most turbo manifolds on there are for hondas. B, D, H seriers are the engine type. B18, H22, D16....
Those wont fit ours. I've always wondered if it would be possible to buy a low cost honda tubular manifold, and chop off the exhaust flage and have a welder attach a saab flange.

 

Only prob with low cost honda manifolds is the quality. Without proper turbo bracing or supports, those seem to break and crack very easy. But with any amount of money and willpower, anything is possible

 

right on... thanx for the info guys...

 

You don't need a tubular manifold.

You can have one made, and it will look nice, and your Honda friends will oooo and aaaahh, but you don't need one...

 

um, why not?

i was looking at my vigs. mani and i notced the #2 outlet releases into a 90 degree angle into the #3 and 1 and 4 dont look much better?

am i missing something?

 

hahaha, well put.

 

I don’t think anyone on the market right now makes a good solid tubular exhaust manifold for Saabs at a decent price. I have looked at a lot of different types that people sell and it looks like there is a lot of room for improvement in the Saab market. As for tubular exhaust manifolds cracking that just something that comes along with buying them they will never be as strong as there cast counter part.

 

manifolds are really really hard to make properly. Jak makes manifolds, for the c900 Jon Williams makes a manifold, neither are cheap, Jon's is a work of damn art. neither really do much unless you are making absolutely insane amounts of power, they just arent neccisary like Mike said. the only reason honduh folk use em is 1) the look 2)they dont have a nice durable cast iron factory turbo manifold available like we do.

Paul

 

yeah, coming from someone who has one, you don't need it. they sure are cool though, and it's always nice to have for when you break 600 HP :lol:

 

Off topic Jeff, but looking at your signature, how many cars do you REALLY have right now?

 

I took a look at Jak’s manifold he had up at SOC this year and I wasn’t too impressed with it. The first thing I noticed when I looked at it was there were small pin holes in the welds. Looking down the runners I could see light coming through where the tubes were welded at the flange.

 

I was looking at it more in a cost vs performance basic. A tubular manifold for a ng900 isn't very cost efficient, unless you have the mechanical know-how to do it yourself.

But those are also good points made. But I am curious to know how restrictive the actual stock cast manifold is compared to a basic equal length tubular manifold. Also if you gain 10 hp off the tubualr manifold, but your spool up time i doubled, how worth it is it?

 

Also if you gain 10 hp off the tubualr manifold, but your spool up time i doubled, how worth it is it?

Whose spool time doubled? THe spool time in my 9000 droped almost 500 rpm, and in my c900T maybe it droped 2 or 300.

 

Spool up time goes down with a tubular manifold not double. "Because of the better utilization of the exhaust pulse energy, the turbine's performance is improved and boost increases more quickly."

 

Yes exhaust pulses are used more efficiently in a tubular header but guess what-if you make those runners with a larger cross sectional diameter than stock,it is going to kill the efficiency you just gained.

 

^^ ding ding ding. you a winnah hahaha you a winnah hahahaha

. on aftermarket applications the only benefit acheived through our cast manifolds is higher strength/temp. withstanding......unless it is a POS tubi mani that is weak/flawed in its design it will spool a turbine faster due to less restrictive flow of pulsating EGs creating a more efficiet/faster flow of EGS

 

So...PureV...Dyno your car stock, then with a tubular header and the same turbo.

I'd be curious to see your results.

I might eventually get a tubular header, but only if I upgraded the turbo again and I don't see that happening.

At least not for a while...

 

Dyno your car stock, then with a tubular header and the same turbo.

At least not for a while...

Fortunatly for you all...i did dyno my car stock, then added a header, but have not been able to dyno it since. I would be happy to dyno it soon but recently the wastegate actuator has stopped actuating and I hit the fuel cutout on a consistant basis. Once I find a stock replacement Ill dyno it. Or if anyone has a relatively new one that they know works that I could buy, That would work too.

 

Come on mike you now you want to go bigger

 

I know this sounds like heresy, but....

In all honesty....

There's a point of diminishing returns when you start to go too big and you reduce the economy and refinement of a daily driver. The GT30 is just ever-so-slightly over the line.

The 16T was a nice balance for the 2.0L...quick spool, good power, excellent gas mileage. An 18T would probably be about the same for the 2.3L...

 

In the end your down to the same issues like, does a filter improve spool up?
How about intake pipe?
How about the rest of the piping, DP, exhaust aso?

According to some all of those parts do improve spool, but you cannot generialize it and in most cases your only BELIEVING/ Wanting it to be true. In other words all those parts can offer gains in some some cars and in other they done not.

I dont think I have ever run across any measurements from a saab where ONLY the header was swapped and affect of it anylysed seperately. Most of the time you're looking at a longer mod list and a custom tune to go with it.
So in the end you cannot say that it was the header that gave you the better spool if it was noted.

Also the HW should some what be in balanced and investing in parts that make gains at high revs but sacrifyce the bottom is never good solution to run with the std turbo which works in low/midrage ONLY. Of course if only the peak dyno horses are used as a bench mark how well a car performs then it is another story. For some the paper horses is the shit while others care about other issues like real world performance.

Ps. Recently a NG900 ran 185km/h (~115mph) trap equipped with std manifold, basic mods, small turbine housing GT28RS, pushing peak 322whp

 

Try this place in LA for a used good working actuator.. Ask for Steve and mention Andrew from SoCAL SAAB Club.

Elite Foreign Auto Parts
9787 Glenoaks Blvd
Sun Valley, CA 91352
818-768-1350
818-768-7112 Fax
http://www.eliteforeignauto.com

 

wow... i didn't check this for like two day and now there are three pages.... by the sounds of it i'm going to have to break it to all of my honda friends that i can't be as cool as they are... but the only reason i was asking is because i was looking at getting a gt turbo and i was under the impression that you needed a custom exhaust manifold in order to have the propper placement for the turbo... i know you have to customize your downpipe... but whatelse is involved in the gt setup... my plan is to do the 2.3l conversion this winter and jak just suggested i save up and get a gt setup... you currently have a gt turbo right mike??? are you still running stock manifold and what did you have to do to modify it???

 

i believe all he had to do was get some sort of spacer to space the manifold off of the block. Just enough for the compressor housing to clear the block

 

i think he just used this

http://www.genuinesaab.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=416

to move the manfiold away from the block.

 

Yup...

the spacer works perfectly to give the turbo working room off the block, but not jut out so far to interfere with the fan...