Bumper Caddy

hah yea i was thinkin of gettin a turbo cam and soe springs and retainers in the future but once again dont have the money right now haha

Fabrik8

Cast manifolds don't flow as much, and they aren't equal length like a good tubular manifold. They don't have problems with welds cracking due to thermal expansion though, which is the big killer of tubular manifolds. Heavy-walled mild steel tubular manifolds usually last a long time too, not as long as cast though. Cast manifolds have a lot of material, and it's all well connected, to thermal expansion is pretty even throughout the whole manifold, and having that much material makes it easy to resist those local loads from expansion.

The problem is that when you have fairly long runners, like an equal length manifold, you have thermal expansion along the entire length and that can cause huge stresses at the flanges. This becomes worse with stainless steel, which has a higher coefficient of thermal expansion than mild steel, and worse with thinner tubing because the welds aren't as strong. That's why you see the expensive race manifolds with slip joints in the runners.
Just to throw more variables in the mix, how the manifold and turbo are supported, how the runners are attached to each other, and the runner direction (expansion loads on a ball-of-snakes manifold can go all over the place) all have an effect also. I'm not trying to scare you away from anything, I'm just trying to give you a good feel for the considerations involved in choosing a manifold for a daily-driven street car versus a race car.

If you want something in the middle of performance and longevity, a heavy-walled mild steel manifold may be the way to go. Getting it ceramic coating will do wonders for corrosion and slightly help performance too, and wrapping it is always a good idea also.

Bumper Caddy

haha iight i think i caught most of that? how much does a heavy-walled mild steel manifold usually run someone? and how do i get it ceramic coated? and your talking about using the heat wrap on the manifold? i have it on my dp

Fabrik8

You'll have to look around for pricing, I have no clue about how much anything for that engine costs. I've never played much with single cam stuff.

There are numerous places that do ceramic coating, but use a good one with a decent reputation like HPC or Swain-Tech or someone like that. Most of the local places use water-based ceramic coatings and they aren't even in the same league as the stuff that Swain and places like that use. All coatings and coating processes are not the same, that's for sure. The ceramic coating is actually the easy part, the prep and the undercoating process is much more important. There's a place in Dinwiddie that does coating, I know they have a good reputation but I don't know how they compare to the big players like Swain and HPC.

I'm a little biased, I love lots of types of coatings and what they can do for performance.

Bumper Caddy

haha im in va beach i dont know where dinwiddle is.but ill deff look into it thanks

Fabrik8

Middle of the state, somewhere around Petersburg.

sairfhatch

dont let the door hit you in the vagina on the way out

Fabrik8

WTF are you talking about? What the fuck kind of first post is that?

Bumper Caddy

jp? what are you talking about?

Jay

lrn2internet

http://www.google.com/search?q=ceram...ient=firefox-a