the temp ratings for the coatings anyway?

2000 degree F

[Artago]

Originally Posted by projecTSI

Robert, any news on heat shields for these manifolds?

And just for kicks, here is a pic of my FP mani bolted up to my HX40

SWEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEET.... ARGH *DROOL*

[Jst4Cyl]

Originally Posted by Jst4Cyl

Well I bit the bullet and bought a black coated one....I'll try to get pics up by this weekend.... I got a whole new setup going on the car so I'm excited to see how it's going to look...

Here are a couple pics of my current setup...

[Gamble97]

What turbo is that? looks like mine.

[pboglio]

Originally Posted by prophecymiller

Now that some more people have them...can we hear about the performance???!!! Also I hear they make the car sound different and kind of more pulsey??? Any possibility that you gentleman can get us a vid so we can hear it at idle and wot?

Got mine thursday, installed it this morning. Previously my setup had a T28 with a 2g ported exhaust manifold, 6cm port job only. I noted I had a minor exhaust leak near the manifold on the outer runner during disassembly. That setup I had no problems getting the car to squat hard in 2nd & 3rd gears right around 3700-4000 rpm. I was getting 7 psi of boost at 2700 rpm, 21 psi at 3400 rpm, so my turbo is a little laggy for what it is but my FMIC ain't helping that out. Peak h.p./torque readings via DSMLINK were 323 h.p. @ 6000 rpm and 292 lb ft @ 5750 rpm in 2nd gear on my run last week.

Heat retention: Now, I slapped the FP manifold on. Idled the car for a while, and the first thing I notice is that the coating is actually keeping the manifold as cool as the 02 housing with its heat shield, I measured 140* temps .5" away from the surface of both locations during idle. After 10 minutes of WOT driving, both temps measured 190*F 0.5" away from the radiating surfaces. So the manifold is no hotter than the 02 housing/shield.

Weight: Fp manifold weighs 11 lbs. 2g manifold weighs 11 lbs. Zip difference.

Sound: The FP manifold has kind of a higher pitch sound to it near WOT 5500 rpm or so, sounds like a race car & sorta cammy sounding. It doesn't sound like a DSM at WOT anymore. Instead of the loud roar from the 3" catback, now you can hear that high pitch cam "barking" sound coming from the motor itself. I'm gonna go out on a limb and say it sounds more ferrari/porsche like as you go above 5500 rpm

Looks: The fit and finish are pretty damned good. This provides some major "race car" looking bling to the engine compartment, big thumbs up

Spoolup: Spoolup is totally unaffected, no improvement whatsoever. 2g manifolds with a good port job can spool a turbo very quickly. I hoped for improvements in spool but none were there.

Power: Midrange has flattened a bit and its noticeable. Instead of a big hit of torque that squats the rearend hard, its milder and you notice more the 6000-7000 rpm pull. I did have to port my turbine housing from 6cm to 7cm to match the FP manifold. I registered a peak h.p. of 310 h.p. @6000 rpm and 282 lb ft @ 5250 rpm, all measured in 2nd gear so the torque values are gonna look a little low when compared to a 3rd gear pull. Basically I'm down about 13 h.p. and 10 lb ft, though it feels like more of a loss

This was basically just slapping the manifold on with NO retuning. This kind of thing happened when I installed my FMIC years ago, the car datalogged slower initially, then retunning picked all the power back up plus a lot more. Same thing happened on my fuel pump rewire, my car lost HUGE amounts of power, retunning gained it all back. Looks like I'm gonna need about a 30 h.p. improvement from retunning to fully utilize the manifold if I can honestly say the manifold is worth the money. To be honest, if I get back to stock power levels I'll be kind of happy.

So, to recap:

Heat retention = stock
Weight = stock
Sound = great
Looks = great
Spoolup = stock
Power = less power

[blcknspo0ln]

How and by what are you tuning with?

[pboglio]

Tuning with DSMLINK, HKS VPC, HKS GCC.

Update: Took the car back out, didn't want to believe this thing isn't making the power it should be. I leave my datalogger on the seat disconnected as SOTP is the only thing that matters to me for street driving. I added just 1% fuel back @ 4000 rpm. The midrange usually hits much harder and sharper when I add fuel in this range, it doesn't like it lean here for some reason.

I get on it a few and this time the knock light ISN'T coming on. Rolling into the throttle in the midrange feels real good, not fantastic, but real good. Car is squating moderately hard but now the nice thing is the 6000-7000 rpm range "feels" like its ripping faster there. I haven't noticed any boost gains but I wasn't checking for it either.

Now, I also also notice part throttle response is much better and the car doesn't bog when I plant the throttle. I attribute at least part of this to fixing my exhaust manifold/head leak at the gasket. Car pulls off the line at part throttle tons better than before, spoolup is the same for some reason though. Added bonus is that my car is TONS quieter at WOT now due to the exhaust leak being fixed. I was getting really tired having my car sound like a beater at WOT.

Looks like I need some better fuel, this 92 octane on this tank full knocks a whole lot more than my usual 93 octane. I think adding a little more fuel in the midrange, getting rid of the knock completely, and seeing if the manifold will allow the motor to up the boost a little more I should see the gains I'm expecting from this manifold. I noted on a previous run 1-2 weeks ago that 4* of timing retard dropped my power by 30 h.p. right smack dab in the middle of a WOT pull.

