ssautochrome SUPER ca18det t25/28 manifold set

[slideways]

so yeah i bought/purchased on of these kits from ssauto on ebay. let me state first off that these welds are superior, well not exactly but they are really nice. Had a few issues though, but nothing major.

at first i just installed the 02 dump w/ cat emiminator downpipe but there was major clearance issues when trying to use the stock manifold, just wasnt going to clear that frame rail. so i took off the stock turbo and mani then installed the ssauto manifold unit. great fitment w/ stock ca18det t25. after everything was done and installed i had to bend fitment hte metal hard lines for the turbo and chop the J unit oil return line to a normal dropinng line then connect r ubber reinforces hose to the oil pan from the oil return line..

got everything settles and took it for a test drive.

LOW END WAS COMPLEETLY gone, again i am running stock psi on s tock turbine mods include intake and bov thats it besides the new mani, dump and downpipe. it laggs till about 2900rpm then gets starts to spool and hit hard w/ full boost arround 3800rpm:( before it was 3,000 rpm even. kinda dissapointing butmaybe when i swap the gt28bb from s15 this will all be eliminated with almost no lagg. just thought id post a mild review on a part im shure lots have u had taken thought into purchasing

brandon

[c-rad]

when you free up the exhaust significantly like you did, you lose some low-end torque. I remember on my last car, I went from a stock downpipe/catback to a full Apex N1 DP/catback combo. The car felt slow as balls until I got to about 4500-5000 and then the top end was RIDICULOUSLY faster.

[Vetal]

when you free up the exhaust significantly like you did, you lose some low-end torque.

This is very wrong... The more gases are available to spin the turbo, the earlier it will produce boostc-rad: don't you think you just got very lean mixture upto 4500?

[c-rad]

This is very wrong... The more gases are available to spin the turbo, the earlier it will produce boostc-rad: don't you think you just got very lean mixture upto 4500?

I don't know... it was on my Eclipse. But it definitely had a lot more low end torque before I put the full exhaust on.

[slideways]

i'm not too shure how i will go about explaining this, becasue i am fairly new to the ca and turbo world but i can explain it like this. before the instal with OEM ca t25 ar.48 i could " drift" using different tecniques like hand brake and feint. now my car relys on" or shall i say i rely on" only clutch kick becasue when rpm's drop below 4200 or so it wont move SERRIOUSLY. i think that i misread their description when i bought this manifold set

it says in alrge bold letters taht this manifold will work with stock t25 BUT is better equiped with the t28. So i should have taken that into consiteration and installed these items after i purchased the t28/ anyhow i will continue on this write up in better detail with beter pictgures once i recive their disco potato copy turbo and fmic kit w/ exhaust.

brandon

[float_6969]

No, it does make sense. At lower RPM's, before the turbo is spooled, and you're not on boost yet, the motor will act like it's NA. Therefore you'll want higher port velocities and not nessicarily higher volume. After the turbo has spooled up and you are now pressureizing the motor, it's no longer applicable, and flow is more important. Unfortunatly, the only real way to correct this would be to use a device like Yamaha does on their R1 called an "Exup". It is basicaly like a butterfly in the exhast that opens and closes. I think it's based on RPM, but I could be wrong. Remember, the turbo works because of a pressure differential. With larger diameter piping before the turbo, your pressure differential will be less, and you will spool slower. The trade off (there's always a tradeoff on motors) is that you gain power in the top end. This is due to the larger piping diameter allowing more volume to flow through it. Remember, a gasoline engine is just an overcomplicated air pump...

[WeldingHank]

when i put my T28 on with the SSAuto manifold, the car felt like it had significantly more low end off boost power.

[slideways]

hery weldinghank, is that t25 from pulsar or gt28 from s14/15? just currious.

brandon

[WeldingHank]

S15 GT28

[boost_boy]

What all you guys that are using these SR turbos fail to understand is, the SR is a bigger engine and its turbo uses bigger wheels and exhaust housing, hence the reason why you are running out of low end power with addition of the bigger snail. Use the SR turbo and use your back housing off the OE CA18 and you'll see the difference in spool time. Why do you guys think the eclipses are so quick! They have relatively small back housing on their turbochargers.

