I don't make these for sale, sorry! Unfortunately I can't recommend anywhere that does them off-the-shelf either unfortunately, hence my need to make my own.
Some nice work there. I was tempted to get a TIG welder but really came back to a MIG as I was not likely to be trying projects like this. How much practice did it take to get to where you are today? Agree that these 1mm disks are the business, really quick when it comes to chopping up steel.
I must be honest in that I'm not sure how many hours I put into learning before starting on the manifold project. Not that much time, really. I probably went through just a single bottle of argon learning. I haven't really done much TIG welding since, either! I'm not very proud of those welds, to be honest. I think they look pretty terrible. But as long as they are functional and it doesn't crack all over the place, it'll do. I think I'll have it blasted and then high temperature paint it to make it look a bit nicer.
It would be nice to do that. My only worry is whether any of my welds turn out to be a little on the thin side and turn out to crack. If it's not coated in anything then it's no hassle to quickly TIG it again.
This looks good. Really want to have a go at making a downpipe for my rocco now! Just need to get the flange cut! Complete stainless are our main supplier so bends are easy to get. Was the flange cutting expensive, if yiu don't mind my asking? I just plan on making a downpipe so only need the one. I would use the manifold I bought off yourself. Eventually swapping the whole system to stainless with boxes made to my own design to try and get a specific sound I'm after haha lol
Hiya mate, Ah of course, you had the 16V Scirocco manifold didn't you. Hope it's all going well. I don't have the flange cutting receipt to hand, but a figure of 120ish is in my head. It was quite reasonable. Trev
Stainless is all very nice, but you can do the same thing with a Golf 16v manifold and standard mild steel downpipes. If you're going to the trouble of making your own downpipe/manifold in stainless for a 16v Rocco conversion, you might as well buy the Dubpower one for 300ish. In Trev's case, I'd expect there's nothing available 'off the shelf' in stainless, so he has to make his own.
You are making your own so that it will have the dimensions you want. So how is buying the dub power one is compared to a custom built one?
At the end of the day, the choice is always down to the individual, but most of us have more ideas than time, so if there's something available off the shelf I know which way I'd go. You could probably pick up a 2nd hand conversion manifold for about the price of a custom flange for a DIY manifold.
True and true Mike but.. the custom one(if done with some thoughts and calculations of course) will always outperform the ready made one
That depends how much r&d went into the off the shelf one. They have probably been designed and tested by experts.
It doesn't matter if it was designed and tested by an expert. There is no argument on that but it was designed and tested on an engine. Another engine will need a different custom exhaust manifold in order to make use all of the power potential. It's like mapping. You can't get the same map on two different engines and have the same output because even if the two engines have identical components, they actually differ somewhere. If you believe that this is not the case then you are wrong. I'm not trying to argue with you or Mike here, i'm just trying to help another forum member understand what's going on, on the matter of his interest. Sure he can buy a manifold off the shelf and that will result in a net gain but not as much gain as if a custom manifold was designed on his specific engine.
Just to confirm what Mike said again... of course there is a compromise between best,time,money etc..
Indeed there's nowhere to get a 16V Syncro manifold off the shelf, so I had to take the plunge and build one. I've honestly got no idea how it will actually perform! Regarding the situation where a manifold does actually exist off the shelf, of course anything can be improved upon and in theory something better could be fabricated - but I think the obvious question is whether one has the experience to design something that performs better. I know I certainly wouldn't!
