Heres the deal me and my buddy have been building his 03 2.2 ecotec cavy over the last year or so. Already had the turbo setup fabbed up an on for almost a year and he sold the setup he had so we could start working on a new internally wastgated setup. The setup we had worked aswome up until it Cracked the exhaust manifold at the turbo flange. I was just wondering if there is any way to brace the turbo so it doesnt move as much under throttle? Im not sure if theres any product that is made for this or if theres anyone out there who has done it on other projects? I just thought about mounting an exhaust hanger to the fire wall and welding it to the intake and downpipe as close to the turbo as possible but im not sure if that would help? Any ideas here are apreciated

 

A good exhaust manifold is the answer. But i doubt any good brand's exist for cavaliers.

Look for a cast manifold, or a nice name brand stainless one with real gussets (not an xs power piece of crap off ebay)

Why go internally gated? Most people try to ditch internal for external gates.

 

why a cavi?

 

I've never seen anyone have to brace the turbo but I've seen the need for solid motor mounts. The motor would twist enough to cause issues.

 

I love Ecotecs, and I've heard the 2.2 loves a lil boost. Don't go crazy with it though, low boost. Also, look into Comp Cams Hydrolic rollers for it first. IF you're gonna do it, build some supporting aspects too. The CC hydro has a wide power band. I was researching them after I did a head swap on my buddies 05' 2.2L Ecotec. They have more street aggressive cams, but the one they actually mention for use with a turbo. The exhaust lift isn't insanely high either.

Thats just what I remember from reading up on it. What kind of pcm are you guys gonna use? Piggyback would probably be the easiest, but I'm no GM expert so IDK what the best route would be. Is your buddy on any J body forums? That'd probably be your best bet.

 

The manifold has all the bracing built into it, unless its a cheap manifold.

 

I agree with your cast manifold idea but that's not completely accurate about cheap vs quality and their resistance to crack. I've cracked numerous manifold, and witnessed others, over the years I've been involved with automotive drifting. All factory turbo setups include bracing and they do this for this reason; even though most cast manifolds can take the weight.

That's b/c its not often we "check-up" on other peoples builds. There are a LOT of reasons a manifold cracks.

1) exhaust routing & conflicts with the under carriage
2) excessive roll/movement of the engine
3) soft hangers for the exhaust system, allowing that giant pry bar to pull on the turbo assembly
4) poor manifold construction (weld quality, lack of bracing, etc.)
5) no separation between runners.


The list goes on and on. The reality of it is that stainless moves a lot and becomes brittle when heated up this much and its often the only component holding up the weight of the turbo assembly, then you have all the jerking/shaking/vibrating driving the car induces on the assembly. Even $1500 Full Race manifolds with gussets crack.

The correct way to do it is brace the assembly. It's just the most complete way to do it. Considering its a Caviler and all assemblies are different, you will likely need to fabricate something custom. Be sure to affix it to the engine, not the body/chassis.

 

Ok so you think mounting say an exhaust hanger to the motor then to the exh/int piping would be enough bracing? And yea id say the old manifold cracked because it was an ebay mani, the new one will be a stainless tube style mani.

 

I love cavy's always have always eill but me personally I hate ecotecs no real reason I just dont like them. Granted they have more and can hold more power Im just not a fan. As for the boost it ran safely for almost a year on 8-10 psi. Im not sure what kind of tuning he has right now but im thinking im gonna put some EfiLive on it if itll work since I have some experience with it on my dads duramax. So a new inline fuel pump and an adjustable fuel rail pressure regulator with some bigger injectors are gonna be put on too. Thats it for now as far as I kno of but the new turbo process wont be for at least another month.

 

Just too make u ask that question

 

Yea we'll be getting a quality stainless tube style mani this time he had an ebay cast mani fir the first setup and its wat cracked. Not sure y he wants to go internally wastegated but thats what hes got his mind set on so so be it. I dont really know the pros an cons of internal or external so I cant really tell him one or the other is better.

 

really hit the nail on the ehad here.
I found the best thing to do, is to have a good decent length of flex right in the downpipe. it eleviates the stress from the exhaust off of the manifold when the engine is under load.
When we first started doing turbo 240's the stainless manifolds we ran would always crack. when i used a flex, we neaver had a problem again. On another note, when i had solid mounts and no flex mine didnt crack either

 

Did you not listen to a single thing I said? The bracing would need to be rigid; just as a factory intake manifold is. Surely anyone who goes to the trouble of casting a manifold wouldn't make it cheap so you've got that backwards. Mfgs build ss tubular manifolds mainly b/c it makes sense when you consider cost to produce and ease of material availability. They're not stronger by any stretch. Either the case a simple fix is a log type. It's usually thicker in construction and has much shorter runners; that keeps them together. I'd suggest fabricating one of those

 

sorry I kinda got confused there, but we had a log style mani on there before that cracked thats why I figured the stainless tube style would be better. Thinking about it now the flex pipe off the downpipe would be the smartest idea but id still say were gonna brace the piping to the motor too

 

No worries. Post up a picture if you got one. I'm curious where it failed exactly.