Teaser pics of new FFIM and Stainless Manifold

PowerTrip Performance

Custom Fabrication
Dec 5, 2005
209
0
0
Oregon
www.myspace.com
KevinM said:
Honestly, I don't see you selling many at that price no matter how nice they are. Too many ebay headers at cheap cheap prices (and quality) have flooded the market. I had thought about selling my RPS header, but don't see that happening for what it's worth.

Anyway good luck, it's nice to see quality pieces coming to the market

I guess if "quality" is judged by how shiny it is, you might be right. Those ebay manifolds (SSAuto, XSPower, and others selling the same manifold under different ID's) are throw away manifolds. They are very cheaply mass produced by people who couldn't give two shits on wether or not it performs well or lasts. They might look good to the untrained eye, but as a manifold builder myself, I don't care how cheap they are, I would not put one on my car. Those manifolds are very well known for having a large amount of slag, and burrs inside of them that could brake free at anytime and grenade your turbo or worse. Not to mention the cracks and holes that are also associated with them. I build high end performance parts for those who value and take pride in the parts that go into building thier cars.
 

SD2JZA70

HardTunedMotorsports
Apr 5, 2005
406
0
16
43
San Marcos, CA
www.cardomain.com
They are well worth what they cost. They are obviously not up to the same standards as as a high quality manifold but they are not junk. I have installed quite a few of these manifolds and only one had the slag issue. The reason there is slag is due to them not back gassing the weld. It did take out the turbine wheel but luckily it was on a turbonetics turbo which they warrantied. I have yet to see another one with this problem. I have also not seen one crack yet. One of which was on a longtravel dune buggy with a 2J which gets the shit beat out of it far worse than a car. On the contrary I have welded up my friends high dollar greddy mani 3 times. I understand where your coming from because I do fabrication too but unless you have a customer willing to pay for a custom manifold its just not worth the time and money to make.
 

KevinM

Knowledge driven
Mar 30, 2005
442
0
0
43
Seattle, WA
www.cardomain.com
PowerTrip Performance said:
I guess if "quality" is judged by how shiny it is, you might be right. Those ebay manifolds (SSAuto, XSPower, and others selling the same manifold under different ID's) are throw away manifolds. They are very cheaply mass produced by people who couldn't give two shits on wether or not it performs well or lasts. They might look good to the untrained eye, but as a manifold builder myself, I don't care how cheap they are, I would not put one on my car. Those manifolds are very well known for having a large amount of slag, and burrs inside of them that could brake free at anytime and grenade your turbo or worse. Not to mention the cracks and holes that are also associated with them. I build high end performance parts for those who value and take pride in the parts that go into building thier cars.


That's what I meant, cheap price and cheap quality
 

PowerTrip Performance

Custom Fabrication
Dec 5, 2005
209
0
0
Oregon
www.myspace.com
SD2JZA70 said:
They are well worth what they cost. They are obviously not up to the same standards as as a high quality manifold but they are not junk. I have installed quite a few of these manifolds and only one had the slag issue. The reason there is slag is due to them not back gassing the weld. It did take out the turbine wheel but luckily it was on a turbonetics turbo which they warrantied. I have yet to see another one with this problem. I have also not seen one crack yet. One of which was on a longtravel dune buggy with a 2J which gets the shit beat out of it far worse than a car. On the contrary I have welded up my friends high dollar greddy mani 3 times. I understand where your coming from because I do fabrication too but unless you have a customer willing to pay for a custom manifold its just not worth the time and money to make.

I have not seen one yet that has lasted more than a year. I've had two customers within the first week have huge cracks develope. One of them, the turbo flange came off the manifold completely! Maybe, for you it is no big deal just to buy another one (because they're cheap) but what about the downtime, paying someone to replace it if you cannot yourself, missing work, arranging other transportation (maybe having to rent a car) all those things could add up to costing more than just getting the one that won't crack in the first place. And most GReddy manifolds are cast iron (very commonly known to crack as well) and unless you know how to properly weld cast iron, it will continue to crack time and time again.
 

