SBR Cast Manifold

[JusMX141]

Jeeze, your friend should definitly call SBR. They should be able to help your friend out. Despite what a lot of people say on the forums Slowboy is a good shop and I've had nothing but good experience with their service and parts. I'm sure they'll replace it, or give him a credit towards something else

He did, and there was someone there who was supposed to give him a new one- but apparently they recently quit or something so now he's screwed. That's how I ended up with the manifold at my shop, and I wanted to get some pics posted on here so no one elses buys any of these pieces of sh!t. It's in my scrap pile as we speak.

He hates to raise a big stink and piss anyone off at their shop because he's always selling them block and head cores, and they pay top dollar. It's tough to bite the hand that feeds you.

 

[projecTSI]

WOW. That makes me glad I sold my SBR mani and bought a FP one. I have never seen a cast mani crack completely apart like that.

 

[ZenkaiRacerDsM]

Looks like the motor was rocking a shitload on launch and during shifts. Also looks like he probably didnt have a flex section on the dp or exhaust.

 

[DGajre777]

DAMN! I've never seen that before.

 

[RipperXX]

The new SBR manifolds are great, and you definately can't beat the price. It will out live any tubular manifold and works better than any ported 2g or Evo III manifold.

How much better would you guess this and or a FP race manifold would outflow a Evo III manifold?

 

[Slowboy]

#1) First I have heard of this.

#2) Not one of these manifolds ever cracked where you say your started.

#3) If this happened at my local track, I am sure I would have heard about this since two of my employees work there.

#4) This would not make your car "shut off immeadiatley".

I call BS - but if this did happen - I need to see it - thats kinda bad ass.

I also need to know who's manifold this is so I can get an accurate time frame to see if it was one of the few old versions that was not replaced with a new one. - [email protected]

Mike Huml
Slowboy

 

[JusMX141]

Think what you want, it really happened.

So none of the manifolds cracked where this one did....does that mean they all crack like this: http://www.dsmtuners.com/forums/showthread.php?t=264527

Either way, you still have a bunch of manifolds cracking with very low miles on them which sounds to me like there's a run of bad manifolds or castings out there that should be addressed. I'm not sure if it's an old casting or not because my buddy bought the turbo/manifold/wastegate setup used with very low miles on it from someone who might've been an employee of Slowboy, but I'm not sure. You'd have to speak to the owner on that one.

The car has a flex section on the 3" down pipe FOR SURE, and I'm also sure the car either has upgraded motor mounts or filled stock mounts- so excessive trans/engine movement is out of the question. I believe the manifold gave out simply because it couldn't handle the weight of the turbo, wastegate, o2 housing, dump tube, and downpipe.

I might've worded it a bit wrong saying the car "shut off immediately." He let off after the run was over, and soon heard a loud sound from the engine bay. He thought a piece of the intercooler piping had blown off and he ran it over or something because after this happened the car seemed powerless. He turned the car off quickly, thinking it was something internal. He didn't really attract much attention, even once the car was loaded onto the trailer, so I don't think this would've spread among the track employees enough to get to one of your personnel.

Again, don't think I'm bashing Slowboy Racing in any way....I've done business with Slowboy on plenty of occasions and I've always been satisfied with the products and service. This is just one of those exceptions that I felt other DSMer's should know about before they drop a couple hundred on a new manifold.

Since you seem so interested, I'll dig the pieces out of my scrap pile and give them to my buddy the next time he comes up to buy some parts so you can see for yourself.

 

[bpestilence]

Where are the rest of the pieces? I don't want to call BS, but the odds of a casting fracturing in that many spots at the same time are very low.

 

[Jon Lane]

#1) First I have heard of this.

You can understand how your employee really should have said something. You may want to contact the guy and have a brief chat.

#2) Not one of these manifolds ever cracked where you say your started.

It looks like a believable story to me, one I know I'd be interested in if I sold that part.

#3) If this happened at my local track, I am sure I would have heard about this since two of my employees work there.

I guess you don't believe customer after all.

#4) This would not make your car "shut off immeadiatley".

True. But if it were me, I might be "immeadiatley" wondering what having a lose turbo flopping around at 125mph could do to my liability insurance, Mike.

I call BS - but if this did happen - I need to see it - thats kinda bad ass.

Actually, "bas ass" might be an adequate description of another scenario, this one at legal speed on a public road: "Your honor, it was bad ass the guy crashed because the downpipe, half the manifold, and the turbo somehow got caught under the car."

I also need to know who's manifold this is so I can get an accurate time frame to see if it was one of the few old versions that was not replaced with a new one.

If SB has QC issues you might want to share them openly with the customer community. I'm in the market and solid info always precedes a sale. Always.

Let me put it another way, if I had one of these on my car and it even thought about falling off, I'd be thinking about writing you a fairly curt letter with some fairly curt demands. You may have a safety issue unfolding here, my friend.

 

[JusMX141]

Where are the rest of the pieces? I don't want to call BS, but the odds of a casting fracturing in that many spots at the same time are very low.

If you look closely at the photos I posted, you'll clearly see that there are no additional pieces. It's such a clean break that you could literally put the two pieces back together and reweld them if you wanted to. But who wants to risk doing that?

