UrS4boy

I emailed Chris Myers, the wrench who built the S4 that Corey Kirzinger now has, regarding his experiences with the Chinese RS2 tubular manifold. The following is his response:

"Hi Dave!
Good to hear from you. Yes, I have done some "refining" of the Chinese "RS2" header I purchased about a year ago. If someone else bolted one of those on right out of the box I'm really surprised they accomplished that w/o alot
of work before hand. The first on I got from a place in B.C.-Exotic Speed-was the name of the place-was warped badly at the head flange-appx. .080" and you could see daylight through a weld ground through in the collector. They
sent me another one that was just as warped, but on all the flanges. I decided to keep it (paid $300.00) and had it re-tigged on both the collector welds adding welds on areas where there should have been some but weren't, had all
the flanges re-surfaced and port matched the holes in the head flange-all were off a bit and several bolt holes needed slotting. I now have appx. $500.00 in it plus an OE manifold gasket as the one they supplied had most of the holes in the wrong places. I have not yet installed it as I have been trying to decide what to do with it.

Anyway, re: stock down-pipe & air box/MAF placement-NO WAY -this china header places the turbo alot higher than the cast manifold, not even remotely close to the stock location, new oil & water lines are a neccessity. As for the
other guy's header cracking within 2 hours... did he install a brace to support the manifold & turbo? If not I'm not surprised it cracked-you don't happen to know where it cracked do you?"

I'll let you know how/if my modded china-fold works out...

See ya!, Chris"

Dave F's Summary: Buyer be VERY aware. It ain't all good. (That work for you Emre?)

Turbo_Anarchy

.080 warped, nice!

SilberUrS6

Sometimes, saving money is VERY expensive.

Only-Emre

Just call it the Chineese tubular header. It's not an RS2 clone, and fits many more cars than just an RS2.

Moral of the story, it's a $200 manifold that might/probably will require more money and labor to work, but it's a good starting point for someone who wants to tinker with.

SilberUrS6

Inferior materials, no matter how re-worked, are still inferior.

It's not much of a deal if you have to spend money to get it reworked, then get (potentially) very little life out of it.

It's hard to buy a Yugo and turn it into a sports car. Turd-polishing almost never produces satisfactory results.

UrS4boy

hear from you after you waste $200 plus $$$ tinkering on how it all went.

UrS4boy

<joke>

But he does have Yugo experience.

SilberUrS6

Except when it's your own money, right?

Dave, I think this is a lesson that can never be taught externally. I think everyone must learn it for themselves.

I've learned it twice - once with cars, and once with mountain bikes. My Scirocco was a test bed for all sorts of cheap crap that had to be replaced with OEM, or known good tuner stuff. If I'd have just spent the money right in the first place, I might still have that car.

Then I got into MTBing, and forgot the "buy quality the first time" and tried to go cheap a few times. Since I do all my own work there, it really didn't do much except waste a few hundred dollars, but I learned the lesson again. Buy quality the first time. It's cheaper, in the long run.

SilberUrS6

He's a freakshow from start to finish.

[runs away]

escargot

*ding*