PowerTrip Performance

Custom Fabrication
Dec 5, 2005
209
0
0
Oregon
www.myspace.com
SD2JZA70 said:
They are well worth what they cost. They are obviously not up to the same standards as as a high quality manifold but they are not junk. I have installed quite a few of these manifolds and only one had the slag issue. The reason there is slag is due to them not back gassing the weld. It did take out the turbine wheel but luckily it was on a turbonetics turbo which they warrantied. I have yet to see another one with this problem. I have also not seen one crack yet. One of which was on a longtravel dune buggy with a 2J which gets the shit beat out of it far worse than a car. On the contrary I have welded up my friends high dollar greddy mani 3 times. I understand where your coming from because I do fabrication too but unless you have a customer willing to pay for a custom manifold its just not worth the time and money to make.

Not to mention why should Turbonetics be made to foot the bill for another companies shotty workmanship?. My target market is those who know and understand what quality is and what is worth, not those who seek out the cheapest part regardless of its quality or reputation. Enough said. Sorry.:naughty:
 

SD2JZA70

HardTunedMotorsports
Apr 5, 2005
406
0
16
43
San Marcos, CA
www.cardomain.com
Well your ignorance is showing in your post. First of all I dont believe your stories about manifolds falling apart, at least not on supras. A car will not endure nearly the stress as a dune buggy making 750 rwhp and the manifold never cracked and never had a support on the turbo either. Another one is on a 600+ rwhp MK4 supra and once again has yet to crack. That is the car that had the slag issue and guess what, Turbonetics knew thats what caused the damage because we told them and they replaced it because they have a " no fault, no hassle" warranty. As for most Greddy manifolds being cast:stickpoke You must have no experience with supra manifolds because ALL greddy supra manifolds are tubular! Here Ill quote my self since you had a hard time reading what i said and took it as an insult.

"I understand where your coming from because I do fabrication too but unless you have a customer willing to pay for a custom manifold its just not worth the time and money to make."

read it again so you understand. Now do you understand that Im not talking shit on your manifold. It looks like a nice peice and Im sure its worth every penny but 9 times out of 10 a MK3 owner will buy the ebay manifold because its a bargain and does a good job for the money. That is in no way knocking your peice its just a fact. I wish you the best of luck selling these but do not expect them to fly off the shelves. This is the exact reason I only do custom work on a case to case basis. You have no Idea how many times I get people asking me to do custom work and they scoff at the price due to ebay products. The people who want the top quality will pay the price but the rest are content with the ebay products. Thats just the reality of things around here.
 

PowerTrip Performance

Custom Fabrication
Dec 5, 2005
209
0
0
Oregon
www.myspace.com
So what is the point you are trying to make then? Are you saying that because you buy and use Ebay manifolds and you like them, that there should be no other alternative available? I realize that it is a loosing cause trying to compete with SSAC on pure price alone or arguably value per dollar. I do not try to compete with them, only offer another option for those who seek something different from the majority. And want a manifold that comes backed with a no crack warranty. Its all over the internet, it is no secret that the Ebay manifolds are very well known for cracking. The price of the manifolds are so good, that people are willing to turn thier heads at the shaky reputation. There are some people out there who are willing to pony up for the quality manifold, I am here for them. Thats great that Turbonetics stepped up to the plate for you, but that still does not make it right. It only shows that Turbonetics is a stand up company with deep pockets. Have you ever tried to get any type of customer service from SSAC? I have, they are absolutly no help, I was told by them that they know very little about thier products and can offer no help. Is this the kind of place you want to deal with? Not me. Cheap or not. If you wanna talk more about ignorance do it via PM, we don't need knife throwing going on for everyone to see. Thanks.
 

PowerTrip Performance

Custom Fabrication
Dec 5, 2005
209
0
0
Oregon
www.myspace.com
One more quick thing while you've got me all spooled up :naughty: I think you would be hard pressed to find any Pro Import race cars running "ebay manifolds", downpipes, wastegates, BOV's, etc. Why is that? The most logical answer is because those guys are sponsored and have rediculous budgets right? Why not save a buck if the mentioned manifolds if they are up to snuff. The real answer is more than likely that quality, reliability, and performance overide cheap when you are building something truly special. Peace!
 

