SSAutoChrome Manifold and Performance Coatings Review
Oct 25, 2004, 07:41 PM
#1
SSAutoChrome Manifold and Performance Coatings Review
I’ve had the manifold installed for a while now. I had held off on the review in order to see if there where going to be any quality issues early on. So far, I have experienced no problems with the manifold’s physical performance. It is a quasi-equal length design with a very hearty construction, using thick flanges and heavy gauge tubing all made of 304 stainless steel. It comes polished with the internal welds “ground down smooth” to promote better flow, and I’m sure, to appeal more to the eye of the consumer. I’ll not waste time with pictures of the manifold as it arrived since others have posted such, and I’ve had mine ceramic coated. (pictures at the end) Also, I’ll get to the performance later on after I’ve talked a little about the coating and bolting it up.
After seeing the results of a couple of members here, I decided to use:
www.performancecoatings.com I knew I’d have to use one of their 2000 degree coatings, as the 1300 degree Chromex coating does not offer enough protection from the intense heat that turbo manifolds are exposed to on cars such as the Evolution. A list of the colors available can be found here: http://www.performancecoatings.com/headercoatings.html
I decided to go with the Satin Titanium 2000 degree color. Call it my affection for my past experience in Aerospace, or whatever, but I like this color. When I received the manifold back from Performance Coatings, the work was flawless. A perfectly even distribution of coating was applied inside and out. As stated, it was a gray with a hint of brown resembling the color of titanium stock.
Installation of the manifold was pretty straight forward, with a couple of hiccups. The first issue was one experienced by a few others here on the boards. It seems that SSAutoChrome expects you to remove the studs from the turbo flange and use their hardware (bolts) sent with the manifold. The problem is that SSAutoChrome has sent you the wrong pitch bolts, and Mitsubishi has crush fit the studs in the OE housing. Therefore you have the wrong hardware, and OE studs that 90% of users are not capable of easily removing. SSAutoChrome has been notified of this problem. I installed mine with almost all of the OE hardware and a slight modification that we will talk about next.
The second hiccup is that the #3 cylinder tube on the manifold is located too close to the OE turbo flange stud when installed. When the flange of the turbo and manifold are mated, it is impossible to get the OE nut on the stud. Some people have had success loosely putting the two parts together with just enough thread showing to start the nut. Then slowly tightening the nut down with an open end wrench just barely clearing the tube as the parts are pulled together. If you can get the OE nut to clear the tube this way, go for it. I, on the other hand, could not with the OE nut, as the tube was too close to the stud for even that method of assembly. What I did do is run over to my trusty bolt box and come up with an Acura Integra secondary header flange bolt. They are the same size and pitch, but a few mm shorter in height. Bingo, it fit like a glove with the “loose assembly method” described above. Again, this was addressed with SSAutoChrome and a fix should be worked out soon.
The last install issue is that once installed, it seems the turbo is relocated slightly higher in the engine bay. I had to slightly stretch the OE accordion style flexible oil return line in order to get it to bolt up. Now this was not hard, but I’m be careful with this line and the small OE bolts that attach it to the pan.
Now for my thoughts once it was all back together… a nice bump in torque everywhere. Keep in mind that I’m only running a Works P2 flash, K&N panel filter, and a Buschur 2.5” muffler delete pipe. I can’t say whether it is due to the OE exhaust components, but off boost response is slightly improved. It is almost like putting a header on a small NA engine when off boost. I’m impressed. I had thought I would not notice a difference until I had opened it up to a full turbo back exhaust. I was wrong. As others have said, there is a nice mid to top end pull as well. With the minor amount of mods done to the car, it was worth the money as is. I suspect it will really let go and do its job once I get my prototype turbo back exhaust bolted up. The ceramic coating worked great as well. Components under the hood that I used to not be able to touch with the OE setup were now only “warm”. For instants, the hood prop would sometimes burn my fingers on hot, Texas, summer days after any hard runs. This is no longer a problem.
The only true down side to the story is that after about a week of use, the ceramic coating started to flake off. I notified Brad of Performance Coatings, and was told that this can sometimes happen with un-heat treated polished metals. This is due to the polishing agent getting into the pores of the metal and then “cooking” out later. The Aluminum Oxide blasting process used to prepare the metal for the coating would not remove these “polishing compound deposits”. When I thought about it, where I built aircraft components, we had to acid bathe parts before sending them to the vacuum furnace for similar reasons. Looking at the pattern of the flaking confirmed this theory in my mind, as the pattern was as if something was cooking out of the manifold under the coating and “running” down the tubes. Brad offered to recoat the manifold at his cost to remedy the issue. The moral of this story is to make sure to have manifold heat cycled BEFORE sending it off for coating. I’m going to see if they will offer the manifolds in the future without polishing.
