Has anyone else had problems with megan turbo elbows?

[iriehachi077]

I just installed a megan racing turbo elbow on my gt2871r equipped s13 sr20det (in a s13 240sx using a megan down pipe) and now i'm having clearance issue with my down pipe. The megan elbow flange is tilted where the down pipe bolts on and its making the down pipe lean really close to the chassis (has 2 cmm of clearance). When i drive my car hard, the engine torques and makes the downpipe hit the frame / chassis of my car making my car shake really badly and sets off my knocks reading on my power fc. Is my megan turbo elbow defective or are everyone else's megan turbo elbow the same? am i supposed to use a different downpipe?

I'll post pictures tomorrow.

please help me

and thank you in advance

[homeslicej2]

I had to re-clearance my DP after installing the Megan elbow. I have a Greddy DP and once we installed the elbow, we couldn't get it to bolt back up to the trans mount. Luckily, my bro-in-law had some 1/2" or so steel spacers that worked perfectly to allow us to bolt the DP back onto the trans. I don't have any problems with the DP hitting the frame rail though. I just checked and I have about 3/4" of clearance b/t the frame and the DP. I remember that the Megan elbow had larger than required for the turbo studs holes. That "slack" should allow you to shift the elbow a bit so that you might gain more clearance.

[iriehachi077]

thank you homeslicej2, i'm gonna loosen the elbow bolts and try to move to make some space b/t the dp and frame rail.

[iriehachi077]

i know whats wrong now. i've jacked my car up so much that the frame rail where the down pipe goes is mushroomed out. sucks. i tried hammering it back but it didn't do any good. i better put the stock elbow back on. thanks for the info though.

[PyR0NiAk]

apparently, you used the wrong jacking points...

[iriehachi077]

where do you place ur jack when you lift ur 240 up? i always though any place on the frame rail towards the front was ok.

[PyR0NiAk]

if you look, there are indentions intended for a scissor jack. You should try and keep it close to there... But ya, any place on the frame rail itself should hold... If it's "mushroomed" as you say, maybe it's been bottomed out.

[homeslicej2]

Also, if you use a jack with a small pad on it (like many jacks are) then you need to use a piece of wood or something similiar b/t the jack and the rail so that you are applying the force of the jack pad more evenly across the entire rail vs just in the middle. This could have caused your rail to indent in the middle and over time pushed the sides out, but I agree that your car has probably bottomed out pretty bad on something that smushed the rail.

[rc1honda]

Mine bolted up no probelm. Maybe because i have a knock off DP?... But as far a sjacking the car up you guys are crazy for using the frame at all. I just jack it up by the tow hooks, or the diff. Im way to scared of bending the frame.

[iriehachi077]

damn, i didn't know. i'm going to try jacking it up on the tow hooks from now on. my frame rails are all bend and messed up. sucks i hope this doesn't mess with being able to drive straight.

[homeslicej2]

Mine bolted up no probelm. Maybe because i have a knock off DP?... But as far a sjacking the car up you guys are crazy for using the frame at all. I just jack it up by the tow hooks, or the diff. Im way to scared of bending the frame.

lol, well, again, if you use something to spread the force of a small jack pad out (or just use a larger jack pad) then you don't ahve to worry about the frame rails. The FSM shows 6 places that one should use to jack up the car if you are not using the stock scissors jack. It lists the engine crossmember, the diff and the four corners of the frame rails (two up front and two in the back near the subframe) So, I use my low profile floor jack to get at the crossmember, and then use the diff for the back.