Hello guys! I am a newbie to this forum. I purchased a non-running 71' 240z a while back which needed alot of TLC. Got it all cleaned up for the most part and running decent. Although I do not have any fabrication pics to post of the Z (yet), I do have several fabrication pics to post of my Other car. a 1989 Colt GT turbo. Both cars intensions are for drag racing, with a little bit of turns here and there.
Plans for the Z are an LS1 / T56 swap, I know.. very original. Anyways, enough with the talk, here are the fab pics!
On my Colt, I upgraded the turbo system to a full garrett turbo setup, This meant I had to get a new exhaust manifold, one that is compatable with a garrett T3 exhaust inlet section. To buy a decent manifold that will let me do this would run me roughly 700$ +/- 200$ depending on the quality ect. SCREW THAT, I wanted to give it a shot and make my own. I started the whole thing out by ordering some pre-cute collector pieces that look like this:
star weldin them together...
With the collector all finished up, it was time to weld it to the Jig I had made, Ended up lookin like this:
With the jig all done and the collector mounted and taced. Its time to start buildin some Runners. I used 304 Stainless for my metal. Baught 14, 90* bends from MCMaster Car for about 115$ rough. So far my total in parts is about 230$ includes the pre-cut collector pieces, metal for the runners and 2 flanges. With the jig bolted to the motor I started building the #1 runner:
Here is what the piece looks like now, off the car.
Heres the pieces now, with #2 runner just about wraped up.
I think this was the stopping point for my first day working on this project. It was one of those... Wake up and walk straight to the garage. Work ALL day, then call it a night when the light from the welder lights up the street better then the street lights.
Next day I started working on this project I wanted to get the rest of the runners all finished up, and I did just that
#3 all taced together:
#3 all filled in: its starting to look pretty sexy at this point! I could see the light at the end of the tunnel.
and finally, with some patience... Patience.... and MORE patience I was able to get #4 runner all welded together.
Heres the final product off the car!
When it was all done I had to weld on a flange to adda wastegate which you can see in this pic:
Heres a pic of the turbo ALL finished up and the new turbo bolted to it.
Let me know what you guys think. i've been running this manifold on the car now for a couple months, No signs of cracking or anything bad. it all cost me a fraction of what I would have spent elsewhere. And believe it or not, The entire thing was fabricated with a 200$ Harborfreight Tig welder.