Are the freddy manifolds any better nowadays?

[240z4u]

I have my custom manifold off, and am considering swapping to a Greddy knockoff since I know my plenum shape and volume is less than Ideal. Have these things improved at all as far as quality? Most complaints I see are older.

Thanks guys.

[Rbee25]

I just installed one on my rb, had no issues at all going on. Still havnt started it up yet but it looks like a nice manifold!

[240z4u]

Which seller did you use? There used to be wild swings in quality on these things. Now that the greddy is 1,200 bucks there is no way I would even consider one.

[Rbee25]

Dude i dont blame you, 1200 for a piece of cast aluminum and a few cheap hose clamps? I think ill pass, from what ive read they dont even add much power, more just for better looks. I got mine off ebay, the godspeed one, i think it was 218 free shipping. It even came with the tb adapter. The sellers name was drifteffects iirc.

[lovehateRBrelations]

its not so much that the "freddy" manifolds are trainwrecks of engineering, or that the quality is incredibly bad, but you pretty much get what you pay for. The knock offs do their thing and I think they are appropriately priced for what you get. Its just that the true Greddy or any other high end designed manifold (which all the knock offs are knocked off from anyways) have a lot of value even though they do cost sometimes multiple times more. Its everything from the casting process, to the tempering/annealing process, to the purity of the metals used, to the precision with which the cast pieces were deburred and smoothed, and not to mention the quality and skill lvl of the welds (if there are any welds as in two piece designs or where the TB flange is). Its usually microscopic defects that cause failure under stress and it takes a damn good welder with lots of experience to not make those mistakes. But ultimately do the fake-o manifolds function and work and serve their purpose? Simple answer is yes, there are even lots of positive reviews of people that have used them in almost every application with success. So are the name brand ones actually better? another simple answer. . . .yes. When you buy a name brand product a) you are supporting the companies that 99% come out with the next big thing that everyone wants to copy. so since I believe that Intellectual property and the creativity of highly intelligent designers and engineers should be compensated for their effort . b) the actual manufacturing centers that the the real ones are made in are usually a much larger, highly regulated, quality controlled, better funded, and better equipped plant (not always tho). c) the actual casting process and accuracy of casting environment (temp, slag, other metallurgy related things) is often much better for the name brands. d) name brands are usually made on specialized, expensive, state of the art equipment that provides the best casting environment, most consistent cast, a more metallurgical pure and even distribution of metal atoms reducing flaws and things that may only become apparent after ware. I think the extra cheese is worth it because i know im getting a product that is tested, will FIT RIGHT THE FIRST TIME, and is designed specifically to optimize my engine in some way. No hate for those that are ballin on a budget. been there, respect that. I just think that if you cant buy the absolute best in all aspects for for your engine, then its better to wait and save up or just use your hominid cerebral mass and build one yourself or with someone that is willing to teach and reap the benifits of one off fabricating things built just the way you like it.
Addendum: Im not saying that the "absolute best" for you car is always the name brand im stressing that you do reasearch, do homework, read read read, talk to people, get different opinions and get realistic expectations for you budget and base your decision off of that. Not what is the "big name" badass product, or the flip side the "cheapest" option out there. If you get lots of independent reviews you can build your own case by combining that with the knowledge you discover on teh googles. There are a surprising number of companies considered "off brand", "low end", "entry level", yet over time they become the industry standard. You will probably surprise your self at what good parts you can get at great value if we all just derail the whole "separate everything into flashy, expensive, mag cover, the best ever parts", and "knock off, Chinese crap, cheapo, enough to get you by parts" Just my mid morning thoughts on the ever popular subject of part quality. Sorry if it was ranty
Discuss. . . . .

[240z4u]

I am not going to read that wall of text. I was asking for real world experience. I am not a huge fan of supporting the knockoff companies either, however there is just no way I can justify a 1,200 cast intake manifold. It's laughably expensive, and it's no secret that the greddy IM isn't ideal and likes to make cyl 6 lean.

