I bought one of the 1A Auto exhaust manifolds recently and took a few detail pictures of it:

http://madscientistmatt.blogspot.com/20 ... ifold.html

Thought you guys might find this interesting. While it does indeed seem to have a bit more reinforcement, the casting quality really didn't impress me.

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"Mad Scientist" Matt Cramer
'66 Dart - turbocharged 225
My blog - Mad Scientist Matt's Lair

I'm not entirely sure that I could live with a casting stamped "China" mounted to my 225!

Well, I wouldn't install one without taking an angle grinder to it in any case. It will be interesting to see if a casting stamped "China" can live mounted to my 225, as I am going to be running that thing red-hot. I'm starting to think I should have gone with a junkyard manifold.

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"Mad Scientist" Matt Cramer
'66 Dart - turbocharged 225
My blog - Mad Scientist Matt's Lair

Is that manifold for a Super Six or a standard one bbl ?

thanks jeff

There is no difference between a "Super Six" (2bbl) exhaust manifold and a 1bbl exhaust manifold.

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一期一会
Too many people who were born on third base actually believe they've hit a triple.

I have one of those manifolds too. I was surprised to see the "China" stamped on it. It seems to work fine, maybe even better if I ground on the inside of the runners - not too smooth.

I don't know why all the surprise and consternation that these manifolds originate in China. That's about the only place they could be made for the money they're getting. a few minutes with a grinder and they'll clean right up. The original Mopar castings weren't exactly works of art either. It will be interesting to see how they hold up.

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David Kight
'62 Valiant Signet, White
'98 Dodge Dakota
'06 Jeep Liberty

Growing older is unavoidable but growing up is strictly optional.

Chinese workmen have to put food on the table too. But my concern is that a lot of companies that have cut costs when outsourcing production to China often cut costs otherwise, with quality suffering. And Communist countries just generally don't do a very good job at building quality products except some of their military hardware - from what I hear, the way they run their manufacturing often shows a blatant disregard for customer satisfaction.

Some areas seem worse than others. For example, I've sworn off buying tools from China or Taiwan (even though there are no Commies there) simply because in the past ten years virtually every tool I have owned from those areas has been far below the quality of tools built elsewhere. Some are pretty horrible - I had a Taiwanese impact U-joint fail after removing two bolts (I did a jury-rigged repair with some bolts on hand, and that held up longer than the original parts!), and a Homier angle grinder which lasted about an hour. The abraisive disc on it outlasted the gearing. I've got to wonder how many of these tool companies realize that selling something that horrid means losing a customer for life.

So I'm just not sure how well this manifold will hold up. It seriously looks like the quality control is below late 1970s Chrysler standards.

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"Mad Scientist" Matt Cramer
'66 Dart - turbocharged 225
My blog - Mad Scientist Matt's Lair

I usually try to avoid buying anything made in China, it is hard sometimes and I cringe when I do. But one thing I have never bought for any of my Mopars is anything made in China.....noway. Had to replace a master cylinder on my 67 A-100 and ordered a brand new one from Advance Auto, got it and saw it was made in China! Returned it for a rebuilt oem with lifetime warranty....of course the replacement bits in the casting are probably made in China!!! ARGGHH!!!.....would you trust your brakes to something made in China? Never. How do these things compare to the Dorman ones that go for about 3 times the cost? Grind the stamping off, clean up/relieve the casting flash and with time and some rust they may be fine? I "might" consider these, but that's about it...and that's pushing it....The Chinese can't even make a cardboard box of any quality that they put their junk product into! The damn box falls apart before the the product is out!!!

I am fully aware of the shortcomings of many Chinese made products but in the case of these manifolds, if they weren't made there they probably wouldn't be made at all.

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David Kight
'62 Valiant Signet, White
'98 Dodge Dakota
'06 Jeep Liberty

Growing older is unavoidable but growing up is strictly optional.

The scary part of this debate is that we all said the same thing about the Korean cars when they first came out... the Hyundai, for instance. And it was deserved too.

Now the Hyundai has a 10 year warranty and is (I believe) as reliable as anything else out there... more reliable than many!

If and when China gets their act together (in manufacturing quality) our economy faces a serious threat.


-Mac

I've got over 4K miles on my 1A Auto Chinese exhaust manifold. So far, so good. Whadaya want for $139 bucks?

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'63 Valiant V200 Convertible
225 Aluminum Block

What economy? We've sold almost all of it off for pennies on the dollar...to the Chinese.

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一期一会
Too many people who were born on third base actually believe they've hit a triple.

...And Hyundai is the only one that succeeded out of three Korean automakers that tried. Kia got bought out by Hyundai, and Daewoo's now been taken over by General Motors. The Koreans weren't the only ones to try competing in the cheap car market, either - some other names I can come up with that have tried and completely bombed include Yugo, Crosslander, and Oka.

Hyundai made a serious effort to improve their quality. I haven't seen much evidence that the Communist Chinese have been focusing on competing on anything but price. That may come from the way their government likes to emphasize big sales numbers and new factories, while quality is a less glamorous thing you can't as easily put a big impressive number on. They may have improved a bit since the era where nobody would dare tell Chairman Mao that his Great Leap Forward's attrocious homemade steel furnaces wouldn't work. But I still haven't seen them make an effort to compete on quality.

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"Mad Scientist" Matt Cramer
'66 Dart - turbocharged 225
My blog - Mad Scientist Matt's Lair

This discussion probably ought to be carried on in Social Corner, since it's now about economics and politics rather than engines. In fact, there already exists in Social Corner a topical thread, see here for an explanation of what you're seeing.

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一期一会
Too many people who were born on third base actually believe they've hit a triple.