Nissan 200SX Club - South Africa

Well after selling my T25 to a friend in need i felt it was time i finally started getting my T28 together and on as planned. I was determined to go topmount manifold with external wastegate as i wanted something different compared to just bolting on a T28 to standard setup. After buying a home made manifold off gumtree i was never really pleased with it and delaid the project even further hoping to find something better, nothing came up so i started some research and thought if i want it done right i must just do it myself, so here il post a whole bunch of pics of what ive been up to, forgive me for sparing details as i dont really have the energy to type out how i did it all, but im sure the pictures will be quite insightfull. Enjoy:

How things look after stripping:



the ABS removed and T'd off:





Power Steering bottle relocated:











Turbo Make-over:

























Must still clean up the exhaust housing a bit and spray it hi-heat black, itl burn off after some time but even the burnt layer protects and looks better than the rust from what ive seen with previous turbos ive sprayed, heres how i sprayed the external wastegate also with the hi-heat:





Heres how i made my merge collector, using all 40mm inside diameter steel steam pipe, first i made a mockup with 40mm PVC to check all my intersect angles and everything came together good so i could continue with the steel pipes.



































Once the T2 flange was spot welded in place i bolted it tightly to a spare cracked housing to ensure that the steel flange did not warp during welding, and it worked like a charm, no need to skim the flange







Heres how i designed the flange templates to send away for laser cutting:













Once the merge collector was finished i could then bolt it to the complete turbo and position the turbo where i wanted it to be in the engine bay, once positioned i welded a rod from the merge collector to the cylinder head turbo manifold flange and from that placement i could then create my complete manifold on the bench:

































After all of cylinders 2,3,4 was in place i then had to remove my rod to make space to make my cylinder 1 bend:


i then moved the rod to the other side to ensure the merge collector stays in place as to weld the manifold properly i will removed each cylinders pipe and weld it all together one by one and then weld it to the manifold again that way i wont struggle to weld inbetween too tight spots where piping passes right next to each other













i also designed the manifold in such a way that it keeps the firing order in sequence when it enters and circulates in the merge collector, well i read it online from alot of pro tuners. Im no expert and this is the first manifold ive ever made, but im very happy with the result and im sure it will perform well and it will definately not crack anytime soon like the cheap stainles manifolds.

Theres stil alot more work to be done such as downpipe, FMIC and boost pipes, a few adapters, oil feed lines and water feed, manifold must be welded finished and then coated some how, must redo power steering lines and make up some heat shields aswell as hole saw cut a hole in the merge collector and weld my external wastegate piping and flange in place, lots of work, so will keep updating. Hope you guys enjoyed the pics and comments are welcome.

Excellent job


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wow awesome work
shot for all the process pics
that looks like its done well and built to be strong, that should last a lot longer then cheap stainless ones

well done

Well done!! excellent job, the only problem I see is the 1st cylinder runner is very close to the power steering pump, you will have to heat wrap it there or shield it, thats the common problem.

Keep us updated!!

Well done dude!! looks great. Did you send the turbo to get polished?

Draco wrote:Well done!! excellent job, the only problem I see is the 1st cylinder runner is very close to the power steering pump, you will have to heat wrap it there or shield it, thats the common problem.

Keep us updated!!

+1 send it for ceramic coating and then wrap it before you put the mani in

Thanks for the compliments, yip will keep updating for sure, yea it is kind of close to the power steering pump, but in those pics the angle of the photo makes it look closer than it is, but definately I will make some heat shields, not sure yet on how to finish off the manifold, but Powerkote Ceramic coating is really out of my budget, would love to do it but i think they want like R1500 for a 4cylinder, can't spare so much, I'm thinking of getting it alluminium coated and then heat wrap it, the alluminium coat can apparently withstand 800degree celcius, its better than nothing and costs R150 to do, better than any high temperature spray paint atleast but the runners have a wall thickness of 3.6mm, so hopefully it will retain the heat quite well compared to the thinner stainless manifolds.

nice job on the mani.. did the same with the 1j

Looks good.

Awesome work!! Keep it up!!

Looks Awesome bud!! Great work!

Small update.

the turbo inlet adaptor i made i had welded up and then polished:















And i also cut a hole in the merge collector for the wastegate, Friday i will hopefully finished welding the manifold up then i must just do screamer pipe, downpipe, and turbo water and oil lines and she will be up and running! cant wait....

nice!! how much was the polishing?

Looking very good man, the wastegate is just going to create more heat on the turbo inlet and residual heat to the power steering, you must start thinking heavely on ways to shield that heat.

Yea the heat is a big concern of mine, I shudve put the wastegate on the downpipe side, but then I wudve had to make the turbo downpipe stretch out further to clear the wastegate and bend downwards closer to the firewall, and I want to keep the downpipe as far away from the firewall as possible, I've driven in some guys sx's and the downpipe was so close to the firewall that it felt like my feet were cooking in the passenger compartment, I'm going to get some alluminium heat shields and put them up strategically, aswell as heat wrap and alluminium tubing around the power steering hoses, I hope it doesn't get too hot, as its too late now to move the wastegate, but hey, its my first manifold build, I'll see how it goes and perhaps if some things don't work out too well I'll have to re-think my design. What's your guys opinions on POWERKOTE? Is it really worth the R1500 to have it done, howmuch can it lower my engine bay temp and does It really last, I've heard of guys POWERKOTING coming off.