As you all know, i blew my intake manifold about 3 weeks back. At the time i did not have a boost gauge hooked up, and i just got my 3inch exhaust installed. That night i blew the manifold. Well Kevin from SMP sent me a replacement manifold because saab was going to take 2+ weeks to send theirs. I received the manifold today and was able to swap it out. Here are the pictures of the blowm one.

The Top view:


The back, as you can see, it blew it completely out. The side with the most damage is because of a nipple that goes to the Break system.


Up close of the back, as you can see, NO FIRE DAMAGE.


close up of the crack on the bottom


Again, NO fire damage.


and my lovely engine without the manifold on


So after i got the manifold installed, i let the car warm up. she started right up and had no problem idling. i gave her a couple revs and she sounded fine. so we took her for a spin. Jasen was in the passenger seat keeping a close eye on the boost gauge. as soon as i hit 3k rpms in 1st gear, the boost gauge read 15psi. Not believing it, i decided to do a small pull in 2nd. by 3.5k in 2nd jasen screamed 20 STOP!!!!!! and i immediately stopped accelerating and stopped at the stop sign. So there you have it. The cause of the busted manifold was NOT from Pre-Ignition or puddling in the manifold, it was 20psi of boost. Oh, i bet your wondering how im pushing 20psi. Well i happened to notice that the actuator vacuum line that goes from the outlet side of the turbo to the actuator, it was dangling next to the turbo... I dont know how it came off, maybe too much racing.

Tomorrow, when i have light im going to go back and hook the actuator hose back up. Thanks to Kevin of SMP i can enjoy the boost some more.

 

yep that will do it 20psi will crack that **** for sure ...so thats the verdict hu...plastic manifold will not hold up to 20psi!

Glad to see you are up and running man and get that vacuum line hooked back up so you are not running around town on 20psi of boost! Also your welcome and thats what SMP is here for...

Kevin

p.s. please try not to blow this manifold apart

 

Duct tape will fix that!

 

That is what happened to my car at the shop, kept throwing it in limp mode.

 

Man i love your car when i was down at the shop i saw your ride and was like damn! How is your car running now!

and duct tape will fix anything especially a guy screaming and begging for his life...little tape over the mouth and your golden! J/K!

 

Screw the sabb get an lsj manifold. Duel intercoolers anyone?

 

Wow..how many 2.2's on here have a turbo now?

 

yeah my tech said my plastic manifold would only hold 14psi tops

 

can you get a manifold that is NOT made of plastic?

 

Hahn makes one.

 

I would be glad thats the only thing you blew.

but now atleast you guys can stop saying that the intake mani can only take 8lbs of boost...

 

True very true. Hahn needs to come out with there new mainfold. After that then we need tuning. Then after that lol, we should have a much safer way of boosting the cobalt.

 

I think there is a saab ecotec manifold that someone can buy, i havent been able to find one though

 

Well my car just held up to 20psi of boost. i would say the tuning solution did its job and kept my engine together for as long as it did. If it werent for the proper fuel mixtures and timing retard my engine would grenaded a long time ago. The SMT6 is variable, it will retard timing per boost level, so it read 20psi and removed even more timing and added the proper ammount of fuel. i would say its a pretty damn good tuning solution.

Now for some new internals/saab manifold and 15-20psi can be my proper boost level =P

Yup, 2003+ Saab 9-3- 2.0T intake manifold. mine should be here this week. it cost me 158 bux.

 

Damn, that is gonna be a strong car on 20 psi.

 

I couldnt find it when i looked for it. I hear it flows alot better too

Good luck

 

where did u order the saab manifold from
and the turbo manifold

 

I was at Alpine today as they were installing the turbo on my 2.4 and John and I were talking about your 20 PSI experiment. I must say, a manifold is cheaper than destroyed pistons. John and I decided that the manifold being the weak link in the system is actually a great safety measure! For those wanting to go to lower compression pistons and high boost levels, there's always the metal manifolds out there.

And I agree with you - I too think the SMT-6 and extra injector are a good tuning solution. I know there are those on this board who disagree. I guess that's why there are different ways to do things.

Please post pics of your Saab manifold when you get it, and when it's installed!

 

If anyone wants the manifold and cannot get it, let me know. ill do a big order of them, you can send me the money +shipping and ill get em out to you guys. The local shop can get them in 3-4 business days but the supplier who makes the manifolds had to fix something so they are behind on a **** load of orders and thats why its taking me 2 weeks to get mine. but after i get mine the shop will get them in quicker.

So pm me if you want the saab manifold. Its 158 + shipping(i can find out shipping costs later)

 

Questions lol.....Fitment wise is there any issues? Also what about any codes....I want to get the Garrett kit when it comes out but I would put in on there now if I could. But I don't want any codes coming up If I do.

Also....wtf make you want to go up to 20psi? lol Just seeing how many things you would or wouldn't break?

Either way still deserve props for what you have done to your car

 

No i never intended on going over 8-10psi on stock internals. the wastegate actuator hose came off around the same time when i got my exhaust done. so it was allowing it to spool to its full potential. now that i've hooked the actuator hose back up, its still boosting to 20psi, so i gotta get under there and see if the wastegate is stuck. it really doesnt seem to be boost creep because its getting to 15psi by 3k rpms in 3rd, then by 3.5k its approaching 20psi. im just tired and dont feel like driving the car back up onto the curb so i can get back under it.

 

The Garrett kit is out. However, it's not a plug-and-play solution. Celicacobalt here on the board has the kit on his 2.4 Auto and the so-called tune Garrett sells with their kit doesn't work. It's throwing codes and spiking lean. So he's tuning with HPTune now to get it together.

If you have a 2.2, the only kit that is plug-and-play is the Alpine, but unless you're capable of fully understanding the kit and tune, I wouldn't suggest installing it yourself.

Could it have blown the wastegate hose off again? I've found that if a hose gets blown off from boost, it might be stretched to the point where it will happen every time (we had that trouble on a friend's Cummins diesel - we used a tiny tie-wrap cinched up real tight as a clamp to cure the problem).

 

I'm confussed...

If you knew you were reaching 20 PSI of boost, why didn't you fix the issue before hand? I'm assuming you had a boost gauge, right? If you didn't, how did you know you're hitting 20?

And if you were spiking boost, you're lucky it was just your manifold that went.

20 PSI will do it to you...yeah.

 

I believe he said earlier that he had no boost gauge until he replaced the manifold.

 

When the "Situation" happed with the intake Duane was not running a Boost gauge or a wide band it was all tuned at Alpine Development and he left the tune alone for over 3K miles and then he opened up the exhaust and i assume during the time the heat of the new exhaust could of got the vacuum line hot enough where it is not staying on now or heck Duane might even have a leaky hose from the heat of the new exhaust...

then with the new set up he ran fools here and there and the pop was from the vacuum line coming off for the brake boost and the manifold and the cracking of the intake...

SO..NOW i sent him out a manifold and while he was there i told him to hook up the boost gauge on the new manifold and thats when he realized he was making 20psi...

Also i believe he was going to get the wide band hooked up this weekend or next so he can do even more tuning and fix the over boost issue and get old girl back down to 10psi