heads are a different matter cause of the water cooling them. Aside from the combustion chamber the rest of the head stays nice and cool (below 400F). Exhaust manifolds on the other hand attract carbon deposits like a magnet especially where a void is created.

I have spent some time welding on some old allis chalmers and a few rolls royce cast iron head using both ni-99 and cast iron gas rod. Real interesting stuff but very touchy.

 

Was it a Rolls-Royce small horsepower? 20/25 or 25/30? Because that's what my car is! A 1936 25/30. It was last welded in the late '80s... See, I could just buy an entirely new head... at $25K Car is MAYBE worth that!

 

TunaDaMan,
If you do get around to taking your exhaust manifold off anytime soon you might wanna bring it up to this shop in Rowland Heights to compare with theirs. There's a small possibility that it could work. It's possible that they used the HKS manifold as a template.

Stainless T3 T4 Turbo turbocharger Manifold 07 08 Honda Fit Jazz GD3 L15A1 2WD | eBay

 

I saw that on ebay a while go and thought about asking them, then I forgot.

So I just msg'ed them now, so we'll see what they say.

I'm just wondering if they make those in-house or they have someone else make them and then they sell them.

 

So I got a response from them, and as I figured they are of no help since they don't make those in house and they didn't give me any more info than that

 

I figured that too that they were made overseas but regardless you would think they would have some info or specs on the products they are selling. I was thinking that maybe they would have one in stock that we could compare with the HKS manifold? If not... I guess back to the drawing board with this topic.

 

So I finally got around to taking the manifold back off my car, and checked out a couple of places to try and get it welded, and I know welding cast is hard even with special rods made to weld cast with.

The results from the first shop that didn't have cast welding rods ended like so





The welds pretty much cracked.

The shop also told me that my manifold was possibly warped, but I feel that it might have been just either a bad cast or HKS didn't really machine their engine mounting flange well making the center of the flange protruded just a bit. This protruding center would cause the sides to be pulled down just a bit on each side, which probably caused the manifold to crack in the center on the turbo mounting side.



The second shop, surfaced it for me beautifully


BUT SADLY the welds caused this

...another crack

So as of this moment, my manifold is in another shop which is making 5 sets flanges (engine and turbo) for my second welder guy so we can make some manifolds using the HKS one as a template. So if anyone running an HKS turbo kit might need a new manifold, we might have some.

It might take a "week" according to the shop for the flanges to get made, and the welder goes on vacation next week for like a week so it might take a while for me to get anything back or updates on the progress.

BTW haven't been charged yet since nobody could fix my manifold soo maybe i'll just have to pay for a new manifold

 

man, sorry to say it looks like the welding made it worse. that's what they had told me at Project Import. thanks for keeping us up to date. i had Johnny Chen from H-Fit.com working with Evasive motorsports (HKS dealer) on a new replacement but still have'nt heard back from them in a few weeks. i need to text him to see if there ever heard from HKS. i know it takes awhile to hear back from HKS Japan but this is ridiculous.

Anyways, i would be interested in purchasing a new one so let me know.


I have smog inspection coming up in December and i'm worried i won't pass because of the crack/leak. i may just take the car in to have a pre-test performed with the way it is now...drama.

Keep us posted on the results of the Fabrication.

 

It takes more than special rod. The whole manifold needs to be heated in an oven (not your mother's plain old oven) before welding and it needs SLOW cooling after like being buried in sand so it cools super slow.

Grind that old weld off find a shop that knows what they are doing (try yellow pages for boiler repair) and it will never crack at the welds again.

If you haven't done it yet pull the studs and check that flange for straightness.

 

yeah, I've done research about welding cast iron, along with being heated, welded and cooled slowly, the welds also need to be peened to sorta de-stress the welds or something like that... i will look for boiler repair later and possibly use my cast manifold as a backup if i ever need it.

and I will be sure to check the turbo flange once i get it back

 

In the process of making it


The Finished Product. looks nice and ceramic coated.


So... it's a little taller. I can probably let the fabricator know to make it a little shorter














A Fancy photo =)


Sits close to the firewall/Brake lines which are wrapped up. Haven't had an issue yet, but I've only had it on a few days


So the people who made the flanges for my manifold, made 5 set of flanges (so I can have 4 more made up), the holes on turbo side flanges are a little too big for studs used in the stock manifold...So i got bolts...which don't fit, BUT then I got studs, or you can make them by chopping off one side of a bolt and putting a nut on it as you can see in the next picture.

I used 3 studs, 1 bolt, and 7 nuts to mount that damn turbo.

I also shined up my sheet metal heat shield a bit with some sand paper, but I was too lazy to get all the bits, since I'll never really see it anyways




If anyone would like a replacement HKS turbo manifold let me know

 

Looks good glad to see you finally got it done. Did the manifold being a bit taller cause any problems?

 

Looks good TunaDaMan! I'm interested in buying one of the 4 manifolds. Can you PM me price and details?

 

I'm interested in picking up one of these manifolds. Does the HKS turbo use a t25 turbo? The flange sure looks like it. If it doesn't, can your guy make it with a t25g flange?

 

the manifold being taller hasn't caused me any issues yet (although I have an ingalls engine torque damper...so less engine movement), installation was a pain, but then again, it was a pain with normal HKS one. Either way I'm going to contact the guy and how him the pictures, and see if it can make it close to the actual height of the HKS one.

I'll talk to the guy about pricing and then I'll PM you. I apologize in advanced if I take a while to get back with information.

Yes, the HKS turbo does use a T25.

 

No worries, no rush. Lmw when you hear back from the welder. Thanks!

 

Replacement manifiold looks good. Clever using two elbows with a branch tangent for a log manifold. It's apparent that they were not confident using the mig welder for welding around the tangent however. Had to rely on overlapping tack welds.

On a side not is the hks t25 running a twin scroll exhaust housing? I never realized the cast manifold had the divider.

 

TunaDaMan,
It's been awhile but any chance we can still get a manifold made? How's your new manifold hoding up?

 

It sure has been a while since I've been on...
I'm pretty sure I can get a few more made if needed. as far as I know it seems to be holding up, no exhaust smell under the hood, so no leaks/cracks.
But my car is a daily driver so I don't really put tons of boosted milage on my car, just a little bit everyday.

 

I have successfully welded cast iron before but there are steps which help it to work. Its not always 100% depending on how much the part heats and cools but heres what you can try to maximize your success.

Choose a stick welding rod made for welding cast.

Drill the end of the crack, as you should do anytime you repair any crack with any kind of weld.

Preheat the part to 500-600 deg F before welding it.

Weld about an inch at a time.

Peen immediately after each 1 inch bead.

Cool the item slowly and preferably in an oven so you can control the cooling time.

Following those steps will help you succeed. Finding someone who will weld it and do all of that, including cooling it over 8 hours or so, will be the challenge.