hey there i walked into the local tuner shop today to drop off my bros srt-4 for some upgrades. while we were waiting to get checked out i saw a turbo manifold that the owner had built. i liked the finish on it so i asked him about it and he told me he did it by hand. he said he spent over 40 hours on it. i was wondering if this was a good idea to do to my 2.1 manifold. it has never been ran and its in raw shape. what are pros and cons of doing this ? would it make the manifold weaker ? or more easily able to rust ? would it turn that heat treated blue color ? thanks what materials are the best to use ? is this pic what it would come out to look like ?

 

check my signature about polishing.. you can polish that in a few hours

 

nice thanks a lot man. this wont harm it though right ? i dont have time right now to read through the other 8 pages on ur post but i will later

 

you dont need read more than the first page.. everyone loved it who tried it. and thats the last 7 page is all about.

i dont think it would harm anything else.

it might get hotter in the engine bay. jet hot coat it.. i think that will reduce a lil heat and it will look good.

if you like the shiny polished look just polish it every few months.. there wont be any problem.

 

i was wondering the same thing!
oh and would polishing the turbo harm anything? i 'm guessing no..but just ask!

 

use a drill and the small red power ball and it will go alot faster and easier.

 

uhm.. the turbo snail itself has a rough surface right? dont polish that..it will make much more heat!!!

 

yeah.. thats what i used ( check my signature link)

 

really....damn it would look sexxy if was polished tho...
thanks

 

i just did some minor polish two days ago, ill post pics later.. i will be polishing my mani every now and then until i get it to a mirror finish.. im at 400grit right now its already shiney

 

what turbo mani you runnin ace ? if it turns that gold color than im good. im satisfied with that but its nice to see i can always repolish before shows and what not, im thincking bout doing my down pipe also. im not to worried bout heat. it will be easier to escape running a seibon vis 2 hood with the reverse cowl that works pretty good. how does turbonetics have polished turbos ? cause if i can do my turbo i would do that as well too and just order polished waste gate and bov to make it look good. would it rust at all if its not getting hott ? how do i prevent it from rusting out ?

 

Yea polishing the mani comes out really nice. Can I do the same deal to my exhaust tip I assume? Mine is looking horrendous after being parked outside for school this winter.

 

i have a turbotoyotas v 2.1, it came polished but not ceramic coated.. to its just the bare metal on the manifold so the shine is a bit coarse..

here's what it looked like before install



after 10 months of driving and i think that green engine cleaner on the self carwash it turned to a flat silver with hint of yellow.. if you have it ceramic coated it will turn gold.. you can have you turbo sent for ceramic coating or just polish have it polished.. to avoid rusting, ceramic or jethot coating will be you option

 

I personally like raw welded or coated exh manifolds. I did my old one black and got a cool crazy color up my sleeve for the new one. Here are some raw pics

 

damn thats bad ___ man who built that ?

 

We did. I work for a VW performance company called Eurojet.

 

I did mine in about 1 1/2 hours

I first sanded with 220 grit, then 600, then 2000. Polished it by hand with some turtle wax rubbing compound and had great results. They turn a gold'ish color after a few minutes of running, I loved the look

 

Oh here is a manifold and turbo I had chrome ceramic coated

 

Umm.. care to explain? My understanding is that the exhaust side of the turbo was rough finish because it's cast iron, just a byproduct of the manufacturing process. if anythoing, making it smooth would reduce surface area interacting with underhood air, reducing underhood temp but making the turbo itself hotter. This effect would be slight though since the bumps /= heat fins. Not sure if it's actually possible to "polish" in the traditional sense since the grains would still show, but it could be smoothed I think. Paint or plating would probably be better to do on a disassembled housing.

 

I like the write up, but polishing itself would now benifit anyone runing a turbo setup as much as having the manifold, hot side of the turbo and downpipe ceramic coated, I personaly just noticed a small crack in one of my welds on my mani, I turbo jet coatings in riverside is going to fix my mani's crack and coat it for about 140. but don't get me wrong if I was running n/a I would give this a try as it looks very nice finished