DO NOT BUY:Ebay exhaust manifolds!

[MyÜberFastGSX]

I almost made a the huge mistake of bolting an ebay tubular header to my new 6 bolt build.

I ordered for $150 shipped from some garbage company out of california. When I told my friend about the "good deal" I got, he told me his story.

He bought one for his supra that's running 800+whp. And there are all kinds of metal shards that break off on the inside that go through and destroy your turbo, rings, pistons, piston walls, and therefor the block. He knows because that was the one part that he tried to save a few dollars on, when doing his $35k+ Supra build.

So the point of the story is, you pay for what you get, period. Luckily, I was able to cancel my order before it shipped, and pay the stupid cancelation fee and save myself a big headache.

EBAY!

 

[Cs4g63]

What manifold was it? And what company?

 

[daren_p]

The part that confusses me is if your friend was building an 800 hp, 35K+ Supra why the hell would he put on a crappy Ebay kncok off mani? Tubular mani's are already known to have issues with trying to get them to stay together on a street car & this includes some of the expensive ones as well. If he was spending all that money he should have known better. I could possibly see turbo damage from pieces of the mani breaking off internally but motor damage, that Im not too sure about (only time exhaust valves are open, the cylinder is under pressure & forcing exhaust gases out).

 

[romeen]

How would any metal fragments from the exhaust manifold get sucked back into the combustion chamber? I'm not doubting your friends description of a poor quality manifold but any loose fragment would only affect the turbine, possibly O2 sensor, cat.

 

[1g_tsi_awd]

I was puzzled as well...

 

[xioca]

I don't see the harm in the manifolds. I mean just make sure that there is no weld slag on the inside and the welds are decent. Cusom brace the thing and your set. Worst comes to worse you crack it, but all you'll have is an exhaust leak.

 

[AWDfrank]

I too want to know the company...

I was going to get the ss autochrome manifold but decided to go with a 2g instead.

I am gettign the ssautochrome o2 dump though! Ordering tonight.

 

[Cs4g63]

Knowing the name of the company would allow people that have bought stuff from the same company to either agree that yes their products are junk and no one should get anything from them or that they dont agree and this guy just was unlucky.

 

[king_of_HTX]

WOW... your friend owns a 800+hp supra and purchased a exhaust manifold off ebay... He should sell that car to me so that it can receive the quality parts it deserves :-/

 

[1g_tsi_awd]

Hahaha. The only difference between a 600hp supra and a 1000hp supra is .1 sec in the 1/4... Kidddding... But if he wants to give it to me, I will sell it to someone that will give it a good home and buy an evo...

 

[Talesin]

Thirded... how the hell are shavings/pieces of the exhaust manifold going to get into the intake, much less the combustion chamber. I mean, maybe if he was an idiot and was running without a filter, and the manifold grenaded somehow... other than that, all you have to worry about is the exhaust housing, wastegate, O2 housing, downpipe, cat and cat-back. And the last three (o2 sensor itself aside) are kinda hard to screw up thanks to a few metal shavings.

Personally I'd probably grab one and when (not if) it cracked, get a buddy with a TIG welder and mandrel bender to just use the exhaust runner flange and collector, and build me an equal length runner unit, and make the welds bulletproof as possible. A few hundred bucks, but worth it.

 

[VanIsleDSM]

I don't have any experience TIG welding stainless... but I have recently started playing around with an older arc welder on stainless...

I do have a decent amount of experience with mild steel and a good ol' stick welder makes the strongest manual weld possible.. with the most penetration.. I think it would be a better way to weld a stainless manifold.. though it wouldn't look quite as nice..

I work on high pressure gas and oil pipeline construction... 24"-48" steel pipe.. when testing welds before each job a hydraulic machine rips apart the pipe.. if the weld is good the pipe will break before the weld..

something to think about anyway..

 

[Low Impedance]

the exhaust gas reversion would have to be INSANE to the point the car cant run inorder that to happen. Exhaust gas DOES get back into the intake but only brief and not with much force. Any "shards" or dust would get blown out through the turbo immediately anyway. Sounds like he blew a motor with junk tuning and tried scapegoating the turbo manifold to not sound like a moron.

short version: your friend is full of it.

 

[phillabaum03]

I got the SSAUTOCHROME ebay manifold and it looks pretty good. I checked all up in the manifold and i dont see where anything could come lose and destroy my motor.. I have 4 friends also running the same manifold and 1 of them had a small crack that he easily welded back up and have had no problems with it.