[mixeds14]

If u want a knockoff manifold, u should atleast get the isis one. its the most popular of the knockoff and its well made, its not the greddy but beats paying the 1200 bucks. its good enough for raw brokerage to sell it.

the ebay ones that are 200 dollars or so, aint worth it. aske mw how i know.. the ports dont line up against the gasket and casting is wackin sone areas and u have to take it to a machine shop to get the flange straigh in order for it to seal good or u will have a leak n be searching for it for days..trust me i speak from experience. how ever it did do its job but it felt restrictive when i had it cause the rwason i posted above. i ended getting the isis one and it was pretty damn close n felt a bit different yhan the egay one not to mention that the bolt holes lined up way better..

[Rbee25]

Lovehate i totally agree with you on that, no doubt the greddy piece is made better. I was just stating my personal experience with the ebay manifold. A buddy of mine actually ordered the isis manifold for his rb the same time i got my ebay one, i installed both manifolds on both engines and saw little to no difference between the two. I am i firm believer in spending money in the right places on your motor if you are on a budget, and i just didnt find it necessary to spend 1200 on a manifold for my application, others may differ, but ill find out soon enough, and if it leaks, then i will feel like a dumba$$ and go buy a real greddy lol.

[lovehateRBrelations]

I am not going to read that wall of text. I was asking for real world experience. I am not a huge fan of supporting the knockoff companies either, however there is just no way I can justify a 1,200 cast intake manifold. It's laughably expensive, and it's no secret that the greddy IM isn't ideal and likes to make cyl 6 lean.

my apologies for trying to help. My "wall of text" is simply a detailed description of some of the difference you get when you by a "name brand" part vs. "knockoff". Furthermore I clarified my comments to state that they were merely what you wanted in the first place.....real world experience. Sorry reading is so hard for you, but im trying to share some info to the knowledge pool from what I have found (16yrs experience as a custom fabricator, welder, seasoned autojunkie.) and your just being well kinda a d!ck.

I also clearly stated below my clarification statements that there are in fact many MANY not so well known boutique performance and fab shops that produce an excellent if not superior product to the Greddy, HKS, JUN, insert uber JDM parts co here, etc. Perfect example is down here in Dallas, Forced Performance, not to long ago they were are local scene turbo builder that designed and started producing bad a** sh*t. . . . .now EVO and STi owners cant buy em fast enough and FP is a big "main stream" performance turbo builder. Their prices still a cheaper and easier install option than my stuff for those cars.

Basically im not telling you to justify spending $1k+ on a Greddy, there are lots of options, google works really well best part is most will do better than ok and you probly wont have any problems with normal use. You may have some minor easily fixable, yet annoying, fitment issues, no biggie. Just understand that when you by a legit (ebay and similar sites) knock off you are buying an inferior product that may be a functionally close reproduction but is lower quality due to the complex nature of metallurgy, forging, and the general process of metal fabrication. But best part its ok bro.....like I said even the "worst of the worst" parts have plenty of people using them with no issues. So laugh at the price or dont, buy it or dont, better yet get into fabricating and learn you how to make some custom spec gear for you engine. Just dont accuse me of wasting this forums space when I was giving exactally what you wanted. . . . .real experience. And also dont hang up on the whole "greddy isnt the best design". This isnt even about the dumb Greddy manifolds anymore. Its just parts in general. You really really really do, spoken from learning the same mistake too many times, get what you pay for. Knowledge is power, etc.

Sorry really not tryin to be a d!ck, but I mean there are some cliches that are simply true and to pop off and jump on my a** for trying to help the community out with aforementioned real life experience (please feel free to again pm me if you have any doubts about my experience with nissans and RBs in general). . .i guess im sorry?

And 240z4u if you need like websites or a list of people that can help you get what you want with in budget or any RB information in general, I most certainly am not the boards expert and do not profess to be, but I would be more than happy to assist you in providing you with or obtaining accurate information for you to use at your disposal.

since I get the vibe your more of a cut to the point. . . . .straight to the answer kind of guy, but unfortunately this debate on car parts has raged on forever, and there really isnt just that direct of an answer to the timeless question of what parts good or not. . . .its a process and evolves and changes with customer trends and demands. You will always have industry leaders/innovators, and industry competitors that try to make the same thing but cheaper and faster. At what cost, who knows? That is only something that consumer can weigh out and make their final decisions based off of.

