10 October 2010

HKS AE86 cast turbo manifold (real and copy)

Description: T25 turbo exhaust manifold

Pros: Fits pretty decent, cast manifold, brutally reliable.. Top mount so everyone can see your cool turbo in ya face!! If you got the guts for it, you can put on a t25/t3 adapter and bolt up a t3/t4 and it can stick out the hood and you can make a functional hood scoop. :)

Cons: Top mount causes turbine housing to be too close to the brake booster where eventually the heat will shred the diaphram and cook the fluid in your brake booster YAY. Also causes the downpipe to have a sharp angle and its difficult to route a big downpipe with this setup. These were made originally to be on a right hand drive JDM car. Forces the oil return line to be pretty much right on the exhaust manifold.

Improvements: Angle the turbo slightly with the compressor pointed away from the block to get the downpipe and the turbine housing a bit of room away from the brake assembly. Angle the pipes downward to allow larger turbos to be mounted up without cooking the paint off the hood.

Verdict: Its a buy, it does what its supposed to do, just needs some cleanup as far as spacing and such. Actually its reported that the HKS and knockoff cast exhaust manifolds make some of the best hp around if you can just get the thing fabbed in correctly. I know a considerable amount of people who just gave up on the darn thing because it was hard to make a downpipe fit.


09 October 2010

TOYOTA COROLLA 4AGE AE86 T25/T28 TURBO MANIFOLD

Description: T25 turbo exhaust manifold

Pros: Fits pretty decent, decent design for sure, 1.625 inch primaries.

Cons: Thin  material  on primaries which cracks easily, porous weldments, this thing has cracked in the past, gets very very close to other parts in the engine bay, may require removal of brake booster to allow proper fitment.

Improvements: needs better weldments, thicker runners, and maybe a add-on to allow an external wastegate.

Verdict: Its a buy, but have someone weld in reinforcements and clean up the weldments. Keep an eye on it and it should hold up pretty well. These make decent hp also, and are nearly equal length if you are a purist like that.

First Review: Toyota AE86 4AGE 1.6L T3/T4 TURBO MANIFOLD

Item Description: allows you to connect a t3 turbo to a 4age or 4age 20v.

Pros: Looks good, decent weldments, thick walled runners. Has a fitting for external wastegates! Very nice..

Cons: Head flange does NOT FIT at all. PORTS are obstructed also. Tubes do not line up properly with flange, which will lead to cracks later.

Improvements required: Head flange pattern must be changed to allow the outer 2 head flange studs to fit.  Needs ID alignment tubes to ensure that the tubes will line up with the flange holes. 

Verdict: Thumbs down. Does not fit.

The unit we purchased was from SpeedDaddy.