[pboglio]

Just came back from another boot. Ran across my neighbor with his 427 Shelby Cobra replica. Says he's running a 351 punched stroked out to 392 cubic inches. Saw him coming up on me a block behind and I gunned it as it was inevitable we were going bump into each on the highway. He basically was able to pace behind but wasn't closing the gap.

Anyhow, he stopped over my house and we chatted a bit. He was pretty impressed and said, "That thing sounds like a Formula 1 car". So I'd have to say the FP manifold definitely made the car sound way the hell better, and coming from a guy driving a cobra which sounds down right evil, thats a compliment. Cheers

[UofACATS]

[quote=Gamble97;151244890]Mine, after 5 minutes of driving. So is this what happens to the manifold if they are coated, or does this happen to both coated and non coated?)[quote]

(deleted pic) Not sure if you're happy or upset w/ the look, but I think it looks great As for your question, I think, once more, that that's quite obviously non-coated. I don't have mine yet, so I am just calling it how I see it. *shrug

[UofACATS]

Originally Posted by pboglio

Got mine thursday, installed it this morning. Previously my setup had a T28 with a 2g ported exhaust manifold, 6cm port job only. I noted I had a minor exhaust leak near the manifold on the outer runner during disassembly. That setup I had no problems getting the car to squat hard in 2nd & 3rd gears right around 3700-4000 rpm. I was getting 7 psi of boost at 2700 rpm, 21 psi at 3400 rpm, so my turbo is a little laggy for what it is but my FMIC ain't helping that out. Peak h.p./torque readings via DSMLINK were 323 h.p. @ 6000 rpm and 292 lb ft @ 5750 rpm in 2nd gear on my run last week.


Weight: Fp manifold weighs 11 lbs. 2g manifold weighs 11 lbs. Zip difference.

Spoolup: Spoolup is totally unaffected, no improvement whatsoever. 2g manifolds with a good port job can spool a turbo very quickly. I hoped for improvements in spool but none were there.

Power: Midrange has flattened a bit and its noticeable. Instead of a big hit of torque that squats the rearend hard, its milder and you notice more the 6000-7000 rpm pull. I did have to port my turbine housing from 6cm to 7cm to match the FP manifold. I registered a peak h.p. of 310 h.p. @6000 rpm and 282 lb ft @ 5250 rpm, all measured in 2nd gear so the torque values are gonna look a little low when compared to a 3rd gear pull. Basically I'm down about 13 h.p. and 10 lb ft, though it feels like more of a loss

THANK YOU for the review, the first real one I've seen.

My thoughts/expectations of the manifold (that i'll receive next week)

Spoolup: It's not going to spool faster. FP basically said this when they stated testing showed the evo3 manifold showing higher boost at a low,low RPM. They also said they don't care. I happen to agree. In my opinion, shorter, more direct, turbulant manis spool turbos slightly faster. I have nothing to back up my theory/opinion if anyone cares to have me "prove" it I cant. This turbulance will start showing when the RPM get high enough, and start to hurt power. This is where the FP mani will outperform the stocker. I know we only have one review to go off, but this holds true at least in one example.

You ported your manifold right? That would make it weigh less. Also, FP is comparing the weight to an evo3 mani, not a stock 2G, ported or otherwise.

One more semi-revelant idea, then I'll shut up. I've often read of mild cars upgrading from the T25 to an evo3 and complaining of less power. Then, others respond saying they didn't lose power, but the torque "hit" just dissapeared. This results in the butt dyno regestering a power loss because of the "feel" that's no longer there, but here it looks like DSMlink says otherwise. Interesesting. Also, I'm not lumping you in with my t25 guys example, I know your a respected dsmer Just interesting, good first data available i'm quite interested in because I run the BigT28 as well. I know my turbo hits "hard," so I almost* know the feeling you're describing (*i'm fwd).

Will you post the DSMlink logs?

THANKS again for the review

[bling5tatus]

Hey guys, remember that they said the 3065 housing that they were selling with the exh manifold weighed a lot less than whatever other housing was similar, so it said the weight savings were from the exhaust housing being different/lighter.... and I just checked their website and it doesn't claim the mani is lighter in the description.

[blcknspo0ln]

nono, even if the first post by Rob on the first page stats that the weight savings from an FP race mani + FP turbine housing is x amount of weight lighter than a evo manifold and mitsu housing.

[Gamble97]

[quote=UofACATS;151245371][quote=Gamble97;151244890]Mine, after 5 minutes of driving. So is this what happens to the manifold if they are coated, or does this happen to both coated and non coated?)

(deleted pic) Not sure if you're happy or upset w/ the look, but I think it looks great As for your question, I think, once more, that that's quite obviously non-coated. I don't have mine yet, so I am just calling it how I see it. *shrug

I am happy with it. I can't get the full effect until I fix the leak. It looks cool though.

[bling5tatus]

Originally Posted by blcknspo0ln

nono, even if the first post by Rob on the first page stats that the weight savings from an FP race mani + FP turbine housing is x amount of weight lighter than a evo manifold and mitsu housing.

so are you agreeing? I cannot tell.

[UofACATS]

Originally Posted by bling5tatus

so are you agreeing? I cannot tell.

What blcknspo0ln was saying was "read the first post in the thread you're currently typing in" FP compares the weight of their manifold to that of an evo3 manifold.

Originally Posted by bling5tatus

Hey guys, .... and I just checked their website and it doesn't claim the mani is lighter in the description.

You are correct, sir.

[marcmsj]

I'm curious to find out what this thing is gonna sound like with my O2 dump

[UofACATS]

Sound clip, yes please