Anyways no hard feelings its just Ive spent the better part of my life, building, improving, designing, custom fabricating, playing with, assembling, disassembling, modifying, and installing pretty much anything to do with cars ranging from american muscle to all kinds of euros and Japanese toys. It was my full intent to be helpful and thorough and I do apologize if my answer was a bit too "wordy". Lets get back to discussing these here car parts, thread jack stops here.

[lovehateRBrelations]

Lovehate i totally agree with you on that, no doubt the greddy piece is made better. I was just stating my personal experience with the ebay manifold. A buddy of mine actually ordered the isis manifold for his rb the same time i got my ebay one, i installed both manifolds on both engines and saw little to no difference between the two. I am i firm believer in spending money in the right places on your motor if you are on a budget, and i just didnt find it necessary to spend 1200 on a manifold for my application, others may differ, but ill find out soon enough, and if it leaks, then i will feel like a dumba$$ and go buy a real greddy lol.

and you have a totally legitimate point. The Isis mani has actually turned out to be a pretty decent piece so far. I know several people personally that run them and have no complaints. And depending on the application it may not be necessary to drop 1200 into a mani, like a said there are alternatives, and one of them being talking to a fabricator or machinist in your area, get a sketch or diagram, or at least an idea then having any fabricator worth their salt, whip you up a custom fit, custom designed piece that will probably fit better than anything, be specific to your application, involves you more in the cars evolution making you closer to it, and tbh usually ends up costing hundreds less than buying a top model off the shelf piece. Just my 2c.

Side note: as a real life review we recently completed a 93 Sil40 with an rb25. Its running with custom intake mani (parts $76, labor $0), hybrid performance (off brand boutique shop out of NZ) steel steam pipe heat wrapped rb25 top mount turbo mani ($435 USD shipped to Texas, labor $0). Knock off ebay "splitfire" coilpacks ($250 arpox with ship), and to top it off an e-bay intercooler, with ebay couplings, etc. They owner doesnt intend to keep it like this, but we saved a few bucks, had to get our dirty a little to get the fitment just right, but it runs great. No issues, about 700mi on the motor since the upgrades. NOTICE: all this has been installed less than a month, so longevity is yet to be assessed.

[240z4u]

Honestly man, the day that I can justify or afford greddy prices for a manifold are long gone. I am sorry if I came across a bit crass, but yeah this argument is older than time. Especially when a used greddy is 700 bucks now. That's $500 depreciation for just bolting it on!

Thanks for using some spaces this go-round

My point in asking was that I know that the chinese manifolds are a crapshoot, but so is my custom manifold at this point. I am to the point where running lean on one end or another will be a big problem.

[lovehateRBrelations]

Hmm I would highly recommend finding a local guy that can custom fab something to help with the fitment issues If you want i can pm some diagrams and designs for a few top mounts that i designed a few yrs ago We have actually welded and used said designs on a couple of cars and I know the quality is good bc i picked out the metal had it cut and bent to my specs, then I welded, then scrutinized and inspected, started over a few times when I wasnt pleased with a section or fitment on a particular piece But now that its done and just right on those cars we used em in, im very confidint in my abilty to produce a well engineered, designed, visually pleasing, and excellent fitting piece I think this is way to go, lemme kno if you need some help
On a side note: I got tons of stainless and steam pipe already cut and bent, any RB folk out there willing to be my lab rat if I use up some of the metal and make some mani's/intakes for RB motors Im not like a registered vendor on NICO so admins feel free to edit/modify/delete any part of this if im not supposed to offer services I really dont want payment, if you wanna get on the volunteer list, if you cover the shipping and throw me a little beer money, send me a pm and ill make a demand vs time vs benifit assesement and see if I can crank some out in a timely manner so members can potentially be the first to use and test what may just be the next big thing Provided I can get the flanges, which i can, I can make custom turbo piping, exhaust pieces, turbo manifolds, intake manifolds for pretty much any engine

[240z4u]

I would be interested in seeing your designs. Shoot me an email at eoie9432 gmail and we can talk about it. I have a custom manifold right now but the plenum design was done on the fly with no real engineering involved. I'd also possibly be interested in a manifold pending seeing your designs (please don't take offense to that part). Thanks!