SSAutoChrome reports, they are addressing the problems that exist. I should have a report from them soon. With this in mind, I’d definitely have to recommend this manifold as a “best buy”. Even though I ran into a few hiccups installing the piece, I can’t help but feel that I got my moneys worth at a cost of a couple hundred dollars less than the next least expensive manifold.
Anyone knowing how to resize pictures please chime in... I'm not the smoothest when it comes to such things. There are no nuts, bolts, or gears
A few pictures of the stud close to the #3 tube:
Pics resized in post #12... Use them
And the installed manifold:
Pics resized in post #12... Use them
After seeing the results of a couple of members here, I decided to use:
www.performancecoatings.com I knew I’d have to use one of their 2000 degree coatings, as the 1300 degree Chromex coating does not offer enough protection from the intense heat that turbo manifolds are exposed to on cars such as the Evolution. A list of the colors available can be found here: http://www.performancecoatings.com/headercoatings.html
I decided to go with the Satin Titanium 2000 degree color. Call it my affection for my past experience in Aerospace, or whatever, but I like this color. When I received the manifold back from Performance Coatings, the work was flawless. A perfectly even distribution of coating was applied inside and out. As stated, it was a gray with a hint of brown resembling the color of titanium stock.
Installation of the manifold was pretty straight forward, with a couple of hiccups. The first issue was one experienced by a few others here on the boards. It seems that SSAutoChrome expects you to remove the studs from the turbo flange and use their hardware (bolts) sent with the manifold. The problem is that SSAutoChrome has sent you the wrong pitch bolts, and Mitsubishi has crush fit the studs in the OE housing. Therefore you have the wrong hardware, and OE studs that 90% of users are not capable of easily removing. SSAutoChrome has been notified of this problem. I installed mine with almost all of the OE hardware and a slight modification that we will talk about next.
The second hiccup is that the #3 cylinder tube on the manifold is located too close to the OE turbo flange stud when installed. When the flange of the turbo and manifold are mated, it is impossible to get the OE nut on the stud. Some people have had success loosely putting the two parts together with just enough thread showing to start the nut. Then slowly tightening the nut down with an open end wrench just barely clearing the tube as the parts are pulled together. If you can get the OE nut to clear the tube this way, go for it. I, on the other hand, could not with the OE nut, as the tube was too close to the stud for even that method of assembly. What I did do is run over to my trusty bolt box and come up with an Acura Integra secondary header flange bolt. They are the same size and pitch, but a few mm shorter in height. Bingo, it fit like a glove with the “loose assembly method” described above. Again, this was addressed with SSAutoChrome and a fix should be worked out soon.
The last install issue is that once installed, it seems the turbo is relocated slightly higher in the engine bay. I had to slightly stretch the OE accordion style flexible oil return line in order to get it to bolt up. Now this was not hard, but I’m be careful with this line and the small OE bolts that attach it to the pan.
Now for my thoughts once it was all back together… a nice bump in torque everywhere. Keep in mind that I’m only running a Works P2 flash, K&N panel filter, and a Buschur 2.5” muffler delete pipe. I can’t say whether it is due to the OE exhaust components, but off boost response is slightly improved. It is almost like putting a header on a small NA engine when off boost. I’m impressed. I had thought I would not notice a difference until I had opened it up to a full turbo back exhaust. I was wrong. As others have said, there is a nice mid to top end pull as well. With the minor amount of mods done to the car, it was worth the money as is. I suspect it will really let go and do its job once I get my prototype turbo back exhaust bolted up. The ceramic coating worked great as well. Components under the hood that I used to not be able to touch with the OE setup were now only “warm”. For instants, the hood prop would sometimes burn my fingers on hot, Texas, summer days after any hard runs. This is no longer a problem.
The only true down side to the story is that after about a week of use, the ceramic coating started to flake off. I notified Brad of Performance Coatings, and was told that this can sometimes happen with un-heat treated polished metals. This is due to the polishing agent getting into the pores of the metal and then “cooking” out later. The Aluminum Oxide blasting process used to prepare the metal for the coating would not remove these “polishing compound deposits”. When I thought about it, where I built aircraft components, we had to acid bathe parts before sending them to the vacuum furnace for similar reasons. Looking at the pattern of the flaking confirmed this theory in my mind, as the pattern was as if something was cooking out of the manifold under the coating and “running” down the tubes. Brad offered to recoat the manifold at his cost to remedy the issue. The moral of this story is to make sure to have manifold heat cycled BEFORE sending it off for coating. I’m going to see if they will offer the manifolds in the future without polishing.
