Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums Modifications Forced Induction Zetec Turbo Header. What do you think?

There's room for a turbo, though I don't know if with that manifold it will fit exactly right. The turbo will most likely hit the block not the radiator. You might have to make a small tube/adapter to angle the turbo away from the block a bit. In fact an adapter would also help the manifold not crack, or so some say. There are several Focus with turbo and stock manifolds and they're doing fine.

A stock Focus manifold has done 300whp with boost and nitrous, so it's decent. For a low HP setup it's also good. Yeah, $75 is a bit expensive. My dad got one for $15 plus shipping off Ebay. If you can get a refund, go for it.

Thanks for the feedback everyone!

Pectel made a turbo using this Focus header. Unfortunately I haven't been able to find out if they still make the turbo that fits it. (It was a custom cast GT turbo)

Yeah, I knew $75 was pretty steep. It was the most expensive one on car-part.com's list. BUT it was all of a mile from my apartemnt. I've gotta find my receipt...

I was thinking of having someone (with a shiny new TIG welder ) help me make a short adapter pipe. That way, I could change to one of the purdy stainless Focus aftermarket headers down the road.

Later,
Ben

Be careful. Some of those "pretty" headers have cracked even under NA driving. You might want to re-enforce the stock manifold a bit as well. Just beef up the stock brace a bit.

Here's what a smart guy with a custom turbo setup on his Focus wrote. His setup has lasted for almost a year so far with no cracks and occasional open tracking at 9psi and no intercooler, tuned with a Pectel.

Quote:

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I've hung mine right off the stock manifold. The stock manifold has a little bracket welded to the head flange and the outlet flange. I'm hoping that's enough to hold it. It helps that the stock manifold is 409 stainless, with very high quality welds. I'd bet it's welded by robots in either a vacuum chamber or a fully argon purged chamber.

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409 SS isn't much better then steel. It's still magnetic and will rust in time. But, it's better then bare steel or aluminized.

Ben who me??? TIG should be reday to go this weekend. My dad was very surprised by the size of the unit.

hmmmm, if the focus manifold might not be strong enough why not use our manifold? It looks plenty strong to me. The turbo would just hang slightly lower...

Granted the stock Tour/Coug mani is fairly sold piece, but it looks like crap. More importantly the turbo would interfere with the AC compressor and downpipe clearance and possibly the intake pipe and front motor mount clearance. My dad said he spent a week trying to fit the stock manifold to the turbo and couldn't do it. The focus manifold sits the turbo higher and that's important. Plus a custom manifold or even the Focus manifold looks cooler than our stock mani.

409 SS will rust and is magnetic. So, it could be 409 stainless. Which alot of manufacturers use on manifolds and exhausts now a days.

Ahhh, OK. If it still rusts, what's the point of using it? Does it withstand heat better?

It's mainly external rust, just the outer surface, they say it won't eat all the way through. If you're really worried about that you can always clean it off and have it Jet or powder coated. The guy pushing 300hp has his manifold coated. Besides at around $15 each on ebay, you can buy another later if your first one breaks.