Evan

[95_240]

I'm interested in your manifold designs as well. Maybe you can just post them up here or start a thread for custom manifolds?

Thanks

[lovehateRBrelations]

I will pm both of you tomarrow To be perfectly honestly Id rather not put my design schematics just up on the forum I did spend a bit of time on CAD, photoshop, and other reasonably expensive software, do produce a detailed fabrication guide I dont mind talking directly to the person that is interested, but honestly Ill most likley make a "model" RB turbo mani and post pics of that with closeups and what not so yall can see the weld quality, fitment, etc I just dont really feel comfortable putting my intellectual property blueprints out there in the open Im not curently doing this for any profit, just as a proof of concept, feed back, and design improvment excercise I dunno wanna see a turbo manifold that looks exactally like my design on ebay only with s*** welds and shipping from bankok thailand lol Like i said im looking for lab rats Anyone that takes part in this bit of R and D will understand, agree to and sign, a legal document prior to me shipping that explicitlly states that these are prototype parts, not covered by any warantee implied or stated, and that I the manufacturer will not be held liable for any additional dmg done to an engine caused by failure of my part for any reason Gotta say that right away, because as a independent contractor/self employed person I am targeted for pretty much every scam type out there and have my s*** covered I keep all records of business transactions in paper and electronic form, have a great lawyer, and really would like people to understand what they are signing onto if I go ahead and make a few prototypes for members applications they are for the sole purpose of testing and product development for possible future retail If you experience any issues during this beta phase, contact me directly: you will be provided with multiple means to reach me, and all concerns will be responded to within 24hrs, usually less than one hr I will do everything that I can to fix or redisgn the offending part and happily replace the entire, yup entire, piece as long as you pay the shipping Note all requests for prototype replacment will be investegated thoroughly by my self and and a handfull of ASE master techs, and master fabricators to ensure that your problem was in fact caused by manufacturing flaw or design flaw and not improper, poor, half assed, generally incorrect installation of the part. Im not manufacturing multiple parts and going thorough pointless redesign when your either A) ripping me off and getting a bunch of <i think at least> high end custom race parts to sell to your homies for a quick buck or B) simply lack the skills, the care, the respect for your car to install it right or at least realize you cant do it for one reason or another and find someone that can Im for real only doing this so I can better asses the effectiveness of my design, make changes to the design through user feedback, and hone my production process so that should I choose to manufacture these for profit I can do it at a reasonably profitable pace vs time spent on this experiment

[chad b.]

Let me tell you from EXPERIENCE. The ISIS manifold is a huge piece of crap. I have one on my car. The problems are the horrible casting (need to get it powder coated thick to hide sh*t casting) and the water neck does not come installed. They send a chrome plated metal pipe and expect you to "figure it out". There are no instructions. Most people put RVT or rubber cement on it and just shove it into the manifold. Sometimes it holds, sometimes it doesn't. Mine did not, and at the top of a fourth gear pull on the interstate, it decided to blow out covering my show car engine bay with rust colored water and crippling the car. My suggestion if you buy one: don't use the chrome plated pipe they send you. Buy a piece of aluminum pipe online the same diameter as the one that comes with the manifold, cut it to length, press it in, and get it tig welded around the base so that it can never blow out or leak. Then get that ho powder coated.

[240z4u]

Thanks Chad, that was the most common complaint I have seen. I can powdercoat it myself so that's not a huge issue. The time and hassle involved with having a stub tigged in for a water outlet is a turnoff, but that's just the nature of the beast I suppose. I have a guy that I take my tig work to that can help me out there.

[rb25det250sx]

I cant for the life of me remember the name of the company, but it is based out of ausi(of course) and they make a nice mani for the RBs. Velocity stacks and all. Last i knew they were around 1,000$ US. But IMHO they are The best mani you can get for the Rb. Ill come back if i remember but i know there are people on the board that know who im talking about.

[240z4u]

RIPS and it's $1,275+ship from NZ FYI. Such a beautiful manifold though.