Best Turbo Manifold Material ?

[2JZMKIV]

I have been reading recently about turbo manifolds because i am looking to buy one my question is:

 

What kind of turbo manifold would be the strongest and can withstand great abuse like anti-lag ? because i am thinking of running launch retard 2 step what grade manifolds

can survive and how long for say 2-3 seconds of launch retard anti-lag overall what i'm trying to say is i will use ignition retard but i don't want my manifold to go boom

i wont abuse it much though i know that but i need something that can withstand at least a little abuse and not for extended periods.

 

So i have heard inconel 625 is the best material

whifbitz makes his manifold from 304 stainless steel

what i am looking forward to buy is 321 stainless steel

 

Can anyone provide any info over these ?

 

thanks in advance.

[V8KILR]

A cast manifold is very strong and they are cheap as well. This SPA (aka FSR) manifold has made over 1000whp on a dynojet so far.

 

 

Another alternative is a steam pipe (normal or stainless) manifold.

[Swampy442]

Inconel is the best but its bloody expensive and really hard to work, which is why stainless is so common. But for toughness a cast manifold would be the way forward.

[Wez]

As mentioned above, cast is the strongest, you just missed out on an Arnout cast manifold which had been up for sale on here for some time now, one of the best cast units for the 2JZ-GTE

[2JZMKIV]

why is stainless steel more common than cast manifold all the kits a browsed cast is usually cheaper why do people go for stainless steel manifolds ?

[Swampy442]

Because its easier to make a tubular manifold than to cast and machine a log manifold.

[Chris Wilson]

High nickel content cast iron is the material of choice for a cast manifold, or some of the castable stainless steels. For tubular manifolds Inconel or Titanium are the materials of choice, but both raw material and the techniques to weld these bump the price up very high. I think I paid £3200 for a 4 cylinder Inconel manifold a few years back.

 

Ordinary "grey" cast iron works, but is nothing like as crack resistant and thermally stable as high nickel content cast iron. The proper race type turbos from Garrett use their proprietary high nickel mix for the turbine housings, going under their trade mark name "NiResist" It doesn't scale and flake like grey iron, and hence doesn't erode the turbine blade tips. If you look on their web site the high end turbos for performance petrol engines have the NiResist options.

 

Tubular manifolds that you can buy off the shelf usually have SERIOUS inadequacies. The long runners expand at different rates, so should either have double walled slip joints or expensive flexible bellows in them. They also rarely have any support for the very heavy turbo or wastegate and a several pound mass swinging about on a near white hot tubular structure spells trouble. All proper set ups have some sort of pivoting support so the manifold does not carry any of the weight of the turbo(s) or wastegate(s). Most Chinese ones are laughably bad, material and build quality wise. Some will kill an expensive new turbo in minutes as welding slag is blown through the turbine section. The welds need to be internally gas purged and fully inspected. They don't bother.

 

Reliability for pound spent a cast iron one is probably the best choice. The stock Toyota turbo manifold is high nickel content *AND* has a bellows section.... They knew that a seemingly innocuous think like a manifold had bitten other makers, mainly Porsche and Ford, in very costly ways. Toyota did it right!

[2JZMKIV]

High nickel content cast iron is the material of choice for a cast manifold, or some of the castable stainless steels. For tubular manifolds Inconel or Titanium are the materials of choice, but both raw material and the techniques to weld these bump the price up very high. I think I paid £3200 for a 4 cylinder Inconel manifold a few years back.

 

Ordinary "grey" cast iron works, but is nothing like as crack resistant and thermally stable as high nickel content cast iron. The proper race type turbos from Garrett use their proprietary high nickel mix for the turbine housings, going under their trade mark name "NiResist" It doesn't scale and flake like grey iron, and hence doesn't erode the turbine blade tips. If you look on their web site the high end turbos for performance petrol engines have the NiResist options.

 

Tubular manifolds that you can buy off the shelf usually have SERIOUS inadequacies. The long runners expand at different rates, so should either have double walled slip joints or expensive flexible bellows in them. They also rarely have any support for the very heavy turbo or wastegate and a several pound mass swinging about on a near white hot tubular structure spells trouble. All proper set ups have some sort of pivoting support so the manifold does not carry any of the weight of the turbo(s) or wastegate(s). Most Chinese ones are laughably bad, material and build quality wise. Some will kill an expensive new turbo in minutes as welding slag is blown through the turbine section. The welds need to be internally gas purged and fully inspected. They don't bother.

 

Reliability for pound spent a cast iron one is probably the best choice. The stock Toyota turbo manifold is high nickel content *AND* has a bellows section.... They knew that a seemingly innocuous think like a manifold had bitten other makers, mainly Porsche and Ford, in very costly ways. Toyota did it right!

 

Really really good information thanks!