| Been a long day of work here in the punishing Florida heat; feels like 105 degrees right now and it is night-time. Finally got my flanges from Greg D. to build the downpipes and had everything else ready to go. I spent some time opening up the turbine pipe hole to accomodate for the 1 7/8" exit pipe I used as well as grind the center divider block to match the turbine housing bore. They came out pretty good with a good bit of elbow-grease and a carbide die-grinder. I used 304SS mandrel bent sections to build the downpipes from and I obtained a pair of 3" 3-bolt flanges for the tail end of them. I have modeled the downpipes after Greg's "Super-Split" design as there appears to be some advantages to keeping the tracts seperated for a longer duration. Unfortunately because of the custom manifolds I built, Greg would have no way of building a set of SuperSplits for my application so I had to go the DIY route. The turbine outlet pipe is 1 7/8", but I slipped that into a full 2" pipe just after the ~80-degree down-bend to help improve the flow. The wastegate pipe is 1.5" and all mandrel bends are on a 3" centerline radius. I used a ~4" piece of 304SS 3" pipe to form the merge collector and with a bit of massaging I got them into shape to use. I started around noon today and things went pretty well. There isn't much clearance for the passenger downpipe as the starter takes up a lot of room in that area, but that side turned out really well. The driver's side was actually the most time consuming to do and I am glad I did it after the passenger side - getting the driver's downpipe flange in a symmetrical location to the passenger side proved to be challenging. I'm sure the heat and the fact I did this on a floor-crawler probably added to the difficulty - I'm just glad the hard part is done. Gonna make a trip to my welder's shop on Monday and have him TIG weld these babies together for me. I will be installing reinforcing tabs/gussets between the pipe and the turbine flange to add some strength and longevity to them - we will have to see how that pans out. But, enough blabbing, here's the pics. :) 
I have a box here of all of the 3" 304SS mandrel bent pipe sections to build a full 3" exhaust for the Z, but that will come after installing my MASSIVE SMICs and building the 2.5" piping to go with them. 
Complete image gallery of the conversion engine buildup>
[ http://ashspecz.com/Image%20Gallery/2004-Engine%20Build/ ]
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[ agpowers@bellsouth.net ] Enthusiasts soon understand each other. --W. Irving.
Are you an enthusiast? If you are out to describe the truth, leave elegance to the tailor.
Albert Einstein
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AshsZ-II Ultimate Street Z Progress: Downpipes Complete - 
