spooltime

To complement my recent Tubi exhaust installation, I had picked up a set of used factory exhaust manifolds for next to nothing and attempted to port and polish them up a bit. Nothing radical, especially for a first time porting attempt.

I picked up a cheapo air tool at HF and some nice carbide cutting tools and sanding supplies from Eastwood's for the porting. The big challenge was avoiding taking off too much material, so no doubt I erred on the conservative side.

I then shipped the manifolds to Swain Tech for an application of their highly regarded "Lightning" exhaust coating. Just got them back today, and can't decide whether to paint them another color (e.g., black) using some VHT Flameproof paint, or just leave them in their white glory. Opinions?

Also seeking input on the amateur port job - complete hack job? decent first attempt? more needs to come out? Anyone with experience have an opinion? I can do some further work on them before installing if the experts think these miss the mark.

So here's the coated manifolds:






Here's the clean-up of the collectors, which I didn't think were too bad to start with and didn't seem like much welding bead needed removal:






And finally, here's a shot of the cleaned-up inlets, which did have a bit more material to remove:






This has been a fun little project, and I'll mount them up most likely this coming weekend. I don't expect much in the way of gains, but this will represent a small incremental improvement and should help with heat management.

Third-Reef

When you bolt them up look at how the outlet matches up with the inlet of the turbo. Possibly a big mismatch with the turbo inlet being smaller. I am planning on a similar project in the near future to try and get a little quicker spool. Nice job

powdrhound

We had Swain Tech coat the headers with the white lightning stuff on several of our Spec Boxsters. They all began flaking after a few races. It was a big waste of money... The coating will probably hold up to street use but not track use...

32krazy!

oem headers are double wall to start with. watch how much you take off at the flanges or they will crack under the heat

spooltime

Interesting info. Have you had better success with any other coatings (e.g., Jet Hot, HPC, etc.)? Mine will spend most of its life on the street and hopefully the coating will hold up for that so the money won't have been completely wasted (as in doing a coating for the street is probably a waste anyway).

Right, they are double-walled for about 2/3rds of their length. In theory, the coating helps retain the heat for the portion that isn't double-walled. As for the porting, being a rookie at it, I'm pretty sure I errored on the conservative side of not removing too much material.

32krazy!

best way to retain the heat would be a set of ptp header blankets. full header coverage with the ability of the headers to expand and contract without restriction like header tape provides. about 300$

Scott.

Looks like PTP only makes turbo blankets for the 996 unless you have a custom solution with them for the manifolds?

I have an extra set of manifolds that I sent off to my local ceramic coater and will test them out since they worked fine on my last turbo track car. They only recommend a special black coating since the other colors won't take the turbo heat.

Jet-Hot says they can handle 2500* in any color and guarantee it. I passed on the $500 quote though..

32krazy!

I sent ptp a set of headers so they could make them. Its a fone call away