2006 Turbo Exhaust Manifold Fabrication
Updated 4/9/06
Installed the pan today, new gasket worked great. Also installed the fuel line from the pump to the carb & the heater hoses. Other than a couple small odds & ends the motor is finished. You can see where the turbo drains line up. The drains should tuck in behind the alternator and AC compressor nicely. Also wrapped the fuel line to insulate it from the pan where it crosses under the crankshaft. The bottom right picture shows the turbo's with all of the material I will be making the exhaust manifolds out of. I will be starting on the exhaust manifolds next to get the turbo's mounted up.

Updated 4/19/06
Well here are some shots of my progress on the manifolds so far. The "main" tube on the drivers side is almost done. I have a little more checking to confirm everything before I tack it to the flange. I will probably then do the front runner up to the main tube so I can get the height locked in and then
fill in the other two. I would prefer to go with individual runner headers but there just isn't room unless I cut the shock towers. May do that down the road, but several people I know have run these setups and get very good performance out of them.

You can see I already ground down the elbow welds but I haven't touched the weld where I blended the two pipes together yet. I ended up cutting 8 short little slits in the end of the larger tube and then kept "massaging" them in until the smaller tube fit nice & snug. Laid everything in a piece of angle iron to get it all lined up and welded it up. The top of the flange will be just below the top of the inner fender well on the drivers side. I wanted to get the turbo's as high as possible so I can keep the 4" exhaust pipes tucked up to clear the tires under the fender. It seemed like it might also make it easier to get to some of the other stuff on the front of the motor. I don't remember the exact clearance to the hood, but it will be farther than I have to the fenders. The exhaust pipe will have 2" or so of clearance from the top of the pipe to the inside of the fender.

Updated 4/22/06
Well after starting on the fabrication, decided to change the design a little bit. The turbo's will be 1 1/4" lower than they were going to be. Now instead of the main tube going all the way up to the flange and then having the flange welded on at about a 29 degree angle I will now have a small elbow and the last 2 9/16" of the main tube will be level when it feeds into the turbo. That should help the flow and will get the turbo's more clearance from my glass hood.

Anyhow you can see the two black marks on the elbow where I will be cutting it off so the last short section of main tube will be parallel to the ground as it goes into the turbo.

I also included a couple pictures of the jig I have made to keep my flanges straight while I weld them up. I drilled & tapped all of the holes so I don't have to mess around or keep track of the nuts when I take the flanges off & on. I picked up some cap screws so the heads would be smaller and farther away from the tubes for when I am welding on them.

Updated 4/25/06
Made my first miter joint, still need to do the final fitting but it came out pretty nice for my first one ever. Welded it to the elbow and once I finish the final fitting I will mark and cut the hole in the main pipe. The plasma cutter works great, just need to get steadier! Also getting better with the welds, don't know if I should keep grinding them all down or leave them alone. Since I ground the first ones I will probably keep grinding the joints between the elbows and the straight sections. Some day I am going to learn how to weld!!LOL

Updated 4/26/06
Finished fitting the first runner to the main tube and cut the hole for it. The plasma cutter works great for cutting out the hole in the main tube, blows right through the metal with no problems. I started on the second runner and things are going a little quicker, should be an expert by the time I am done.LOL

Updated 4/27/06
I know it's still missing one runner but I just couldn't wait. One turbo actually bolted to the motor!! It fit's perfect, just enough clearance to let me adjust my alternator belt. It took a little longer to fit the turbo flange to the pipe(or is that the other way around)but it turned out pretty cool. I was able to "stretch" the pipe to fit the rectangular hole in the flange. Anyhow, hope to finish up this side sometime this weekend and then get started on the other side.

Updated 5/2/06
Finished up the last runner so the drivers side manifold is almost done. All that's left is to finish some of the "porting" to match to the exhaust ports on the heads and then some cleanup stuff before I paint them. Pretty happy with how they are turning out. Also my "jig" seems to have kept everything nice & straight. In the second pic you can see the difference in the ports before & after matching.

Updated 5/12/06
Have started on the passenger side manifold. So far so good, going quicker than the drivers side. Hoping to finish it up sometime this week.

Have a great day!

2003 & 2004 Intro Page/Page 1
2005 Clutch & New Motor/Page 2
2006 Intake & Carburetor Modifications/Page 3
2006 New Motor Modifications & Assembly/Page 4