I have a 4G61T in my 1995 Hyundai Elantra using a 1990 eclipse ecu, AFM, and 1G 450cc injectors as well as the eclipse SMIC and that little 11B turbo rocks. It has a very small rear housing as well as a small front housing, but it kicks butt even though it smokes and is spitting oil at on 6psi of boost.

Dee

[slideways]

im runing stock ca18det turbo, not sr t25. BUT i am using that ssauto trest/greddy style 02 dump so maybe that is the reason for low end loss, i really dont know. but i do know that when i tried to install the 02 dump and downpipe in stock manifold it wouldnt fit. when i tried to bold up the dp it just hit the framelrails so i emailed ssauto about that and he told me that it was a SET instalklation item meaning that the 02dump required the manifold in order to fit because" and ive noticed this myselkf" teh ssauto manifold makes the turbo sit about 1-2 inches closer to the motor.

brandon

[slownslurious]

I just got mine, I hope that my megan racing 02 housing will still work. I'm very impressed by the apparent quality of the manifold for the price I paid, and I was pleasantly surprised to see studs, washers, nuts, and lock washers included, and I was blown away when they had included new gaskets in the bottom of the box. Those were not mentioned in the auction. The welds have been smoothed out so much that I can run my fingernail on the inside of the runners and it doesn't catch. Having said that, yeah they are quite a big larger than stock so velocity is going to be a bit lower. I'm going to wait to put it in until I get my SR T25, my caT2small is choking at high RPM's.

[slideways]

DO NOT USE the ssautochrome turbo - to - manifold gastket.. plz save yourself and use the oem nissan one. mine blew out when i started it. lol weird ehhh but yeah dont use that pl;z use the metal one OEM z32 gasket.

brandon

[slownslurious]

DO NOT USE the ssautochrome turbo - to - manifold gastket.. plz save yourself and use the oem nissan one. mine blew out when i started it. lol weird ehhh but yeah dont use that pl;z use the metal one OEM z32 gasket.

brandon

thanks for the heads up, I ordered all new turbo gaskets from spl parts (all metal crush type), I bought a felpro from autozone, and I'm gonna spray them all with copper spray just for good measure.I really only wanna have to do this once. Is there any loctite that will stand up to that kind of heat? I'm probably going to try to get some of those copper lock nuts for exhaust from autozone to replace the SS ones. I may replace the studs on the manifold too they look cheap.

[JDMSIL80]

Thanks for the great review!

Would this manifold bolt up perfectly with S15 T28 or HKS 2530?What are the downpipe options with this manifold?

[slownslurious]

should be same as stock if your turbo is same as stock...

[slideways]

any ca18det downpipe will work. BUT just to let you guys know, i emailed ssauto about fitment. they replied with " the manifold and 02 dump were designed to be ran with eachother, stock 02 dump will not work as for there are clearance issues with stock 02 dump on ssauto mani." so yeah, if u buy the mani, then buy the dump pipe and 02 together as the deal. its only 150.00 for all 3. anyhow 1 thing i did to expand the longevity of this manifold was weld in a 3inch diameter 3inch long flex type section in tyhe downpipe. this helps lessen vibrations to the manifold thus making les stress on the welds. great thing to do if u have the time to take it to the muffler shop with it on your car. anyhow. wil post pics soon becasue my ss mani cracked from excessive vibrations:( gona buy another one and try it out with my flex section on downpipe to test final results of quality...

brandon

[JDMSIL80]

What other manufacturers make manifold and downpipe for CA18DET besidies SSautochrome? I cant seem to find one as most are made for SR20DET.

[iliketocrash]

that's the problem. you'll be hard pressed to find anyone else who makes a manifold for a left hand drive engine bay.

[JDMSIL80]

My JDM 180SX is infact right hand drive, but still i have trouble finding the choices of parts. There's hardly any manufacturers that support CA motor.

[slideways]

WRONG, there are tons of manufaturers that make a huge parts list for the ca18 in both ff form, awd form and rwd form. just seachie searchie

http://www.norrisdesigns.com

http://www.takakaira.co.jp and YES they ship to us

i was on google and yahoo.com just used keyword and typed in ca18det and millions of results came, you are right about majority of it being sr20 but when us earch hard u will see just how easy it is to find ca18det parts. as for manifold i would just go with ss auto and get a stainles steal flex section welded into the downpipe. that will cure all causes of manifold failure. no vibration, no crack...... its like a motive for manifold failure... anyhow thats just my 2 cents. dont be affraid to resort to off brand companies jsut cuz those gay *** JDM ppl say JDM is the way to go.. quality is quality reguardless of the supporter or manufaturer

[slownslurious]

flex sections are not necessary for longitudinally mounted motors like the 240, so slideways advice will only really be useful on FWD and AWD CA's..

