Check this out, for those of you who dont want to spend 850 on a greddy.

[Cameron]

just a little piece of info, some of you prolly already know, but to the new people to RB's like me and others, if you dont want to spend 800 for a greddy intake manifold, or spend 390 for a knockoff XO2 racing manifold, then check out Top Hat Performance, custom intake manifolds, they make them for both the RB20 and RB25, and they trust it on there race cars, and they do great custom work.. i would highly reccomend checking it out if you dont quite have 850 for a greddy... link to an Ebay RB20 can be found here.. and ill add pics for those who might see this when it expires... and btw they dont have this for sale on there site.. its only 450 for an RB20 or RB25.. great price for quality....

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors...sting

(LOL, and they even come with the Tophat Logo optional. )



there you go, i know im buying one, not only cause there local, and if it is not any good i can go get on to there asses, but because its only 450 for brand new quality intake..

enjoy..

[oneslow240se]

so this uses the stock throttle body?

[SeVa-S13]

Hmm, this redesign looks better than their last one (which I have and is quite unimpressive).

[Cameron]

so this uses the stock throttle body?

you would think, and it looks like it, i just saw it yesterday for the first time at there shop while i was picking up motor and transmission mounts, and then saw it on ebay when i got home. dont quote me on that, but ill ask them, i sent them an email this morning just asking general questions and all soo..

Hmm, this redesign looks better than their last one (which I have and is quite unimpressive).

really, do you have pictures? is it just a look redesign or whole unit redesign?

[Sil240]

[Eikon]

I don't like the idea of a log style manifold without having it tapered toward the rear of it. Perhaps I wrong on this, but I would guess that manifold would leave 5 and 6 pretty lean.

[themadscientist]

What a terrible design. There is no way that distributes evenly. I would take the stock manifold over that "box".

[Cameron]

idk, it may, cause if youll notice, each port is just a little short than the other, starting out at a further distance for the first and ending up with the shortest for the sixth, prolly so one wouldnt be dominate on which cyl. gets air more than another, that would be my guess on why they did it like that... like for the first air has to travel the shortest distance in, but the longest to get to the cyl. and the last, the longest, but shortest.. i think its alright.. i dont give a **** what it looks like either.. look at import intelligences old intake.. i mean if yall care about the looks then take a look at his old custom made intake, and it did just fine.. they based theres after the series 1 tophat intake.. its engine:



and just a shot to show what the car looks like with that dirty *** engine bay.. just so you wont flame it.. haha.

[nizmo zilvia]

Cleanest vert I've ever seen in my life.

[Eikon]

idk, it may, cause if youll notice, each port is just a little short than the other, starting out at a further distance for the first and ending up with the shortest for the sixth, prolly so one wouldnt be dominate on which cyl. gets air more than another, that would be my guess on why they did it like that... like for the first air has to travel the shortest distance in, but the longest to get to the cyl. and the last, the longest, but shortest.. i think its alright.. i dont give a **** what it looks like either.. look at import intelligences old intake.. i mean if yall care about the looks then take a look at his old custom made intake, and it did just fine.. they based theres after the series 1 tophat intake.. its engine:



and just a shot to show what the car looks like with that dirty *** engine bay.. just so you wont flame it.. haha.

Dude.. are you serious you can't use this engine as proof that the manifold is designed well??? You know that he's got to rebuild that engine right? You also know that he's going back to the stock plenum right??? zer...15745

[Cameron]

its not, its a crappy design, and its not even a tophat manifold, so its not even relevant to this whole thread, my bad for even using it for an example.... and i have never read that thread before, seen it, but never "read" it.. forgive me on that.. my whole point is, does anyone have this tophat manifold, because i mean, i dont think any of you guys who have been downing it have it, and well, "opinions are like..." so yea, if anyone has this can i get a little info in here on how it works, and if there are any flaws in this redesign, other than hearing its a ****ty design from people who have greddys and of course are gunna say that, because well if i had 800 to shell, hell i would to, but this manifold is not gunna kill me....

[themadscientist]

You don't have to own it to pwn it. Anybody with the most basic understanding of manifolds will tell you thisis not good. You can't just slap a box on the runners and expect it to work right. I know who sells that plenum stock and it is very nice but you still have to design the manifold you make with it. Here is a well though out manifold built with the same stock.see the difference?Point is if you are not going to get a well designed manifold then leave the stocker on there. It has a hell of a lot more R&D tied up in it than the E-bay lunchbox.

[Carl H]

you 25 and 26 guys are lucky...least they OFFER a greddy manifold.im happy with the rips unit well built but far from cheap.