starscream5000

Senior VIP Member
Aug 23, 2006
6,359
0
36
Hot and Humid, KY
SD2JZA70 said:
Well your ignorance is showing in your post. First of all I dont believe your stories about manifolds falling apart, at least not on supras. A car will not endure nearly the stress as a dune buggy making 750 rwhp and the manifold never cracked and never had a support on the turbo either. Another one is on a 600+ rwhp MK4 supra and once again has yet to crack. That is the car that had the slag issue and guess what, Turbonetics knew thats what caused the damage because we told them and they replaced it because they have a " no fault, no hassle" warranty. As for most Greddy manifolds being cast:stickpoke You must have no experience with supra manifolds because ALL greddy supra manifolds are tubular! Here Ill quote my self since you had a hard time reading what i said and took it as an insult.

"I understand where your coming from because I do fabrication too but unless you have a customer willing to pay for a custom manifold its just not worth the time and money to make."

read it again so you understand. Now do you understand that Im not talking shit on your manifold. It looks like a nice peice and Im sure its worth every penny but 9 times out of 10 a MK3 owner will buy the ebay manifold because its a bargain and does a good job for the money. That is in no way knocking your peice its just a fact. I wish you the best of luck selling these but do not expect them to fly off the shelves. This is the exact reason I only do custom work on a case to case basis. You have no Idea how many times I get people asking me to do custom work and they scoff at the price due to ebay products. The people who want the top quality will pay the price but the rest are content with the ebay products. Thats just the reality of things around here.

Maybe he got the Greddy manifolds confused with HKS's cast manifolds, I tend to do that a lot when it comes to these two companies ;).
 

SD2JZA70

HardTunedMotorsports
Apr 5, 2005
406
0
16
43
San Marcos, CA
www.cardomain.com
PowerTrip Performance said:
One more quick thing while you've got me all spooled up :naughty: I think you would be hard pressed to find any Pro Import race cars running "ebay manifolds", downpipes, wastegates, BOV's, etc. Why is that? The most logical answer is because those guys are sponsored and have rediculous budgets right? Why not save a buck if the mentioned manifolds if they are up to snuff. The real answer is more than likely that quality, reliability, and performance overide cheap when you are building something truly special. Peace!
Once again your responses reflect the fact that you have a hard time with reading and understanding what I wrote so here it is again. I have not knocked your product or its quality but you pointed out that the ebay manifolds are junk. I pointed out that they are not. There are far to many people in the supra community both MK3 and MK4 running them without issue to call them junk. As I said before the people who want to pay the premium for better quality WILL buy a top shelf manifold but like I said before DONT EXPECT THESE TO FLY OFF THE SHELVES. There is a reason so few people take the time and effort to make manifolds. Most that do do it on a case to case basis because the few people that spend the extra money will come to you. I for one have spent boat loads of money on my car and no I dont have an ebay manifold. That doesnt make the crap and I dont fault someone building a budget set up using one. Do yourself a favor if you want to surrvive in this community and get off your high horse. You are coming on here in an effort to sell your product and bashing what so many people are using with success. And by the way Pro Import cars typically run custom manifolds not off the shelf stuff anyway so whats your point. You seem to be arguing as if Im saying the ebay stuff is the best quality out there. Hopefully you can weld better than you can read.
 

bigaaron

Supramania Contributor
Apr 12, 2005
4,692
1
0
49
Pomona, CA
www.driftmotion.com
SD2JZA70 said:
Once again your responses reflect the fact that you have a hard time with reading and understanding what I wrote so here it is again. I have not knocked your product or its quality but you pointed out that the ebay manifolds are junk. I pointed out that they are not. There are far to many people in the supra community both MK3 and MK4 running them without issue to call them junk. As I said before the people who want to pay the premium for better quality WILL buy a top shelf manifold but like I said before DONT EXPECT THESE TO FLY OFF THE SHELVES. There is a reason so few people take the time and effort to make manifolds. Most that do do it on a case to case basis because the few people that spend the extra money will come to you. I for one have spent boat loads of money on my car and no I dont have an ebay manifold. That doesnt make the crap and I dont fault someone building a budget set up using one. Do yourself a favor if you want to surrvive in this community and get off your high horse. You are coming on here in an effort to sell your product and bashing what so many people are using with success. And by the way Pro Import cars typically run custom manifolds not off the shelf stuff anyway so whats your point. You seem to be arguing as if Im saying the ebay stuff is the best quality out there. Hopefully you can weld better than you can read.

