Advice with DIY Turbo Manifold

[Fenderbass]

Hi everyone. I'm about to start welding up a DIY turbo manifold for the 2.5L in my Spirit. The idea is to relocate the turbo from behind the engine to over the transmission (nearer to the battery area). There is no need for anything fancy, just a simple "log-style" manifold but with a long pipe and flange for the turbo (GT3076) and an external wastegate. I believe the Bonneville Chrysler Lebaron had a similar set up.

I'm looking for any recommendations as far as the size of the welds els/tees. It looks like I may need a way to increase the pipe diameter once in gets to the turbo flange.

And if any of y'all have any pictures of this kind if set up, I'd super appreciate the visual.

[cordes]

I have no advice, but I'll be watching this thread. I've had some crazy ideas recently, and I'm signed up for another welding class this spring...

[Aries_Turbo]

if I was going to go to the trouble of making a sidewinder setup, I might start with a honda k series sidewinder manifold and modify it..... though youd need to weld stainless though.

Brian

[cordes]

That seems like it would be a lot of work from the photos I've seen when I googled that. Maybe they look more similar in real life.

[Fenderbass]

I thought about cutting up a Honda sidewinder manifold that the k-swap guys use…but those are expensive - even used on Facebook marketplace.

Unfortunately, I don’t have the ability to weld stainless (gosh I really need to get a TIG). Im going to try and make it out of mild steel and then wrap them. The tricky part would be running the “exhaust manifold” close to the head and then running the turbo exhaust exit back over the transmission while still make the timing-window visible on the a413. What helps is that I have a mock up block with head and transmission.

I found mild-steel weld els online, but I may try my local plumbing supplier.

[turbospirites]

I was looking at the header modeling kits but they are expensive from $500 to $1000 for some plastic tubes 😮