Building my first turbo manifold

[jdxnc]

So after running the car into the bottom 9's on a bolt on turbo, with how fast cars are getting these days, coupled with my competitiveness, I finally decided to make the jump to a large frame turbo. However none of the manifolds that are prebuilt really placed the turbo where I wanted so I though I'd try to tackle it myself. I had most of the tools already, tig welder, grinders, belt sander etc and I think enough welding experience to make it happen.

The only thing I was lacking was a band saw to make nice straight cuts in the stainless tubing so I decided to pick up this Vevor portable band saw with the base, it's a clone of the Milwaukee. I've used it a handfull of times and I can say it does very well for the price. I'm not a shop so I don't need a top dollar saw that will be cutting every day.

You must be logged in to view this image or video.

Next up I ordered a bunch of material to build the

JMF stainless cast divided T4 collector:

You must be logged in to view this image or video.

JMF billet head flange

You must be logged in to view this image or video.

And finally I purchased fifteen 45°, four 90° 304 stainless weld L's and a 4 foot section of straight 304 tubing.

You must be logged in to view this image or video.

Lastly was the turbo. I went with a Turbo Parts Canada 73.9mm class legal turbo for our SuperStreet class here. I've worked with TPC for a number of years with great results and I have no doubts this thing will make some serious jam.

You must be logged in to view this image or video.

Now I have all the pieces, it's onto the fabrication. Earlier this spring I tubed the front end of the car to make room for this huge turbo and also to cut some more weight off the car.

You must be logged in to view this image or video.

Test hanging(literally) where I felt I wanted it.

You must be logged in to view this image or video.

Welding in some temporary supports

You must be logged in to view this image or video.

You must be logged in to view this image or video.

You must be logged in to view this image or video.

Now starting to fit some runners, in hind sight, I should have started with cylinder #1 first and not number 4, as it was the most complicated but nothing is welded solid right now, just very small tacks. I think I did it this way because I had a vision in my head and I wanted some reality to it to validate my vision and this was the quickest way to achieve that.

You must be logged in to view this image or video.

I also had to consider the front wastegate placement here as you can see.

You must be logged in to view this image or video.

Content with the 1st runner, I moved onto the second:

You must be logged in to view this image or video.

You must be logged in to view this image or video.

I did cylinder #1 next and really didn't get much for pictures of it but here you can see I was using a scrap of 1 5/8" chromoly tubing which fits perfectly inside the weld L's to better align my fitment, being scraps, I could cut and join pieces to get the final length before I cut the much more valuable stainless tubing.

You must be logged in to view this image or video.

Final piece in, I had about 3/4" of straight tubing left out of 4 feet after this, I'm so glad I didn't need to recut anything. Measure 6 times and cut once.

You must be logged in to view this image or video.

You must be logged in to view this image or video.

You must be logged in to view this image or video.

Onto the wastegates (Tial 44mm x2), as I said, fitment was tight but I left myself just enough room.

You must be logged in to view this image or video.

You must be logged in to view this image or video.

You must be logged in to view this image or video.

You must be logged in to view this image or video.

Next I started to fab up the downpipe from some 4" 304 stainless tubing, I used a 90, about a foot of straight and 2x 45's. I wanted to use the existing hole in my bumper and not create any new holes. It did require a lot of die grinder use to open the hole up from 3" to 4". It's surprising how much more area 4" is over 3" tubing.

You must be logged in to view this image or video.

You must be logged in to view this image or video.

You must be logged in to view this image or video.

I'm going to wait for when I have the car's belly pan on to run the wastegate exhausts, so I can better know where things need to be.

Now for anyone who hasn't welded stainless, it needs to be back purged with argon so the welds don't "sugar" on the backside, which is contamination of the weld because SS is a reactive metal. Instead of spending about $85 for a purge plug, I whipped up one quickly on my lathe:

You must be logged in to view this image or video.

You must be logged in to view this image or video.

For the other end I just used some good ol' aluminum foil, good enough for this neighborhood.

Now it's time to break the manifold apart at the flanges and weld the runners up completely.

A little wrap of foil on the purge plug made it fit very snug in the tubing

You must be logged in to view this image or video.

You must be logged in to view this image or video.

3 of the 4 runners welded up(I ran out of argon and had to wait to the next day once I got a new bottle)

You must be logged in to view this image or video.

Now starting to weld the runners back into their final positions, starting with the 2 bottom ones first. I have the head flange taped off and am feeding argon into the turbo flange( have foil blocking the entrance into the turbo) while welding up what I can here, trying to get the worst spots first

You must be logged in to view this image or video.

All 4 in now, put some pretty heavy tack on the head flange to hopefully avoid any warping with it solidly bolted to the head.

You must be logged in to view this image or video.

For the final welds I took a scrap head I had and made a way to mount it in the vise on my bench, made a foil seal and mounted the manifold up to where I was able to weld on it in many positions for much easier access. (sadly I never got a picture of the manifold mounted on it)

You must be logged in to view this image or video.

And now onto the final results

You must be logged in to view this image or video.

You must be logged in to view this image or video.

You must be logged in to view this image or video.

You must be logged in to view this image or video.

You must be logged in to view this image or video.

I have a lot more work to do before the first race this year but I couldn't be more ecstatic about how this manifold came out

 

[mikEclipse99]

This turned out freakin killer Jason! I am suuper excited to see how the car does with the new setup

 

[19Eclipse90]

I’m going to ask a stupid question - is the only “science” going into building your own manifold (that’s “your” in the general sense, not “you/your” in particular, Jason) to get the turbo where you want it, take a sensible path, smooth curves, and equal length runners?

I’m never going to do this myself, just curious.

Are you planning on coating or wrapping it?

 

[goonie90gsx]

So sick man can’t wait to see it out ripping!!

 

[jdxnc]

I’m going to ask a stupid question - is the only “science” going into building your own manifold (that’s “your” in the general sense, not “you/your” in particular, Jason) to get the turbo where you want it, take a sensible path, smooth curves, and equal length runners?

I’m never going to do this myself, just curious.

Are you planning on coating or wrapping it?

This turbo I picked is huge compared to the old 64mm TPC unit it replaced and I've never been a fan of typical top mount manifolds, so I found a spot I liked and could work and went with it. It happens to resemble Boostin's manifold quite a lot and if theirs can run 6's, then there's no reason I can't run 8's on a similar setup. One other thing I've been focusing on is ease of working on the car. When it comes to competitive racing, you need to be able to pull things apart and fix stuff in a hurry. This manifold is SUPER easy to remove, every single stud to the head is accessible with power tools. After having it on and off a dozen or more times during the build, I can confidently say I could remove the entire turbo setup in under 10 minutes. So there's no real science per say but there are aspects of it that are tested and proven by others.

 

[1cleangsx]

I wonder if anyone knows how much “more” the turbo may or not flow in an unrestricted forward facing set up compared to say a top mount/standard configuration with a filter? Either way congrats Jason, your a true pioneer/dsm’er in my book, I remember your old stock block fp red videos on YouTube , you’ve certainly come a long way!

 

[erikoberdorfer]

Great job on the header, it looks awesome. Best of luck with the rest of the project!

 

[93xsg]

Damn thats cool man. Gives me inspiration for whats truly possible with cars which is just about anything!