Seriously, please give the guy a break. No matter what people make, someone has to go in the damn thread and point out that you can buy something cheaper somewhere else. If that is the case, go there to buy it and leave this guy alone. Who are you trying to defend here, some dude in China? Did you go in Ron's thread and say he was wasting his time making custom manifolds because they can be bought on ebay for less? NO, because some people don't mind spending extra on a custom made piece, especially when it's made well and looks nice.
 

PowerTrip Performance

Custom Fabrication
Dec 5, 2005
209
0
0
Oregon
www.myspace.com
bigaaron said:
Seriously, please give the guy a break. No matter what people make, someone has to go in the damn thread and point out that you can buy something cheaper somewhere else. If that is the case, go there to buy it and leave this guy alone. Who are you trying to defend here, some dude in China? Did you go in Ron's thread and say he was wasting his time making custom manifolds because they can be bought on ebay for less? NO, because some people don't mind spending extra on a custom made piece.

Thank you BigA! I am so done arguing with this guy.

"Arguing with people on the internet is like the Special Olympics...even if you win, you're still a retard"
 

bigaaron

Supramania Contributor
Apr 12, 2005
4,692
1
0
49
Pomona, CA
www.driftmotion.com
We all know the ebay manifolds are ok, and there have been a couple bad ones. Welcome to 3 years ago. I have China manifolds, and they are what they are, I never represented them as the best thing available. If you want to make something nice that fits well, that's great, it is a whole different market you are targeting.
 

PowerTrip Performance

Custom Fabrication
Dec 5, 2005
209
0
0
Oregon
www.myspace.com
bigaaron said:
We all know the ebay manifolds are ok, and there have been a couple bad ones. Welcome to 3 years ago. I have China manifolds, and they are what they are, I never represented them as the best thing available. If you want to make something nice that fits well, that's great, it is a whole different market you are targeting.

I was looking through Ron R's post "building another header", he mention that he was in over $1500.00 in material costs alone. Not to mention hours and hours of labor. If you continue following that thread, he was building that one for a customer, not himself...and there were a couple of others seriously interested in buying one. Now I am going to have to take a guess here, but I bet Ron needs to get at least $500 for labor on it. And believe me the amount of work into them, it's almost not worth it. I do it because its what I love to do. I guess like being an artist, you spend a whole lot of time painting a portrait that you love, and you hope that someone will appreciate it enough to buy it so you can feed your family. Guys like that guy kind of rip your heart right out of your chest with comments like that. Enough said.
 

SD2JZA70

HardTunedMotorsports
Apr 5, 2005
406
0
16
43
San Marcos, CA
www.cardomain.com
bigaaron said:
Seriously, please give the guy a break. No matter what people make, someone has to go in the damn thread and point out that you can buy something cheaper somewhere else. If that is the case, go there to buy it and leave this guy alone. Who are you trying to defend here, some dude in China? Did you go in Ron's thread and say he was wasting his time making custom manifolds because they can be bought on ebay for less? NO, because some people don't mind spending extra on a custom made piece, especially when it's made well and looks nice.
Wow. I find your post funny. I guess you have not read any of my posts to comment the way you have. After he stated ebay manifolds are complete junk and fall apart I simply stated he was wrong. I done arguing with you guys. If and when you learn to read and understand my post then mabey it will be worth replying.
 

starscream5000

Senior VIP Member
Aug 23, 2006
6,359
0
36
Hot and Humid, KY
Um... Big A sells those "ebay manifolds" also. I'm sure he's fully aware of the integrity of the products, if he felt like they were shit, I'm willing to bet he'd probably not sell them ;).
 

bigaaron

Supramania Contributor
Apr 12, 2005
4,692
1
0
49
Pomona, CA
www.driftmotion.com
I'm not defending him about saying the China manifolds are crappy, I don't completely agree with that (which I mentioned earlier), but I can sympathize with him getting pissed about someone making a big drama over one comment he made in his thread about a new product he's making. Maybe I'm part of the problem now because I'm still talking about it. :) I'll shut up now LOL