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Hater.
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My issue is that the bell ends suggest that this is thinwall tubing, and if it were stainless I'd think it wouldn't get painted black like it is. I wouldn't trust mild steel thinwall tubing to hold up much of a turbo, myself. I do like overbuilt stuff, though...
At least the ridges are going the right way, Ken. Anyway, there's practically no flow along the wall of a pipe.
The welds along the inside of a welded header are probably as detrimental as those, unless there's a substantial gap inside these and even then I wouldn't think it's much of a problem.
My issue is that the bell ends suggest that this is thinwall tubing, and if it were stainless I'd think it wouldn't get painted black like it is. I wouldn't trust mild steel thinwall tubing to hold up much of a turbo, myself. I do like overbuilt stuff, though...
The bell piping means you can be extremely lazy in terms of joint fit, as there is no accuracy required for fitup - the pipe can be +/- 0.25" in length and there is no gap since it is slipped inside the other pipe- the end of the pipe can end up anywhere inside the slip joint.
It means every runner has a significant ridge internally at every weld point. Yay turbulence!
I can't see how anyone would think that's a good way to build a header heck at least stock cast manifolds are smooth inside.
Kinda off OT, but did anyone notice the drop in replacement IC's they have? Look pretty sweet, but $275 is a lil steep, i guess.
The thing is, you really need a proper merge collector to have a proper header, and that will require some runner length to do properly.
Start with a good collector and work backwards. The rest will be a matter of packaging as much as anything unless you are will to modify coachwork and/or motor mounts etc to acheive a certain length.
I would take a header with short runners, assuming they were long enough to allow for a good merge, over a header with long runners that had a POS merge collector any day.
I don't care what the computer program says or what you have "pulse tuned" it to- if you aren't directing the pulses into the turbine in an efficient manner, the manifold sucks.
Not that the manifold in the OP has a bad merge, I'm just saying there are other things that take priority IMO.
Playing devil's advocate here, but I don't think I've seen you build a header with anything more than a 3" collector, which I don't know if I would classify as a 'good merge'.