SSAutoChrome reports, they are addressing the problems that exist. I should have a report from them soon. With this in mind, I’d definitely have to recommend this manifold as a “best buy”. Even though I ran into a few hiccups installing the piece, I can’t help but feel that I got my moneys worth at a cost of a couple hundred dollars less than the next least expensive manifold.
Anyone knowing how to resize pictures please chime in... I'm not the smoothest when it comes to such things. There are no nuts, bolts, or gears
A few pictures of the stud close to the #3 tube:
Pics resized in post #12... Use them
And the installed manifold:
Pics resized in post #12... Use them
Last edited by Zeus; Oct 26, 2004 at 07:45 AM.
Oct 25, 2004, 08:16 PM
#2
Originally Posted by Zeus
The only true down side to the story is that after about a week of use, the ceramic coating started to flake off. I notified Brad of Performance Coatings, and was told that this can sometimes happen with un-heat treated polished metals. This is due to the polishing agent getting into the pores of the metal and then “cooking” out later.
Oct 25, 2004, 08:33 PM
#3
Good write up. I dont think you will get anything to stick to stainless. There is a ceramic coater in my area that does fantastic work. I have used them on my cast manifolds and turbine housings and the coating is still on three years later. I have seen the coating flake off stainless manifolds. the stainless expands and contracts too much.
Oct 25, 2004, 08:43 PM
#5
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Nice writeup! I did the same thing and got it coated by the same people with the 2000 degree satin coat. I have had no problems at all so far. I have the GT35/40R turbo so it is allot heavier then the stock turbo and nothing has cracked yet. This manifold is great and when i purchased mine everybody talked down on me becouse of the SSAutochrome name and them having a terrible rep in the DSM world.
All i can say is it has the same design as the DNP manifold along with many other knockoffs. All the welds are perfect and they ground down the inner welds perfect on my manifold. The wall tubing is the thickest i have found of any manifold out for the evo which seems a little weird since they got away with bending the piping the way they did without crinkling the metal.
All in all the coating is awsome the manifold is awsome and in my own opinion there is nothing that comes close to its performance for the price.
Chris
All i can say is it has the same design as the DNP manifold along with many other knockoffs. All the welds are perfect and they ground down the inner welds perfect on my manifold. The wall tubing is the thickest i have found of any manifold out for the evo which seems a little weird since they got away with bending the piping the way they did without crinkling the metal.
All in all the coating is awsome the manifold is awsome and in my own opinion there is nothing that comes close to its performance for the price.
Chris
Oct 25, 2004, 09:05 PM
#6
I have the same manifold and I really like it. I sent mine to Jet Hot to have a similar 2000 degree coating and after a VERY HARD weekend long 1500 mile thrashing in the Ark mountains it looks like the coating has held up well. It has browned a little bit where the runners meet at the turbo mounting flange, but I bought it to work, not to look good. And I too noticed the heat retention of the 2000 degree coating, I was able to touch the manifold lightly about three minutes after a run, if I did the same thing with the cast manifold I would have blisters now, the coating is amazing at how it holds the heat in the manifold. I have to give it a 
as well, it is a great buy for the money. I would however recommend getting it coated, and SSautochrome might want to have this service as an option to the consumer so that he/she does not have to have it done themselves. Odd thing though, I had absolutely NO clearance issues on mine. 
as well, it is a great buy for the money. I would however recommend getting it coated, and SSautochrome might want to have this service as an option to the consumer so that he/she does not have to have it done themselves. Odd thing though, I had absolutely NO clearance issues on mine.
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Oct 25, 2004, 09:33 PM
#8
Originally Posted by Ted B
I wonder if the self-cleaning (high heat) cycle of a home oven would be enough to heat cycle the metal.
Oct 25, 2004, 10:01 PM
#10
Manifold... here: http://search.stores.ebay.com/search...&submit=Search for now. I may carry them in the future.
PS Stay away from the O2 housings/"Dump pipes" for now, they are high priced paper weights until some revisions are made.
PS Stay away from the O2 housings/"Dump pipes" for now, they are high priced paper weights until some revisions are made.
Last edited by Zeus; Oct 25, 2004 at 10:03 PM.
Oct 26, 2004, 07:39 AM
#13
I have the same manifold. I just finished installing it 2 days ago... I ran into the same issue on stud number 3 but Chris was there to give me an idea and after that it took me 5 min to put it on. I did not coated because I like the SS look. However, in the summer time I will be coating my DP, turbo and the manifold all together for sure. hope fully it will improve my spool up times as I have the 3071 turbo 
