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Exhaust System



Stock Exhaust Manifold




This is a stock, US, OEM, exhaust manifold. As you can see from the picture below, I have completed a little port work. Doesn't it seem like every port is about even, or same size, and that includes the center ports? I worked a good number of hours grinding, welding (had that done), and sanding this manifold. This is the second manifold I have ported. I went away from this part for a time as I needed an external wastegate for my new turbo. I was NOT aware at the time that these manifolds are cast STEEL TONY! Believing it was a cast iron part, I did try to get a couple welders to try to weld on a wastegate flange but was unsuccessful. I opted for the Infamous, the Notorious, the Unforgettable “South Florida Turbo Header”. Worst thing I could have done to my car! That POS literally POS NEVER was a good part from DAY ONE! Starting with the incorrect JET-HOT (questionable) coating. NUF said! So, I am back to the stock turbo header. I have had to weld the part so that I could remove the casting bumps and hills in the ports. If only there was a hot rod guy that built this part for nissan! There is ample room for improvements over its off the shelf production part. I removed all of the casting bumps in the ports that were there for the mounting washer on the outside of the header. The casting bumps were a very real restriction to the port flow. I had various places welded on the header and then began my port work.



After I was able to remove the port restrictions, I then went to the turbo outlet flange area. I can tell you this is where I spent most of my time for one single area of the part. The outlet flow into the turbo is in my opinion a critical parameter to get correct. Any offset of the inlet flange of the turbo is not a smooth flow, and the offset will make the flow path different. With this in mind, I then port matched the manifold to a standard 1/2 HKS spacer. I like the size hole they made, and it seems to fit the turbo inlet closly. So I start with scribing the flange and go at it with a grinder.



I removed a good amount of material from this part. The first header I did, I was very conservative on the port work, and did a fair job on the turbo outlet. I went all out on this new part. I want to get the same if not better hp from this part as from the South Florida header.
I really think, that dollar for dollar, Nissan did a much better job. Looking at the porting I have completed, I am confident I will be able to run the same power I previously ran with the SFP header with this part.



The ports are opened up significantly now. So all I bascically did was to first locate the gasket on the head. I inspected the gasket to head position and made note of where the gaske tfit the head. I then went to the manifold with the information I got from the head and located it correctly to the manifold.
I scribed the correct hole size and locations on the manifold, and the correct location on the gasket so when installed on the head I could locate the intake ports and now the exhaust ports.
I opened up all of the ports, EXCEPT the #3 and #4 ports, and matched them to the gasket size. This aligned every port to the head port, with the additional porting on the sides of the manifold port. Flow is from the exhaust port on the head strait out, the offset sides on the exhaust manifold will not matter, but flow trying to run from the manifold to the exhaust port will hit a fair amount of resistance because of the head exhaust port offset on the sides. Resistance to reversion in the exhaust is a good thing.
After I ported the manifold, it matched the gasket, and the gasket was matched to the head.I checked the three monting holes for #3 and #4 and both of the end studs. I have installed 10mm studs in the ends of the head. I made sure the gasket holes lined up correctly, and the manifold holes lined up correctly. I did have to move some holes over and down to align the manifold correctly. Very important to get the location on the three center and outer studs correct.
Next, I installed two gaskets, matched the manifold, gaskets, and the head. I secured the manifold to the head and drilled two 1/8" locating pins to align the manifold, gasket, and head together. This was done to make the assembly easier.

The last thing to complete is the install of the new Tial 44mm wastegate. I also am changing the wastegate from the old setup. The Tial 46mm wastegate (square body) was designed for the Porsch cars specifically according to Tial. The 44mm wstegate actually will flow more air then the 46mm gate, so what better time right. I will have to drill a 1 3/4" hole in the bottom of my manifold to get the new gate on the system. I don't think it will be to hard to do???
After the wastegate install, I am thinking of having the manifold JET-HOT coated blue. I found that there is a percentage of less heat radiation from parts that are coated. I figure less heat in that area is good. I will get pictures of the install after I have completed it.




I have been collecting some additional information on options for the L28 turbo engines. So give me some time to get all of the pictures I need to do the job.

Euro Exhaust




This is a picture of the Euro exhaust manifold that Nissan did for the turbo zx cars. You can see that the unit was made of three pieces, and put together with bellows type couplers. This unit is an excellent example of a preformance part for the turbo zx cars. I am quite sure this unit will flow enough to run 600hp. The one restriction in the system is the inlet ports of the manifold as seen from the picture. The inlets can be opened up as the casting of the part is very thick, so a good porting job will work very well on the part. Unlike the stock Turbo manifold that was sold in the US, this part needs little work to make it ready to run good power. The US model on the other hand requires some good opening up in the outlet, the inlets, and in the pipe as much as possible. Welding may be required to open the ports.
The only thing I would do to this part is Jethot coat it after I cleaned it up, what do you think about Blue, or Black? A note on Jethot coatings. The silver coating will not hold up as well as the blue or the black, White, well I have never used that color so I realy dont know the temp range of the coating. You want to use the 2000 drgree coatings for this part and the turbo exhaust housing (exhaust turbine housing), You can get by with lower temp rated coatings down the system further away from the manifold.
A surface grind may be a good idea as well just to ensure it is flat, but a good granite table with some sand paper will do just as well.




