Possible cheap manifold crack solution

[kicknmazdaspd]

Ok, I have a crack in my turbo manifold like most of you probably do or have had. My idea, and I'm not sure that this has come up before, but I was wondering if I were to weld the crack if it would mess the manifold up in any way. I know that it might be tempered for the high heat and didn't know if it could mess it up somehow or what? I'm not sure if I'm just paranoid and it was dumb question but, I just wanted to make sure.

If you didn't understand my question I'm sorry I can try to explain it better if you have a question.

Also sorry if it was pointless question.

[Rush]

There are some that have welded the cracks in the manifold .. but unfortunately, it's just a temporary solution. Sooner or later, it either starts cracking along the weld or just cracking somewhere else.

[ogsp5]

The cast iron mani. can be welded and finished properly. Make sure that the mani. is heated (hot) and then welded. Do not weld when cold. An old trick is to sprey the hot man. with WD40 after. This forms a black coating that acts like a ceramic coating. That is what I did when I added a ext W.G to the stock MSP mani.

[Packerfan]

Havent heard that one in awhile he is right anytime you weld cast WD-40 the weld and watch it harden its pretty cool dont remember what the significance of WD-40 was something in it cant remember just dont forget to check that the flange is still straight from what I have seen it is caused by flange on even factory install was not flush and this caused excessive stress in that area between that area where I am sure yours is cracked right above the Y in Callaway So just weld wd-40 and send to machine shop for decking of that flange and your good to go

[Packerfan]

Good rule to live by nothing and I mean nothing is a bolt on every application is different even if its just in thousandths of an inch in high performance mods everything has to be measured twice

[laracroft]

I took mine to a welder and he said - no. Welds will not hold the cast iron. It will crack again and may be worse a second time around. The manifold was only as good as it was originally molded. I haven't come across another owner who's had it done. Everyone pretty much just gets another one or buys the Hiboost one.

[Packerfan]

That is BS sorry but you need to find another welder.

[Rush]

It's an extremely dependent situation -- on the welder, the materials, blah-de-blah. If you have someone weld it that doesn't have sufficient experience working with cast iron .. you're gonna wind up screwed in the end, because the weak spot will still remain and will likely crack again.

And like I said before .. patching up a crack in one place won't stop the cracks forming in OTHER places. Sooner or later, cracks will form between all the runners -- my original stock manifold had one massive crack, one smallish one, and a third just starting when I pulled it off. How many times are you gonna spend the money in both labor (to have the manifold removed and reinstalled) and in material to have new cracks (and possibly old cracks) reworked? The fact is that the stock manifolds are simply NOT sufficient.

Seems like the smartest idea to me would be to save all that money up and just buy an aftermarket option that WON'T crack.

[kicknmazdaspd]

Well I was going to weld it myself so labor and cost isn't the thing. I just didn't know if this had been done before and if it was a success.

[kicknmazdaspd]

I know I would need a new one, I just thought that welding it would be good temporary and cheap solution for me at the moment.

[Rush]

Well I was going to weld it myself so labor and cost isn't the thing. I just didn't know if this had been done before and if it was a success.


I know I would need a new one, I just thought that welding it would be good temporary and cheap solution for me at the moment.
Oh! Well in that case, if you have experience with cast iron -- I'd say give it a shot. Who knows how long it'll last, though .. but might as well try it as a temporary thing till you pick up an entirely new manifold. Good luck!

[hiroshi988]

well, the guy who custom installed my cat back said he could just weld the crack on my turbo mani.

[Kooldino]

Cast iron doesn't take well to welds, but it's doable.

Groove the crack so that the weld sticks to it.

Heat the iron to 500* or better.

Weld the crack.

Try the WD40 trick if you wish.

Then throw the manifold in a bucket of lime and leave it there for a day.

[hiroshi988]

im just going to get the thunder turbo mani.