Are there any aftermarket exhaust manifolds that bolt up to the ct26 and still allow me to keep all the factory hardware? (oil lines, coolant lines, IC piping, DP)
Aftermarket CT26 Manifold
- Thread starter DegreE
- Start date
DegreE;950260 said:
Not that I'm aware of. I guess my question would be why would you want such a thing?
The CT-26 (modded or not) is already outflowed by the factory manifold.
The internal wastegate design is shit, the oil/water feed & return line design is a royal pain in the ass. Why would you spend the money upgrading a mainfold designed for an "oddball" turbo that, when compared against just about everything else out there, sucks?
I'm doing NA-T and I don't want to get into custom oil lines and IC pipes just yet.
So in other words, the CT26 is garbage?
So in other words, the CT26 is garbage?
DegreE;950267 said:
Well "garbage" might be a bit too strong of a term.
It's "severely limited". The turbo is only good for about 16 psi on our motors before you are overspinning it. It's generally accepted that it's undersized for it's original application to start with. At 16 psi the tend to not last long. The shaft is too thin to really support any considerably larger wheels, etc. Ask MDC about this, he can tell you all of the challenges that this turbo has.
Don't get me wrong. I run an upgraded CT-26 (57 trim) on my daily driver MKIII. I run it simply because it allowed me to keep stock everything (including the manifold) and a bolt on 3" downpipe and still reach my power goals for that particular car.
I guess my point is if you are going for an aftermarket manifold, also upgrade to a standard T-4 flanged turbo and you've got everything you need to support just about any other power level you could want to run.
Well, I'm not looking for alot of power. I'm just doing a Cometic headgasket and ARP studs, then I'm just bolting everything up and running the GTE harness and ECU. So as far as boost, I'm not looking to go over 10lbs. Basically doing bolt-ons. I already bought a 3" DP and currently looking for an elbow and I'm shopping around for hard IC pipes and BOV. I'm keeping the stock IC.
Yeah, just get a stock manifold. It works well enough and is the best way to go when using a CT26.
Supracentral;950271 said:
Just to clear things up here.....I remembered this post from rather recent thread....from MDC himself FYI
Last edited:
No shit. I stand corrected. Jon definitely knows more about this turbo than I.
However I stand by the remainder of the post. Whatever the reasons for the turbo's limits, it's limited and you can't make "real" power on one. You certainly won't outflow the stock manifold with it.
However I stand by the remainder of the post. Whatever the reasons for the turbo's limits, it's limited and you can't make "real" power on one. You certainly won't outflow the stock manifold with it.
Supracentral;951325 said:
to help clear things up for the ultra ignorant/those with a complete lack of common sense that tend to float around on the site, ive edited my post
Mike: To add - the oiling design and system of the ct26 is got to be the shitty-est ever mass produced.
But yes, the shaft really isn't the problem, its the wheel attached to it. ;-)
But yes, the shaft really isn't the problem, its the wheel attached to it. ;-)
MDCmotorsports;951338 said:
I guess in the end it amounts to the same thing however. You put bigger wheels in them, they (in my experience) 'tend' not to last.
MDCmotorsports;951338 said:
can you please expand on this, im curious. Educate away! Also, if you do decide to, it may be a good idea for someone to make it a sticky depending on how in depth your willing to go of course. Maybe a thread something along the lines of Myths of the CT-26: Busted! or just Ct-26 facts as topics like these (oiling issues, truth behind the upgrade reliability etc) tend to come up A LOT that i notice.
IwantMKIII;951348 said:
The Hitachi designed oiling system relies on the oil feed and oil return on the same flange surface.
This makes oil pressure into the turbo dependent on the oil feed & return gasket to stay intact.
If the gasket fails, then oil makes it way directly into the return, and the turbo never sees pressure.
The other problem with the oiling system is the oil feed is on the bottom of the bearing housing.
When the car is shut off, all the oil has a tendency to drain back into the feed line.
On most t4 style setups where the feed is up top (Garrett, Mitsu, Holset etc), there is a level of residue oil so to speak to where the turbo at least sees some oil on initial startup.
Same problem, essentially. Why would anyone buy a bolt-on turbo and manifold, when for virtually the same money you can have a real turbo and manifold?sneakypete;951481 said:
The guy who develops this will get a few purchases from people who purchased one at a time, but not enough to warrant the R&D work.
Hmmm... I hadn't considered that about the oil gasket. Makes perfect sense as soon as someone points it out, of course.
GrimJack;951517 said:
so are you suggesting bolt-on turbos arent "real" turbos? i understand that a lot of the cost thats included in the price of the bolt-on turbos is from the r&d to get it to fit in the stock location. but myself and im sure others would disagree with you. there are some very impressive set-ups out there. and i think that a nice manifold would be a great addition to those of us and they should sell.
just my .02
-pete
It's not a matter of whether a bolt on is a "real" turbo or not, it's a matter of who buys the bolt-on turbos, and how many of them would also buy a manifold for it.
I'm considering a bolt-on turbo as a preference to a CT-26 upgrade. For me, that's about as far as I'm willing to go, and that's so that I don't need to buy a manifold, plus the wastegate, and the rest of the paraphanelia that a more generic turbo would entail.
Now maybe just maybe, once I get that turbo in, I'll decide that the manifold is the next logical step, but I'm pretty sure that if I want to upgrade that manifold, I'll also want to be getting rid of the internal wastegate. After all, if I'm figuring on exhaust flow as being the performance restriction at this point, then an external wastegate only makes sense, and then I might as well go to the generic turbo as well.
In short, there's not really any money in it for to develop such a product.
I'm considering a bolt-on turbo as a preference to a CT-26 upgrade. For me, that's about as far as I'm willing to go, and that's so that I don't need to buy a manifold, plus the wastegate, and the rest of the paraphanelia that a more generic turbo would entail.
Now maybe just maybe, once I get that turbo in, I'll decide that the manifold is the next logical step, but I'm pretty sure that if I want to upgrade that manifold, I'll also want to be getting rid of the internal wastegate. After all, if I'm figuring on exhaust flow as being the performance restriction at this point, then an external wastegate only makes sense, and then I might as well go to the generic turbo as well.
In short, there's not really any money in it for to develop such a product.