Aftermarket Exhaust Manifolds

[Smoke them tyres]

Guys,

What has been everyone's experience with aftermarket manifolds such as 6boost etc?

Pros/cons.....good/bad etc.

How has durability been? Cracking/warping etc

[mic]

6boost manifolds have a lifetime guarantee. they give your car an awesome sound, and perform better than the stocker in every way.

[ETM]

With Exhaust manifold design there is much more to it than meets the eye. There are 5 main design criteria that must be met if the exhaust manifold is to be a success.

1. FIT- First of all the manifold must fit in the engine bay, it does not matter if the manifold will make one million hp if it does not fit it is no good to you.

2. Flow- Secondly the manifold should flow well and increase the horsepower of your engine. With my back to back testing I have found 12% to 15% hp increase is normal when changing to well designed high mount manifold.

3. BOOST CONTROL- Without a doubt one of the most overlooked areas of exhaust manifold design, a manifold that meets the two previous criteria can be rendered useless if it will not control boost accurately. Symptoms of this are boost levels climbing as the rpm climbs due to poor wastegate pipe design. You can test a manifold on the bench with an air gun by blowing air down the runners emulating an exhaust pulse and feel how much of the gas comes out the turbo flange and how much comes out the wastegate pipe. A well designed wastegate pipe will give you around 60% turbine flow with 40% wastegate flow. Remember if your engine produces the desired boost level at 3000rpm, at 6000rpm you will 50% of the exhaust gas to turn the turbine and 50% of the exhaust gas to exit via the wastegate or you will encounter boost creep. Boost creep is a wastegate design problem and no boost controller can stop it. Using an oversized wastegate will also have little effect as no matter how big the hole is in the wastegate the exhaust gas will not magically obey your wishes and do a 90 degree or 180 degree turn to flow through the wastegate when it can much easily flow straight through the turbine causing over boost. I see problematic wastegate design in MOST manifolds on the market. ETM’s 100 series manifold range offers 100% boost control efficiency which is something that no other manufactures can lay claim to.

4. LONGEVITY- The manifold must be well constructed with competent TIG welding and machining processes used to finish it. It must resist cracking and stand up to the high temperatures thrown at it every day. I see stainless manifolds every week with terminal cracks.

5. ASSOCIATED PRODUCT AVAILABILITY. The actual exhaust manifold is only a PART of a turbo system, when you change manifold you will also need to change dump pipe, screamer pipe (or plumb back), oil and water lines, intercooler pipe and air filter pipe as a minimum. If you cannot buy these associated products with the kit you will be stuck with having to truck the car to third party fabricators which can drive the cost a lot higher and it is possible end up with substandard quality and fit when compared to a complete kit that was all fabricated together on the bench by the same fabricator. Having exhaust parts and especially plumbed back screamer pipes fabricated by someone who does not completely understand the dynamics of the complete system can also end in tears as the system will fail to function to its true ability. OIl and water line kits are another classic example with the oil drain pipe being the biggest concern. Most kits on the market will use a braided line that runs down past the runners, such drain pipes end up becoming hard and brittle resulting in a failure that can even cause fire in extreme cases.

It is not until all these factors are understood you can now choose a manifold-turbo kit that both suits your needs and will deliver the end result that you are looking for straight out of the box.

[mic]

^^ forgot to mention that etm are exceptional manifolds, and I would have one on my car if leigh was not so busy at the time.

[Tocchi]

ive got a 6 Boost manifold going onto my Phoon motor in my drag car.

Lifetime warranty, awesome flow (/scavenging), $1200 for a custom made 6cyl manifold with $250 for ceramic coating

money well spent in my eyes

[Adrian6T]

6boost manifolds are hot. I shall be trying to mount one of them before the year is through.

[Smoke them tyres]

Thanks guys.

The ETM and 6boost manifolds look great and the workmanship and design is definitely first class. Love that TIG. Makes the std manifold look like it was cobbled up in someone's back yard on a Saturday afternoon.

The only thing that concerns me for long manifold life (particularly at the collector area as this is where heat and physical stresses are concentrated) is the metal spec used. As far as I can tell with the steam pipe/weld els metal spec (ATSM A234), it is a long way above it's max continuous operation temp. Orange on the manifold is about 1050 degrees centigrade......don't know of any steam at that temp?????

Stainless 304/316 etc is also way out of it's depth at these temps.

I am keen to replace the std manifold. Is there a better readily available and workable material that can do the job?

[Under-Pants]

The only other off-the-shelf manifolds I know of are the Nizpro extractor ones. I can't comment on the specific grade spec, but I have followed the builds of a few cars running them and all have been flawless.

I personally would not even remotely consider them at the asking price though, as the ETM product is half the price, works great & I personally have never heard of a failure

[mic]

  Smoke them tyres said:

Thanks guys.

The ETM and 6boost manifolds look great and the workmanship and design is definitely first class. Love that TIG. Makes the std manifold look like it was cobbled up in someone's back yard on a Saturday afternoon.

The only thing that concerns me for long manifold life (particularly at the collector area as this is where heat and physical stresses are concentrated) is the metal spec used. As far as I can tell with the steam pipe/weld els metal spec (ATSM A234), it is a long way above it's max continuous operation temp. Orange on the manifold is about 1050 degrees centigrade......don't know of any steam at that temp?????

Stainless 304/316 etc is also way out of it's depth at these temps.

I am keen to replace the std manifold. Is there a better readily available and workable material that can do the job?

like I said, 6boost manifolds have a life time guarantee against cracking warping etc ..... never ever seen one crack, and I bet no one ever has. same with etm.

[kyle173]

any one know of a fabricator in brisbane as I have a nizpro stage 2 and am looking at getting a manifold. lokking at etm products. but will the fit up to the nizpro kit