[Darius]

While looking for exhaust manifolds, I found that Wasabi Garage has intake kits with velocity stacks that you can weld together yourself and weld to your stock intake runners upstream of the injectors. Would be better than the tophat "design". There is no way you can get equal flow distribution to the cylinders with a plenum that has longitudinal flow, is that small, and is without velocity stacks. You could buy the manifold and not notice a difference, but if you are pushing your motor and causing a cylinder to run lean while the others run rich, it is a crappy setup that isn't going to last long compared to a properly designed intake that costs a couple hundred dollars more.

And for the record, Greddy manifolds only cost $685+shipping. I have also heard of certain RB members that can get them for cheaper than that. You know who you are

[Cameron]

thank you a lot darius, thats not what i like to hear, but is what i like to hear. guys i wasnt promoting this mani at all and if it seemed like i was im sorry, i just saw it and was like "hey." but now i understand, and its not that i didnt trust you guys with your answers i just wanted to give it a chance until some other people who know what there talking about chimed in. We all have to learn some how, and its cool. guess ill just chill for a while and buy a greddy later on, not having an aftermarket intake isnt gunna kill me. ill just wait until i upgrade my turbo.. im thinkin maybe a GT32, on a low mount.

Edit: actually, yea i did seem to promote it, but i had no intentions of buying it before i heard what other people had to say and i got defensive, sorry i acted like an a$$, i just didnt want accept the fact that it was bad but ill take yall's word for it.

[Darius]

After buying their mounts, I stay away from anything from TopHat. I have already bent the $hit out of my transmission mount to the point where I am ready to buy my own damn welder and make my own rear mount with box tubing. And I'm only running like 275-300hp! What is going to happen to that thing when I run the boost up to 30 psi next year??

If they want to improve the design AND use the stock runners, they should create a similar tank, but put the TB on the passenger side between cyls 3-4. And add velocity stacks. That way you can still run a front mount IC and get good air distribution between all the cylinders.

[Cameron]

did you weld the mounts on? or are they just bolted on? cause he reccomended me to weld the mounts on.

[Darius]

I can't weld my tranmission mount to anything because there's #1 a rubber isolator that the mount is "designed" to fit. And #2 I can't weld the mount to the body because I wouldn't ever be able to drop the motor again. Maybe I read you wrong.

The front mounts have been fine so far though.

[Darius]

I can't weld my tranmission mount to anything because there's #1 a rubber isolator that the mount is "designed" to fit. And #2 I can't weld the mount to the body because I wouldn't ever be able to drop the motor again. Maybe I read you wrong.

The front mounts have been fine so far though (unwelded).

[Cameron]

no i read you wrong lol, i just saw mounts and read real quick cause i had to go do something, and thought you meant there engine mounts were bad.. but ok, that got me a little worried... my bad.. haha

and earlier i noticed that you said people could get them even cheaper (greddy Intakes) well, i was looking on Bings, and if its not a lookalike they got it for like 485 us dollars.. theres are real greddys right? they look just like em..

pic on there site:

[eh?]

fake, real greddys have a smoother casting.

[Cameron]

gotcha.. well blew another fish outta the water.

[Darius]

Also known as a Freddy.

[Cameron]

lol, well if i cant pay to play, i need to quit worrying about it until i get some extra money.. im just a born bargain hunter though.. but where would a man learn where to get that secret low price at?

[oneslow240se]

the best price i've seen so far for the greddy unit is 689.00.. i believe Enjuki has em for that price.. wonder if anyone wants to start a group buy for the greddy I/Ms?

[themadscientist]

I am still confused why you seem dead set on replacing the stock intake. Going for over 500hp or something?

[Cameron]

ah, just wanna clear up some room that is all, dont want it to be a PITA if the rad. hits or i cant undo the cap, or i cant mount flexilites, behind the rad. but later on maybe 500.. TMS ima crazy man, i do wierd things sometimes.. haha

oh and 240sxmotoring has them for 685

[themadscientist]

ah, just wanna clear up some room that is all, dont want it to be a PITA if the rad. hits or i cant undo the cap, or i cant mount flexilites, behind the rad. but later on maybe 500.. TMS ima crazy man, i do wierd things sometimes.. haha

oh and 240sxmotoring has them for 685

You are crazy? have you seen the silly **** I am trying to do? I like crazy

[BigPar]

I don't see an issue with it. Ross Machine Racing makes manifolds in this style.

1.8T VW manifold

And their 2JZ one looks very similar.

[Darius]

You can't tell hardly anything from that pic. It's what's inside that counts. And just because two different companies both make crappily designed manifolds doesn't mean that you should buy either.