[slideways]

speed bumps, excessive exhaust movment. just about anything that will hit, ding or move the exhasut piping in any way will cause stress on the manifold. dont believe me, when i was installin gmy ss auto dp after the manifold and 02 dump was finnished i went to bolt it up to the exhaust. while bolting it up the downpipe was almost forced to move upward, causing minimal stress on it, that was only while its mounted. imagine you are driving 40 mph and hit a dip or small bump, your exhaust moves. the already created stress on the downpipe to manifold has just doubled, and you disagree with my statement? sounds to me like you should rephrase after my previously stated comment. thank you

ill post pics of the flex section in the 1 piece decat fromssauto ASAP..

[CA19DET]

the problem with SSAC was that their welds didnt penetrate the welds deep enough so when the manifold went throghy heat cycles it would crack under the welds,. that and the SS they were using, the walls were too thin, leading to runner cracks...

and no offense slide sideways but having had CA's for the last 5 years or so i can see the change in the market, the CA is slowly getting like the FJ, TOMEI, HKS and GREDDY all have stopped production on anything CA18, maybe some company will buy the dye's and castings from them for pistons, rods, cams etc, but we are quickly loosing support. hopefully the popularity in the US will keep certian things in circulation like pistons, rods, cams, bolts, manifolds etc,

but i like the new SSAC manifold, was thinking of getting one for my new turbo, or get one now and weld a T3 flange on it.. but my TRUST manifold is working gogod so far.. and makes the car rumble nice, kinda like a subaru...

[slideways]

yeah i can agree with that, get it while you can. i guess a well built motor would be a well lasting one. Maybe some day an off brand company will buy the dye's like you previously stated and maybe we can have a ca-only specific tuning company that will have all of what we will ever need BUT what are the odds of that happenening? lol but it would be nice having parts the quality of hks w/o the price:)

[JDMSIL80]

If price isn't the issue, which company makes the best of the best performing turbo manifold for CA?

[float_6969]

I like the HKS manifolds due to the cast iron design. I think they're all basically the same thing, you're just paying for the name.

[JDMSIL80]

^I dont think HKS makes them anymore for CA motor, at least not in their website.

[slideways]

http://www.takakaira.co.jp

they have many many many parts for ca18. and according to them hks, greddy,apexi,tomei,mines,blitz still makes parts for ca18.

i think they have jsut failed to list them on the site for a reason, PEOPLE WILL NOT BUY. i assume they have had problems in the past w ca18 item being made and not being purchased why? sr20 came and those fatgs hoped the 2.0 bandwagon but there are still many man y shops in Japan that make man many ca parts, intake plenums, maifolds, turbo accesories, in jectors and tuning roms/piggy backs and utinsils.

best thing i can say is get a custom made manifold... supposidly gladman makes good kat manis, contact him and have him copy an ss auto.... the only way we can get more parts support, IS TO SUPPORT THE PARTS. go talk to shop owners, and ger them to market more items, go convince jim worlf technology to start re maping ca18 ecu's, go talk to intercooler supporters and convince them to have an optional cold pipe for ca18 intake manifolds. If we just sit back and assume evrything will come t hen the aftermarket world for ca18 WILL FALL OFF like fj20, so do your part. im going to some local shops to see if i can get some quotes on custom parts..

-fuel rail-intake plenum-CUSCTOM egr fitted intake manifold(yes i am attempting ca18 in california legalization, i already talked to state ref and showed him pics"

things we will need-EGR port, valve and i operating,-AIV unit w/ fitting in 02 dump, and a cat... thats it fold.. anyhow i have the intake manifold sitting and SOHC ka egr system.. lets see what i can do...

brandon

[JDMSIL80]

^I found Raretrick carries a few JDM CA turbo manifold as well, very pricey as they costs over US$1,000.

I totally agree with your point. If there is enough demand in the US for CA parts, it will definitely trigger the attention of JDM manufacturers to import their parts overseas.

Take for example Greddy, which is already bringing over JDM parts for SR and RBs: http://www.greddy.com/pro_jdm_parts.htm