ryan lang Posted October 3, 2011 Share Posted October 3, 2011 As above I've seen rickys work many times especially on Socks build. IMO no matter what anyone says about ricky good or bad he should be knighted for his welding skills by far the best I've ever seen by a long waythings that look good to you, may not always be good for you but yeah on a serious note, i have never tested either so i cant pass previous experience comments on but both traders seem to be the top 2 guys when it comes to exhaust fanimolds so either or are the way to go and i know everyone absolutely bum rapes toyosports, but ive never heard of a toyosports kit braking before, and we all know what abuse taggy's td04 kit gets and its still going strong so also bare them in mind too Quote Link to post Share on other sites
mattyD Posted October 3, 2011 Author Share Posted October 3, 2011 some awesome in-depth EPIC replies lads, and very much appreciate the good words you have said about his work as i have since ordered a ram horn style mani with wastegate take off etc kit for my ct9 i dont really drive her to hard so fingers crossed it will last without any problems and im sure if any problems ever do arise he would gladly sort them out as so far he has been a pleasure to deal with just need to wait for it to be made, getting a little excited now Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Ricky@Race-Tech Posted October 4, 2011 Share Posted October 4, 2011 I have heard of 4 of his td04 manifold crack now and for £1400 a kit I would bother personallyI don't think we have had 4 td04 manifolds crack. If they did, why didn't they return them for a free repair.Our manifolds are made from the best materials (for the money and whats been talked about in here) and using the best tools/techniques. We have never had a manifold fail on a car that has been mapped from the outset. We had 1 manifold that was really bad. Which had been driven unmapped at 0.5 bar for some time. The EGT's must have been through the roof (the steel is only good to a certain temperature and once the damage is done its done) However, even with this said, we will make a replacement manifold at cost price.We also have a couple of other things to consider. We could also make a mild steel manifold if requested. (but who would want one)We make manifolds out of a steel that wouldn't fail.... Ever, but the cost is about 50% more.We are in the UK so can repair/return much cheaper should anything go wrong.Our failure rate is less than 1% amazing for the nature of this product, and we aim to improve further on this.Lastly and certainly not least. We have recently changed our material to something which is slightly heavier (downside) but 50% stronger @ 600 degrees C., this will be used on all of our new manifolds.Also as somebody else has said. Manifolds won't last forever. Look at the amount of failed CT9 back housings and exhaust manifolds on standard cars/slightly increased boost. We have the longest warranty so you can have piece of mind for longest.RegardsRicky Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Ricky@Race-Tech Posted October 4, 2011 Share Posted October 4, 2011 Mixed reviews I have heard. I know a few people who have had new ones crack and I know people who have been running for ages with no problems. I've never heard issues with WEPR stuff though.....If it was a new manifold, why wouldn't they get in touch and return it? I know I would.Also we plan to stock every product we make by Christmas. We have never been able to make manifolds as quick as we can sell them. But hopefully we can turn this around so there are no waiting times on any of our products. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
federalman Posted October 4, 2011 Share Posted October 4, 2011 Got a td04 kit from ricky 2 words - shit hot! Even the spot welds on the racetech badge are bang on. No problems with this flows free and with a td04 the car gets abused no cracks and hints it will can't fault it. Matt Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Jamie1st Posted October 4, 2011 Share Posted October 4, 2011 Ive not experienced any problems with mine, how ever I know of 3 Mani's that have cracked this year, all repaired and 2 have cracked again. I also know of a downpipe that snapped clean in half and turned out the welds hadn't penetrated the metal fully? (Im not a welder so couldnt confirm), also heard of an inlet weeping on a couple of the seem welds. :/J Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Ricky@Race-Tech Posted October 4, 2011 Share Posted October 4, 2011 Ive not experienced any problems with mine, how ever I know of 3 Mani's that have cracked this year, all repaired and 2 have cracked again. I also know of a downpipe that snapped clean in half and turned out the welds hadn't penetrated the metal fully? (Im not a welder so couldnt confirm), also heard of an inlet weeping on a couple of the seem welds. :/JThey have been talked about above, obviously any problems are going to be quickly highlighted on an open forum. I must point out on the manifolds the cracks are in the material not the welds. Which is basically because the EGT's are too high. As said previously, our manifolds are now 50% stronger, but if people continue to run lean states ANY manifold will crack. Sadly people have td04's on starlets on stock ECU's far too often.Our downpipes are all welded with 100% penetration. There was a small batch of downpipes and screamers which weren't due to a machine setting. All our manifolds are now serial numbered also incase anything happens in the future we can recall them. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
