REVIEW - KMD SR20det SS equal length manifold

[Beef]

I've been meaning to do this for quite some time but was hoping to wait to get complete dyno charts to post. Unfortunately that's not going to happen at this point, so instead of waiting until spring I thought I'd throw this up since there has been increased interest in these manifolds in general. Read on and enjoy. <img src="http://www.zilvia.net/f/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/tounge.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt=''>


Item: Kakumei Motor & Development stainless steel equal lenth exhaust manifold for the SR20det

Source: Kakumei Motor & Development [email protected]

Retail: $450 from KMD direct

Item info: T304 stainless steel, TIG welded, 1/4" flanges, Made in Japan, compatible with S13 & S14 maintaining the stock bottom mount turbo location with an internal wastegate.

Tools needed: Your regular assortment of metric wrenches and socket, new exhaust manifold gasket, turbo gaskets as needed. A friend and a lift are very helpful.

Vehicle tested on: '93 240sx coupe w/redtop SR & stock T-25, all the BPUs.

Install: Take off the stock manifold and replace it with the new one, right? Sounds simple enough. Well, it took us far longer than what we had expected - as usual with any vehicle project!

-Take off the oil/water lines on the turbo, take out the 02 sensor, remove the OEM oil catch can, remove the nuts holding the exhaust manifold on the head, remove the J pipe from the downpipe.

-The KMD manifold does not come with studs on the turbo flange or a support bracket that mounts the exhaust flange to the turbo flange for added support, but it does have threaded holes for it (see pics below). You will have to supply the studs and fabricate a bracket if you want one. I made one out of a thick piece of metal - but it broke so it's been off the past few weeks. It will get pulled shortly and I will make one out of stainless steel. I would highly suggest doing this while the manifold is out and you can get it done in one shot correctly. Also, I would suggest not trying to reuse the studs from the OEM manifold. We tried that on mine and ended up snapping one. They were VERY difficult to remove. Go get some nice ARP studs or something heavy duty. Don't forget the lock tite!

-For install, we had to put it in a little differently than how we pulled it out. Due to the position of the brake lines and steering column, the design of the manifold made it impossible for us to install the manifold, turbo and J pipe all connected. We slid the manifold in with the turbo and the J pipe off. Hook up the oil/water lines and bolt up the manifold, but leave it a little loose so you can tweak it while putting the J pipe back on. Torque everything down and make sure everything is connected and you should be good to go. Note - you will need to relocate or get a new oil catch can as the runners of the manifold conflict with the OEM mounting points.

Results: Although it has been widely speculated that such manifolds will increase HP by as much as ~20-30rhwp at high boost, I'm still using the stock T-25 turbo so I didn't expect a whole lot of difference. Unfortunately, I was right. <img src="http://www.zilvia.net/f/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/wink.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt=''> We had some issues with printing out the dyno sheets so I can not post those up. However, I'm not on here saying I gained +50rwhp with nothing to back it up! At 7psi for stock vs KMD, the results were nearly identical. The HP was the exact same and torque went up 2-3lb/ft. At 14psi for stock vs KMD, the KMD gained ~5rwhp and ~8lb/ft of torque. While the numbers don't lie, there is more to it than that. The overall power curve looked substantially different. It was much more linear and resulted in higher power in the top of the power band. If you just looked at the graphs, it would deceivingly look like I gained a lot. For actual "butt-dyno" and driveability differences, I did notice a difference, but not a huge one. As the dyno chart suggested, power seemed to come on stronger and smoother, but let me be clear by saying it's not a neck snapping difference. I could definitely tell the difference on the track as the power band was a lot nicer.

I would bet that if we had a comparison of a stock manifold vs KMD manifold for a larger turbo that we would see some more impressive HP differences. I'm planning on going the big T28 route so hopefully I'll be able to comment on it a little bit by next season.

The manifold puts out a LOT more heat than the OEM manifold. I put Thermo-tec heat tubes around my brake lines to try to keep those cool. I haven't had any issue with anything melting, but I will be getting the manifold jet/swain coated this winter to keep under hood temps cool.

I should also note, if you install one of these make sure to clean it up very well with a clean rag and some brake cleaner or solvent so that no oil/residue is on the manifold. Once it gets some on it, it will turn rainbow colors and it seems to magically spread. Some (insert censor) guy had the bright idea of touching my manifold while my car was getting teched at a race day. I wanted to beat him with my jack. No respect...

That's it - post up your comments, critiques, questions, yada, yada....

[Foxcolt]

Very nice I especially like that last pic!
Thanks for putting up a review.

One question though. Can you elaborate on the head studs? Why did you have to replace them? Why did a stud snap? Did this happen while you were driving or while you were torquing the manifold on?

By next spring I plan on having the KMD manifold on my car along with my GT2540. I'm interested to see how that turbo'll stand up to your big 28, should be fun <img src="http://www.zilvia.net/f/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt=''>

What are you gonna do about fuel?

Jed <img src="http://www.zilvia.net/f/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/devil.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt=':devil:'>

[Beef]

No, not head studs. &nbsp;The studs that go on the turbo flange. &nbsp;There are none on the manifold so you have to get some or try to reuse the ones of the OEM manifold (which is a bad idea). &nbsp;

My basic tentative plans are for the FP Big T28, 555cc injectors and a Power FC or "Nissdata" depending on how that's going. &nbsp;It's a track car so no giant turbos or anything crazy.

[Foxcolt]

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote (Beef @ Oct. 18 2002,3:02)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">No, not head studs. The studs that go on the turbo flange. There are none on the manifold so you have to get some or try to reuse the ones of the OEM manifold (which is a bad idea).

My basic tentative plans are for the FP Big T28, 555cc injectors and a Power FC or "Nissdata" depending on how that's going. It's a track car so no giant turbos or anything crazy.</td></tr></table><span id='postcolor'>
Ah. I see. Do you have the thread pitch or the part number for those bolts?


Power FC is my route. saving up for that now. As great as the nisdata seems to be you still have to burn a new chip everytime you want to make a change unless you keep the module on the ECU all of the time. Other than that the nisdata seem like the shizzy. Just wish I new when it was coming out and what retail was gonna be.

[Beef]

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote (Foxcolt @ Oct. 18 2002,4:06)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">Ah. I see. Do you have the thread pitch or the part number for those bolts?</td></tr></table><span id='postcolor'>
I think it was 8x1.25, but definitely make sure before buying anything as it's been a while since we did it and I don't remember exactly. &nbsp;I'd suggest going to your local muscle car shop and they usually have a decent selection of metric hardware. &nbsp;It's a pretty regularly used thread size/pitch.

[Foxcolt]

Great Thanks!

Jed <img src="http://www.zilvia.net/f/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/devil.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt=':devil:'>