 

[gsx951]

Thirded... how the hell are shavings/pieces of the exhaust manifold going to get into the intake, much less the combustion chamber. I mean, maybe if he was an idiot and was running without a filter, and the manifold grenaded somehow... other than that, all you have to worry about is the exhaust housing, wastegate, O2 housing, downpipe, cat and cat-back. And the last three (o2 sensor itself aside) are kinda hard to screw up thanks to a few metal shavings.

Personally I'd probably grab one and when (not if) it cracked, get a buddy with a TIG welder and mandrel bender to just use the exhaust runner flange and collector, and build me an equal length runner unit, and make the welds bulletproof as possible. A few hundred bucks, but worth it.

If this is something that you want to do, there are plenty of places to buy flanges. RRE comes to mind and Ron Shearer sells collectors.
Good luck in getting a friend to bend this stuff for you though. Tooling on a mandrel bender is specific to the job; tube diameter, wall thickness and desired centerline radius.
If you want a nice bent tube that is one piece, you are looking at compound or special clamps that are huge money ($5,000 on average, which does not include a mandrel, radius die or wiper die!).
Most stuff like this is built from weld "EL'S" that are .110" wall 304 stainless and pieced together.
Good thing is, the weld el's work great and are very strong but it will cost you a couple of hundred bucks in materials .
www.mcmaster.com is a good place to start (but not the cheapest.)

 

[gsx951]

I don't have any experience TIG welding stainless... but I have recently started playing around with an older arc welder on stainless...

I do have a decent amount of experience with mild steel and a good ol' stick welder makes the strongest manual weld possible.. with the most penetration.. I think it would be a better way to weld a stainless manifold.. though it wouldn't look quite as nice..

I work on high pressure gas and oil pipeline construction... 24"-48" steel pipe.. when testing welds before each job a hydraulic machine rips apart the pipe.. if the weld is good the pipe will break before the weld..

something to think about anyway..

The material normally used in turbo header construction is .110" wall stainless and really welds up nicely with TIG process.
You just do not have the precise control with a stick welder to do a good job.
Plus in normal pipe welding, you are running beads in a prepared groove. Here the flux is enough to shield the weld but on a header, the contruction is open and you are almost certain to contaminate the welds. Pipe welders also use backing rings to align and protect the root from atmospheric contamination, where header constructors will tack and use argon gas to purge or "back gas" the tubes.
In short, the smaller tubes require a different process.

 

[gsxtacy]

Sounds like a few people have been known to stack quarters.

Due to the complexity/cost of material, its a endeavor I don't get into very often.

I am a good old fashion Cast Iron Manifold lover...

 

[DSMunknown]

DO NOT BUY:Ebay exhaust manifolds!

You didn't have to tell me - not even once.

 

[MyÜberFastGSX]

Yea, I just went ahead and shelled out $170 for an EVO mani. Then had it ported, and welded the WG flange on.

Much, Much, Better decision.

 

[92awddsm]

First off, if you had searched "ebay manifold" or "ssautochrome", you would have found numerous threads on the same subject. Remeber, before making a purchase, research.

And it is possible for a supra to have debris fall back into the exhaust ports when using a top mount manifold. Right before the exhaust valve closes, valve overlap can cause exhaust reversion which is basically a negative pressure pulse in the exhaust port that pulls some exhaust and contaminates back into the combustion chamber. Very possible to have slag and debris reenter the combustion chamber during overlap.

 

[Low Impedance]

that would only come from the head flange welds though. so if your super paraniod about it, grind down anything suspicious.

 

[xioca]

I thought about making a tube mani before, but with my experiance I bet the ssautchrome one would be of higher quality for less.

 

[Low Impedance]

if you notice they tend to have tubes that are not welded in sections? CNC mandrel bending most likely. This is way they are cheap. They mass produce them overseas in a machine shop with some nice items. They pump out the tubes, then pay Chin Hong to weld them to the flanges. Much cheaper then crafting them from tube sections.

 

[MyÜberFastGSX]

Exactly

 

[Low Impedance]

Exactly

technically speaking the methods they use are superior but they just use cheaper materials and labor so it becomes moot. then again i will be using one, seeing no one makes a good tubular for a stock type turbo.