mattyD Posted October 4, 2011 Author Share Posted October 4, 2011 you mentioned above that the manifolds crack on the welds due to the car running a bit lean causing high EGT? the mani i have now has a small crack on one of the welds and my car is running a bit rich, would this suggest that it has been poorly made? lol! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Ricky@Race-Tech Posted October 5, 2011 Share Posted October 5, 2011 you mentioned above that the manifolds crack on the welds due to the car running a bit lean causing high EGT? the mani i have now has a small crack on one of the welds and my car is running a bit rich, would this suggest that it has been poorly made? lol!No, I'd as to see it, as i've no idea who made it and what made it fail. Not all weld failures are a case of bad workmanship, it depends where they are. Most manifolds will fail at the sides of welds. This is normal.Also to note, a car running rich can have higher EGT's than a car that is leaner. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Ricky@Race-Tech Posted October 5, 2011 Share Posted October 5, 2011 F1 manifolds often crack, so do touring cars, they just don't cry about it. I very much doubt exhaust gas pressure is a problem with cracking. Even at 900 degree's you'd need 10 x the pressure to even get close. However all your other points are correct.Lastly slip joints IMO aren't the way to go, the idea is as the material warms they grip to seal, when the manifold is extremely hot it'd take a lot of pressure to move, they'r ok when there cooler, good for complete heat cycles not for daily drivers where the EGT's will get higher (say on the motorway) then cool a little when at idle at the traffic lights, but never completely cool. They are also only used on thin wall manifolds which certainly wouldn't last on cars that are daily driven etc.Every tubular manifold will eventually crack doesn't matter who made it or what. its all down to the laws of thermal expansion and the fact you've got a heavy turbo hanging off the end. if you address that by hardmouting the turbo and bracing the manifold it'll crack with there isn't enough room to breath so when it gets hot and expands it'll crack because of that. can't win.the only manifolds i've never seen fail from heat expansion and weight were on f1 and topfuel drag cars where the manifold is bolted to the head, and the tail pipe bolted to the chassis. inbetween there are tripple slip expansion joints that allows movement, everwhere the manifold could possible grow there would be a slip joint. all it has to do is flow gas nothing else.But this would be extremely hard to reproduce in a starlet with such small space and turbo location.but even if you can do this they don't last for ever because eventually after all the heat cycles the metal become fatigued and fragile and cracks down to harmonics and internal gas pressure alone. remember exhaust energy is hugely higher than intake pressure.i've seen racetech manifolds crack but like i said above they all will regardless of who makes them its the laws of physics.TimTB DevelopmentsTurbo's fail, manifolds fail, engines fail eventually. If you want them to last longer go slower, map with more caution etc etc. We give a 3 year warranty on our products which is the same as most manufacturers I.e. Toyota when the cars were new. And our products are performance related Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Starlet__SR Posted October 5, 2011 Share Posted October 5, 2011 I've seen some of Rickys work and the quality is second to none, like he's said, any of it can crack, but unlike a lot of places out there he stands by his work which alot of people don't. I can see where you're coming from in regards to EGT temps causing issues, sat down with Marc one night and he explained to me what the problem was with the manifolds that were cracking. Hope to be buying a Race-tech manifold over winter for my build:D D Quote Link to post Share on other sites
TBDevelopments Posted October 5, 2011 Share Posted October 5, 2011 F1 manifolds often crack, so do touring cars, they just don't cry about it. I very much doubt exhaust gas pressure is a problem with cracking. Even at 900 degree's you'd need 10 x the pressure to even get close. However all your other points are correct.Lastly slip joints IMO aren't the way to go, the idea is as the material warms they grip to seal, when the manifold is extremely hot it'd take a lot of pressure to move, they'r ok when there cooler, good for complete heat cycles not for daily drivers where the EGT's will get higher (say on the motorway) then cool a little when at idle at the traffic lights, but never completely cool. They are also only used on thin wall manifolds which certainly wouldn't last on cars that are daily driven etc.Turbo's fail, manifolds fail, engines fail eventually. If you want them to last longer go slower, map with more caution etc etc. We give a 3 year warranty on our products which is the same as most manufacturers I.e. Toyota when the cars were new. And our products are performance related i was trying to stick up for your work saying its not yours that all manifolds will crack, wasn't trying to get into a debate TimTB Developments Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Ricky@Race-Tech Posted October 5, 2011 Share Posted October 5, 2011 i was trying to stick up for your work saying its not yours that all manifolds will crack, wasn't trying to get into a debate TimTB DevelopmentsAbsolutely Tim, I didn't mean to come across that way sorry if I did.I like the discussion, it lets people know an insite, which will hopefully help them. Also we want to here about failures so we can push the boundries further and hopefully improve on the ways we do things. We held a record of 0 failures for a couple of years. A few pictures (sorry for quality) of a new design.RegardsRicky Quote Link to post Share on other sites
mattyD Posted October 6, 2011 Author Share Posted October 6, 2011 that is a gorgeous manifold my friend looking forward to seeing mine Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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