Custom Turbo Manifold

Retepetsir

King of Subsonic
Is there anything stopping me from taking a standard CG13 manifold, and either getting it modified (removal of cat, etc) to fit a turbo flange/mount, or to have the manifold flange section copied for a custom manifold?

For the price of the other available manifolds (i.e. HKS Cube) it seems like a much cheaper option...

Or is the fundamental design of the oem manifold not good enough?

I want to get the ball rolling on the conversion but the lack of manifold is the only thing holding me back.

Cheers
 
I remember on Kristians 1.3 turbo, he had a turbo flange welded onto the bottom of the manifold, don't really know the quality of welds onto cast though.

The manifold is probably not the perfect design for a turbo conversion but it will work.

I reckon this may be the best bet mate, go get the custom, maybe you could get other people interested and possibly get a few made up? Might make things a little cheaper
 
I remember on Kristians 1.3 turbo, he had a turbo flange welded onto the bottom of the manifold, don't really know the quality of welds onto cast though.

The manifold is probably not the perfect design for a turbo conversion but it will work.

I reckon this may be the best bet mate, go get the custom, maybe you could get other people interested and possibly get a few made up? Might make things a little cheaper

Well its going to cost me near enough £500 to import the HKS manifold, so I'm sure a custom and better manifold could be fabricated for less than that?!
 
£500!!!! **** that!!!

Well I have read that Piper will make custom exhausts complete with Manifold for £500!!!

I'm certain you could find a company which will make one, or modify a standard one for a lot less than that!!!
 
buy a turbo flange from ebay £20 or less and weld that on!
you can get most sizes i would think a t2 t25 flange would be about what your after definatley cheaper than a tube manifold!
most production turbo cars come with a crap flowing cast manifold as standard so if thats the cheapest/best value way for a company with billions to spend, do it ,it should be good enough for a home brew eh? :laugh:
 
Welding on a flange will work, I have done it before, but admittedly do prefer not to :)
 
Yep its far from ideal.

However I haven't heard from Davey C, and nobody else seems to have a turbo manifold available, so my only 2 options (other than importing one, very expensive as already said) is to get a custom s/s manifold fabricated (but then the flanges all need to be laser cut, etc) or to make a hybrid out of an oem unit.

What would you suggest Ed? Or maybe you have an idea of what other manifold could be adapted to fit the 1.3 block? I can get nice SR20 turbo s/s manifolds from America for under £100....which is very annoying! Unless they can be adapted in some way?

Ideas/advice would be appreciated :)
 
Weld yours, it will be fine. Or I can do it for you for a nominal charge.
 
Ok that sounds interesting. Although I've heard of problems with welding s/s flanges to non-stainless steel and reacting differently at certain temperatures.

I was going to order a set of T25 flanges from America, s/s for under £20 inc turbo to exhaust, turbo to manifold, etc.

Ed you have pm.
 
If its correctly welded, using the correct equipment, it will be easily strong enough..

A fabrication place will have the gear needed and would charge around 20 pounds i would expect..
 
For a CG13DE, potting a turbo on it, what would be the extra power output? How much pressure can you allow the turbo to be pushing anyways? I would've thought it can't be much since it isn't an original turbo'd block.
 
sorry havent recieved any emails and i can't recieve PM's :(

Re a custom manifold: I'd personally buy a propper one but thats just me, i had far too much of compramising on my turbo setup the cheaper option is ALWAYS the worst and more expensive in the long run, in my experiences.

As for custom or off the shelf, either or really, guarentee with the off the shelf and custom most likely weaker. the std manifold mod looked ok on kristians (mr grassie's) old turbo but i wouldnt want it as a final solution personally.

It's all about cash with turbo conversions or any conversions. the more you spend the better it will be first time round and you are less likely to have to re-do stuff and upgrade at later expense.

if i was to do it again i would get everything first, build and test it outside the car and make sure its right first time. then just drop it in.

im waffling so ill stop!
 
hi pete,

yup that email, ive recieved it now. bit odd as it didnt arrive before, odd, anyway ill email you back this evening
 
pete i e-mails HKS europe lastnight and they quoted me for hks cast iron turbo manifold from the cube @ £215 plus Vat which is just shy of 260, delivered to uk via special order from HKS and takes approx 6-12 weeks to arrive.
 
With regards to the CG13DE standard manifold + flange welded on, i thought it was ok and did the job well enough, only problem i had was when it was on rolling road it was glowing cherry red and melted my dipstick-lol

Personally i would agree with Davey C and get the right tool for the job, after owning Mr Grassie's car i realized how much work was involved and not to bodge it.

CG13 manifold works. HKS or off the shelf would be better.

Pepper
 
pete i e-mails HKS europe lastnight and they quoted me for hks cast iron turbo manifold from the cube @ £215 plus Vat which is just shy of 260, delivered to uk via special order from HKS and takes approx 6-12 weeks to arrive.

Last time I contacted them it was over £300, then you need to factor in import tax and vat...
 
Yep, been in contact with them before. It's pretty hard to actually get one sent over... :doh:

hows it hard to get one sent over? do you not just ask them where you order from or who to phone and they get it sent in and shipped to you?
 
replied lol, and re: the manifold mine came in about 2 weeks ;) air freight from japan. i know wha oyu mean about them being hard work it seems you have to be lucky enough to get the right person to pick up the phone, some of them are no help at all. others are great. very odd.
 
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