3" Killer Stainless Exhaust System



Here is my custom system for the turbo zcar at last. Let me first say that it is not the stainless system, but the proto system in mild steel painted with high temp silver paint, (I really dont know why these auto places sell this crap paint. The can has 1200 degrees listed on the can, what is the optimum temp if a correctly running car 1400-1600 degrees, what a waste of money and time getting this stuff. Keep that in mind when you decide to paint your new headers white, you could be just wasting your time and money)The stainless system will look even better then this, I will tell you that over time the system will turn a brown/golden color from the heat, but hey we can tell people our cars parts are gold plated. Note the first picture with all of the hardware, less two small brackets that go on the muffler and the second pipe to secure the system to the body of the car, no problem they will be there in the kit. The second picture is of the downpipe and the cat back pipe. The downpipe will have to be welded in a couple of places because the bends are so close no mandrel bender can do it, but the bends will be a mandrel bend cut and welded together perfectly. The flange on the downpipe is 3" swedged down to 2 1/2". This is easily changed to a full 3" pipe to accomidate a full T4 exhaust turbine housing if it is wanted. Additionally, the 2 1/2" flange will fit the stock exhaust turbine housing, 2 1/4", but it will also fit the modified stock housing perfectly that is running the T4 turbine wheel like me, courtesy of Jim Wolf Technology. The next two pictures are of the couplers in the system. These clamps and couplers require no gaskets and do not leak or make noise. The clamps are made from billet aluminum, and are available in four colors, blue, red like the one shown here, black and last but not least silver. Note the ability of adjustments with these couplers. You get a full 360 degree rotational adjustment and the X&Y axis adjustments also. Not a bad deal at all in my opinion. I have also made a test pipe to go in place of the cat FOR TESTING PURPOSES ONLY, YEA RIGHT, I plan on testing my car everytime I get in it, So you will have a system that is smog legal. The only thing you will have to do is cut the pipe going to your EGR valve on the stock system and weld it to the new downpipe. Isn't it so nice Nissan decided to make that pipe stainless steel also, thank you very much guys. And here, my prize, isn't she lovely and so deadly, her kiss is fifteen times as deadly as that of the 2 1/2" system. I think what I love the most about her is her in born need to dominate possess. Vincent Price could have not said it any better, this system is killer guys LLLLLLL. I just break myself up. I cant wait to get this system on my car.
I am going to take the system and install it on a stock car, do the baseline power of the car on the dyno and then see what we get with my system on the same car. I really cant use my car for the test because of all of it's modifications, but Rocky on the forum has agreed to let me use his 82 turbo for the test. I am expecting some significant Hp gains for even the stock car with the system. The good part is that the system will also support a 500Bhp car with no problems, you will have to rermove the cat for that kind of power tho. I will post the dyno charts on this page as soon as I get them so you will be able to see for yourself the results.

baseline dyno test


modified exhaust dyno test

Here is the base line dyno results form a stock 82 turbo car. I know the picture did not come out well, I scanned it at 1200dpi trying to get good resolution but it just did not work well. I will list the results :
1) first run, MAX HP= 147.2 MAX TORQUE= 169.1
2) second run, MAX HP=152.2 MAX TORQUE= 168.8
3) third run, MAX HP= 149.7 MAX TORQUE= 169.6
You can see from the results sheet the max hp and torque are in the 2700-4500 rpm ranges. This car is running a little less then the advertised spec of 180 Hp, but you know it appears to be running good to me. The car has the average 150-200K miles on the engine. I do believe my car when I fixed everything you could fix and tuned the thing the best I could get it the car was in the 180Hp range stock at 200K miles.

Here the results of the system I built for the car.
1) first run, MAX HP= 171.8 MAX TORQUE= 181.6
2) second run, MAX HP= 167.8 MAX TORQUE= 185.4
3) third run, MAX HP= 169.4 MAX TORQUE= 184.3

I think the system speaks for itself, not only did it increase the overall hp and torque by about 20Hp, but across the board there was significant gain. The part I am really very pleased with is the lowend hp and torque increase over stock. Unlike what most people say about loosing your low end because of a large exhaust system, this system seems to deify the laws of "that is what they said". I sure would like to meet "they" someday and let him or her know they have stopped so many people from doing various things they should keep quiet.
Looking at the second results sheet, it becomes very apparent where the next modification should be on this engine, the turbo. The exhaust is able to handle the bigger turbo very effectivly. The top end shows the cam running out, as well the turbo. Well that is about it for my exhaust system. In a nut shell, I am extremly pleased with the results, kinda makes all the cuts and scratches worth it now.

Rocky thank you for the use of your car. I really appreciate your help.

NOTE: both tests were made with a catalytic converter installed and 87 octane fuel.

Here are a couple pictures of the muffler installed on my car. BEEFY is what I hear the most, it sounds like it has a V8 in the car and it looks excellent also I think. There will be three systems out on these cars so far, and nobody has anything like on their car except me and two other guys. I am happy with the results of all my work and effort. This is the way a system should be made.


You can see the two 3" tips coming out in the stock place Nissan had their tips. I think it looks very good.

The side view, altough is a little hard to see shows the anodized red coupler and the entire length of the muffler. Note I got this unit to fit the car so that I will be able to fit a 8" centerline convexpro wheel with a M/T 8.5 wrinkle wall in the space, very tight fit I have to say. I hope the tire expansion is not to much for the width of my quarter panel. I think it will work out just fine.