WHAT CAUSED THIS ?
I have a thought, lets hear yours.









Thanks

 

poor weld..?

 

this^

 

That

 

What they said....

 

poor weld and or brace is needed....

 

just reweld????

 

That's definitely poor weld ***********. You have a weld bead holding two non-joined pieces together - probably as a result of low temps. You can't have the power up too high lest you blow holes through the tubing - but as a result the flange isn't heating up enough. So you lay down what looks like a good bead, but its really just sitting there, and... it cracks.

Or, you have metal that wasn't completely clean.

 

Is that a zzp manifold? Mine just did this!!! It's ticks like an SOB and I hate pulling these manifolds off. Such a pita

 

definitely looks like the weld wasnt penetrating enough into the surrounding metal. i usually only see this type of cracking when the weld puddle is too thin.

 

Good explantion ^^^^^^^^^^

 

Ill bet I know who that came from. Funny how many of those have cracked in the same way...

This is why our manifold is braced under the runners and we use this crazy thing called a brace on the turbo itself.. Wild concepts..

 

Hope that didn't come off the vette...

 

Poor weld and/or prep. Next to ***********, prep is almost EVERYTHING in the welding world. The other possibility would be improper filler rod used as well.

 

Yes, yes it did !

HERE IS MY THEORY.........
I believe that after welding the runners to the flange that it was slightly warped.
When you tighten the manifold to head (which is a pita for sure) it pulls the ends back towards straight and causes stress cracks at each end of the manifold sooner or later.
The reason I say this is my manifold from day one has had a slight exhaust leak at each end of the manifold and 30 seconds or so later heat expanded parts and leak went away. I'll get a pic trying to show that it is warped when I get it back from welding. I have also recently heard of others that had to have the flange resurfaced.
Once thats done I don't believe there would be any more issues. I did ASSUME (I know) that this manifold was ready to bolt on, but I suggest to anyone who buys or owns one to get it resurfaced.

I can't say that its bad welds, but I was told by a quality welder here that the welds look too cold ??

Nick, I would think if the cracks were from "lack of bracing" that the cracks would be places other than just on the ends, but I don't know.

 

quit driving it like you stole it lol jk

 

As I said in my previous post - probably a result of low temps. This is not unusual when you're welding to the flange, since you need to strike a balance between a good weld to the flange (thick) and the tubing (thin). To hot and you pop holes through the pipe - too thin and you get what you see on your weld surface. Just right, and you get as much *********** through the thinnest metal joined at the point of joining - if you're seeing cracks like you're seeing, the metals have NOT joined, and you're holding two pieces of metal together with just the bead. This is particularly bad on exhausts flanges, since you see such extreme heat cycling - essentially causing the weld bead to flex each time it gets heat cycled (the tubing will expand faster than the thick flange) - and especially at the ends of the pipes, where there's less direct 'insertion' into the flange and more stress because of that nice, wide bend heating the way it does.

I had a 98 Grand Cherokee, and they come from the factory with a genuine exhaust header. However, they're badly braced and the flange is so long (4.0 inline 6), and the inside pipes have a tendency to crack along the diameter, while the outsides tend to develop small cracks near the welds. When I pulled the exhaust header, I rewelded two of the beads, ran fresh beads where it had cracked, and welded a secondary set of braces along two sections, so that all that crazy flexing would be eliminated. Headers are fantastic, but they can be bears.

 

Is that the ZZP gen 1


gen 2 or gen 3?

 

"your lucky that 100 shot of nos didnt blow the welds in the intake" lol sorry bro i had to but just take it to a shop to get it rewelded or better just get a new one

 

i would have it rewelded. ad relief cuts into the flange to allow for movement and have the flange milled flat.

 

Well, without seeing pics of the other side of the tube, it's tough to determine ***********. It (from these shots) seems cold in some spots, however I would like to see the inside port of the flange pics to tell the whole picture.

Agreed.

 

Dezod - I'd agree. I've gone so far as to stick/ARC on the inside, just to sting parts of the tube to the inside lip of the flange, then use a set of stones from Eastwood to grind the weld smooth. That way you don't see any flex at the joint from the heat, even if the weld is slightly sub-standard. To be honest, if/when I toy with headers, I shoot for overkill rather than pretty. There's nothing worse than having to try to band-aid a header after you've blued, flexed, partly rusted and collected a shitload of crud on the inside.

Come to think of it, none of my welded stuff looks particularly pretty! Heh..... But it won't come apart, and that's where the money's at.

 

zzp or vulcan lol

 

not very straight.


"pics of the other side of the tube"
Here they are.
This is the inside but after I had it welded up.


The unwelded inside.




Now just gotta get it resurfaced and hope we're good to go.

 

Look at the thickness of that flange versus the tube. Advantage - the flange doesn't warp with heat. The disadvantage - unless you're God with a MIG, you cannot possibly sink in enough heat for that flange to fully take a weld when you're running against such a thin tube surface.

I just got done welding 1/8" plate to about 3/8" thick 'wire' steel. I know I didn't penetrate enough, but it'll be good to go for what it needs to do. I'm looking at that flange, and thinking about how many holes I'd blow through the exhaust header tubing trying to get sufficient depth!