Custom Exhaust Manifold is Finished

Yesterday I completed the build of my custom exhaust log manifold for the 4Runner. The flange is 0.50" steel and so is the flange for the turbo. The tubing is 1 1/4 schedule 40 pipe. I used 4 90 degree elbows and 2 45 degree bends, plus a few straight sections of roll bar tubing left over from my Mustang project. The roll bar tubing turned out to be the same thickness and diameter as the pipe, so that worked out great. I TIG welded the entire manifold while it was bolted down to a spare cylinder head. End result was a flat flange and good penetration on the welds. After all the welding was complete, I used a carbide burr to clean up the port inlets and outlets in hopes to remove any flow-impeding edges, etc. Not sure how much that will matter on this application, but I do know it won't hurt.

I also built a bracket to brace the manifold to the block. The turbo is pretty heavy, and the manifold will hold a lot of heat. Nearly all factory turbo setups are braced to the block, so I am hoping this will help to prevent any future issues. I only want to build this once!

The bends are lightly tacked in place just to get the project started.

It is kind of like a puzzle.. there were known angles I had to have, and then I just had to fill in the missing pieces.

I still am surprised at how this turned out! I used a sharpie and a cutoff wheel to cut the two 90 degree fittings to merge them into the collector. That was some pretty precise eyballing right there :)

All the tubes are notched and fitted reasonably well and tacked together.

Nearly all welded up.

Bolted to the spare cylinder head - keeps the manifold from warping when welded.

That is the support brace tab on the bottom of the manifold.

Support brace - it's not very pretty, but it'll definitely do the job. I did not have a long enough piece of flat steel on hand, so I had to use a portion of round pipe to make it work.

This is how it all sits in the chassis.

Everything is bolted down on the engine - even installed the gaskets! Hopefully I won't be taking this off again any time soon.