It's not that it broke all at one time....it had been showing cracks for quite a while. The center, near the collector, had been cracked since the middle of summer. I'm guessing that once the center broke out, all of the weight was supported by runners 1 and 4, which couldn't hold it and gave out at the end of a quarter mile pull (the car doesn't see much street time, and if so it's never driven as hard as it is a the track.)

"Your honor, it was bad ass the guy crashed because the downpipe, half the manifold, and the turbo somehow got caught under the car."

THANKFULLY the water lines were pretty much the only thing that prevented this from actually happening.

 

[Slowboy]

Think what you want, it really happened.

So none of the manifolds cracked where this one did....does that mean they all crack like this: http://www.dsmtuners.com/forums/showthread.php?t=264527

Either way, you still have a bunch of manifolds cracking with very low miles on them which sounds to me like there's a run of bad manifolds or castings out there that should be addressed. I'm not sure if it's an old casting or not because my buddy bought the turbo/manifold/wastegate setup used with very low miles on it from someone who might've been an employee of Slowboy, but I'm not sure. You'd have to speak to the owner on that one.

The car has a flex section on the 3" down pipe FOR SURE, and I'm also sure the car either has upgraded motor mounts or filled stock mounts- so excessive trans/engine movement is out of the question. I believe the manifold gave out simply because it couldn't handle the weight of the turbo, wastegate, o2 housing, dump tube, and downpipe.

I might've worded it a bit wrong saying the car "shut off immediately." He let off after the run was over, and soon heard a loud sound from the engine bay. He thought a piece of the intercooler piping had blown off and he ran it over or something because after this happened the car seemed powerless. He turned the car off quickly, thinking it was something internal. He didn't really attract much attention, even once the car was loaded onto the trailer, so I don't think this would've spread among the track employees enough to get to one of your personnel.

Again, don't think I'm bashing Slowboy Racing in any way....I've done business with Slowboy on plenty of occasions and I've always been satisfied with the products and service. This is just one of those exceptions that I felt other DSMer's should know about before they drop a couple hundred on a new manifold.

Since you seem so interested, I'll dig the pieces out of my scrap pile and give them to my buddy the next time he comes up to buy some parts so you can see for yourself.

I am the owner - no one has showed up here with this manifold - I would LOVE to see it.

We had a bad run of about 75-85 parts to the best of my knowledge - I have given away 70 plus free manifolds - and if this one makes it here I will hand the guy a new one just because I would like to send it to the foundry - or beat them senseless with it...

It just seems odd that this was not brought to my attention, and I know all the SBR haters on the board love to spread BS about me and SBR - but I would never turn my back to something like this if my guys here tell me this was an issue.

As for the other link you sent, no - that was not the typical cracking spot either... I would like ot see that one back here as well.

Mike Huml
Slowboy

 

[Geezus_Aach]

guys, im no expert...but when i first saw those pics, it looks like someone was trying to free up some rusty bolts and hit it with a sledge hammer a little too hard.

and what you say happened at the track (car shut down) doesnt sound correct. not calling b/s, but look at how clean those breaks are?? maybe they were trying to drop the turbo down, and the studs were stuck.....

just my 2 cents.

 

[fwdeclipse]

I think there would be a large mark on there if that was the case. BTW who uses a sledge hammer to loosen turbo bolts. WTF

 

[blcknspo0ln]

I don't think that is a literal statement. Aside from that, I could see a manifold crack like giving the circumstance that he was going down the 1320. I'm also sure that the account of the actual store of "what really happened" wasn't really expressed to the tee. No need to nitpick at "if it shut down immediately" or not. Fact of the matter is, Mike came on here saying that the manifold needs to go back to SBR so the original owner can get a new one. It was a defect and it should be dealt with accordingly.

Mike, as expressed before, the original owner stated that they did not want to make a big deal about this, hence why you didn't hear about it. No need to insinuate. It's only go to feed the flame.

 

[Slowboy]

I don't think that is a literal statement. Aside from that, I could see a manifold crack like giving the circumstance that he was going down the 1320. I'm also sure that the account of the actual store of "what really happened" wasn't really expressed to the tee. No need to nitpick at "if it shut down immediately" or not. Fact of the matter is, Mike came on here saying that the manifold needs to go back to SBR so the original owner can get a new one. It was a defect and it should be dealt with accordingly.

Mike, as expressed before, the original owner stated that they did not want to make a big deal about this, hence why you didn't hear about it. No need to insinuate. It's only go to feed the flame.

All it needs to do is get back here - I will handle this myself, no worries on my end.

Mike Huml
Slowboy

 

[JusMX141]

Mike, I'll have the manifold's owner get in touch with you ASAP so you can hear his side of the story. He lives almost 3 hours from your shop so it's unlikely that he's going to drop what he's doing to get this manifold in your hands....but it will get there at some point.

It's not BS no matter how much anyone thinks it is....all I've done here was relay the information for the manifold's owner who doesn't have a DSMTuners account to some other potential buyers so they can see what has happened to let them make the decision to buy one or not.

 

[laserspeeddemon]

OK, I'm a little worried. I got my two years ago. I wasn't ready to put it on until maybe early this year, in fact I put in on for you guys because I promised you guys that I would cover it in mud and bring it to the GMU meet. I didn't drive the car daily and at this point the car is completely torn down. The manifold still has a blue tint to it, it has less then 1000 miles on it. And I won't be able to get the car on the road for quite some time.

What was the time frame of the bad batch?