ATS exhaust manifold installed

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After watching my exhaust manifold continue to shrink and work out the gaskets, I figured it was time to replace it. I installed the ATS 3-piece manifold yesterday. It wasn't as difficult to assemble as I had heard. To aid in the assembly, I put the end sections in the freezer and the center section in the oven at 400 deg. A couple of taps with its own weight and the pieces slid right together. To make sure the pieces were aligned properly I laid the manifold on my table saw table and gave it a couple of whacks with a 2x4 to flatten it out The metal that the ATS manifold is made of is much harder than the cast iron stock manifold. When drilling and tapping for the pyro hole, I had to use lots of cutting oil. The boss where the pyro probe mounts is about 1/2 inch thick To reach the two allen bolts on the top of the center section, I used a ball-end allen wrench. Removal of the bottom right nut on the turbo flange is made far easier with a crow's foot 15mm The only thing that the new manifold doesn't have is the screw hole for the bracket that holds the coolant line for the transmission heat exchanger. It's held up with a zip tie for now until I make up a new bracket.



The reason I replaced the mainfold was because of the shrinkage problem, but the new manifold does offer some performance gains as well There is a noticable improvement in throttle response in the 1800+ rpm range. Also, the exhaust sound is slightly louder and more throaty I'll be keeping an eye on other things such as EGT, mileage, etc to see if there's any changes.



Here's some pictures:



Shrinkage of manifold caused misalignment of exhaust ports and gasket creep.



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New manifold



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Cheers,

Sean

 

[C Schomer]

Thanks for the post! I just got on to look for manifold posts, and there it was! Mine is leaking at the ends and the gap is gone in the holes. I want to do something about it before something breaks. Who has a good price on the ATS? TIA, Craig

 

[bmoeller]

Check out http://www13.inetba.com/mrbobsdistributing/ATSManifold.ivnu

 

[C Schomer]

Thanks, that looks like a good price! Craig

 

[Dieselman359]

Formula you dog, I thought that since you had the PDR HX-35 and that I had the ATS manifold that we were even, and then you just gotta go and get the darn thing.

Maybe the freezer and oven work magic, because I had #@$%! trying to put mine together.



On a side note, I was putting my new exhaust on Friday (4" from downpipe to 5" stack running outside the cab) and notice that my turbo only had two of the four nuts holding it to the ATS I don't know if I forgot to tighten them back when I put it on or if my turbo is tryin' to tell me that I really need that PDR HX-35

 

[Mad Bomber]

ATS $$

CAll rip rook on NWbomber.com HE'S the best price. Eric

 

[Old Smoky]

Good for you Sean. I just ported my exhaust manifold Friday. Shrinkage sucks, huh?I don’t have the big bucks for an ATS manifold. Let us know how it works for you.



Mike

 

[C Schomer]

Eric, do you have a phone # for rip rook? I tried nwbomber.com and got nothing. TIA, Craig

 

[Old Smoky]

C Schomer,



Rips # is 503) 654-9004.



Mike

 

[24V-DSL]

http://www.protintnw.com/sa-main.htm

 

[formula]

Originally posted by Dieselman359

Formula you dog... ... ... ... ... ... ... ..... if my turbo is tryin' to tell me that I really need that PDR HX-35

WOOF :-laf hey, I smell porckhops... ... humm... . must be a west wind today You'll really like that new turbo

Originally posted by Old Smoky

Good for you Sean. I just ported my exhaust manifold Friday. Shrinkage sucks, huh?I don’t have the big bucks for an ATS manifold. Let us know how it works for you.



Mike

Mike,

What is being worked over in this porting procedure?

(p. s. I didn't forget about the other thing, just busy )



Cheers,

Sean

 

[C Schomer]

Thanks guys! Craig

 

[Old Smoky]

Sean,

Well, I am an amateur when it comes to porting. Though I have been practicing. I have done some reading to lean the basics, and looked at what others have done. Basically what I did with the exhaust manifold was to match the ports, clean up the casting flaws, compensate for the shrinking, and anything else I could find to help it flow better.



No problem. Just let me know when you have more time if you are still interested.



Mike

 

[formula]

Mike,

How do you go about doing the port matching? I noticed that the shape and size of the turbine housing inlet and the exhaust manifold outlet are slightly different. (It was also this way on the stock manifold, but the ports on the ATS manifold are even bigger) Perhaps there is something to gain by smoothing this area out?



Sean

 

[BushWakr - RIP]

I just spent a couple hours porting out my 14cm housing.

Basically I did gasket matching in terms of inlet port, as well as reaching down into the inlet ports and really cleaning up the roughness, lumps, etc. I held the new gasket over the turbo inlets and scribed the gasket edges on the housing. The most work was at the outside edges of the housing inlets, with the top/bottom/center divider needing much less work.

I used a dremel tool to do this. It took some time but worked quite well.





Bob.

 

[Old Smoky]

Sean,

Bob is right on track with what I did. Using the gaskets is a good way to do port matching. If you don’t have a good clear line of carbon build up, you can lay the gasket over the port(s), being sure that the bolt holes match, and shoot some paint on the area that needs to be removed. I also used a Dremel tool with various bits for this job. Because of the size of the tool, and the short bit shaft, it is hard to reach down into your work. I think that a die grinder would make it a little easier if one is available. Other areas to look at for better flow are the outlet of the turbo compressor housing, elbow, the CAC intake and outlet, CAC tubes, and intake elbow. This is a time consuming project, but I think it is worth it. I recommend using safety glasses and a respirator (the kind that looks like what doctors wear). Especially when spending hours on end grinding on various components. I also wear hearing protection because the high pitch of the Dremel tool gives me a headache. Yeah, I look real silly doing this.



Bob,

Why are you going with the 14cm2 exhaust housing? Do you think that it may be a bit restrictive on the top-end? Just curious.



Mike