ABY cracked exhaust manifold

[Harvey]

Hi there, just purchased an ABY engine to put into my ur quattro as part of overall performance upgrade. Noticed exhaust manifold is cracked between no.4 and no.5 port. Are these fixable by welding etc and is it a successful fix.

Have noticed on ebay some tubular exhaust manifolds available from US for around GBP150 all in (seems very reasonable to me). Has anyone used these US made ones and do they allow everything else to remain in the stock position.

Also as a slight aside the ABY engine I purchased has engine number ABY003817. Can anyone date that for me?

Considering an S2central homefry to get around 280/430. How much does this cost mail order these days?

Sorry if searches would have returned answers to these but hoping some people can give a quick answer off the top of their head.

Many thanks.

[s2_bo]

Its not really worth welding up a ABY exhaust manifold as a replacement none cracked one can be had for about £40.
The ebay Stainless steel tubular ones are junk! they will crack again in no time and will end up costing a bomb in needing to strip it all down again.



Homefry is about £250 i think...

Good luck.

[DJones]

Hi welcome to the forum

Ditch the standard manifold and go for an RS2 or wagner, lot of money but build the engine you want now cus otherwise you will swap it later adding more cost in the long run.

Not sure on the homefry someone will be along shortly i'm sure...

[UrS4boy]

Hi there, just purchased an ABY engine to put into my ur quattro as part of overall performance upgrade. ...Also as a slight aside the ABY engine I purchased has engine number ABY003817. Can anyone date that for me?

This should help (I think it's during April 94):

[Harvey]

Thanks for the replies folks and the welcome. Appreciate it!

[goodall]

How bad are the ebay manifolds really, they get a bad press but how many people have actually used them

[GazzaG60]

do you really need to use something to know its not that great.

materials and thickness.

cost of manifold really is manifold + turbo+ downpipe+filter as airbox wont fit i guess+ time+mapping+..........

a failed device will more than likely require at least a new downpipe if you have issues.

[Harvey]

Anyone tried this?
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/RS2-Cast-Iron-...item439de30350

Also where is best to source gaskets/studs/nuts etc for stock manifold?

[Harvey]

Anyone tried this?
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/RS2-Cast-Iron-...item439de30350

Bump!

[Rusty]

Chinese copy of the RS2 manifold. They used to be even cheaper than that.

As a rule, you can use these sorts of things but don't expect them to last as the material isn't the same as higher-end item.

For future proof, top of the line, you can't beat the Wagner RS2 Evo, it'll cost a bit more but should be fit and forget and will perform better than most other cast manifolds. Easy to spend £200 on a cheap optin a few times and end up spending the same as just getting the right part in the first place.

For the stock turbo the OE manifold is fine really. Valjo is selling one here. He's not in the UK but I've dealt with Graga a few times and he's sound

[Harvey]

Cheers Rusty

That's valuable feedback. I am going with stock turbo and the 280 homefry for the forseeable future so I will just stick with the stock manifold as i have access to an uncracked one. If I upgrade to Garrett BB in future then will change manifold and all as part of a performance upgrade.

[Harvey]

What is the correct torque setting for the exhaust manifold nuts and should the studs just be finger tight to start with. Just working by analogy with the WR 10v urq set up so wondering if the same approach applies.

Also with straight edge and feeler gauge determined that the mounting surface of manifold is untrue by about 0.2mm max at one end form the other. Given the gasket is 2mm is it worth getting this 0.2mm corrected by resurfacing?