Custom cast parts

[RBPE 198]

I've been doing a bit of research these last few weeks and stumbled across what looks to be a decent casting company in China. They do cast iron, steel and aluminium and seem to do a lot of commercial work, 50 years in the business, thousands of tons per year, International QC standards etc

The mold costs are the expensive aspects but about a third of the price here in the UK from what I've been quoted in the past but you're looking at about a grand for a small item to about £3k exhaust manifold size up to £5-10k for really complex top quality stuff.

Get yer thoughts and idea's down folks!

[dave_424 48]

One problem I see is that what can you offer that is better than the cheap china cast manifolds now that are sub £100?

Anyone looking to spend a few hundred or wants to make big power will be looking at a tubular manifold

[RBPE 198]

Waste of money half the time those manifolds...bad porosity, inferior iron etc

As an example let's take an R32 exhaust manifold for turbo; good quality cheap mani's are things like SPA Turbo ones that I resell.  EN-GJS-400-15  or often touted as GGG40 cast ductile iron. When it comes to FI tuning there are  these cheap but well made mani's available but they are missing the dual bank lambda readings, you can find these on, for example HPA/HGP mani's but a thousand bucks plus import duty etc - £1k for one of them.... it's a fair whack, plus SS material spec adds costs! Aside from that you've got cheap tat without due diligence - hence the thread - or good material spec but not quite top tuning.

You can hack, in R32T etc tune, the dual bank lambda readings but it is always better to get as oem as poss..... both bank readings would be best! But without these changes you're limited to said manifolds or a cheaper and decent mani or, like you said, a tubular SS mani, most of which do not have these detailed things needed! To sort fuel trims properly on the ME7.1.1.. you need dual bank readings - no tubular mani's seem to do that for £1k+ so they're not R32 designed to me - hence let's do it properly! About 5 years I've done this manufacturing thing!

So, you are talking about tubular but most are't designed correctly - Re-seller prices of a good ductile iron mani you're looking at £200-300 and man pre and current SPA Mani owners are happy.... think there's some niche's and a LOT of tuning tech that needs to go into!

 

That's what the thread's for though!

So...... a cast iron manifold can have many variances - this thread should help cipher through them so get your thoughts down!

Edited March 17, 2016 by RBPE

[RBPE 198]

P.S. The quality of "cast iron manifolds" can vary, cheap tat is not properly cast ductile iron, certain manufacturing processes, material spec all make HUGE differences!

[RBPE 198]

The company in question also did a good blog entry about the varying qualities of casts in China and which area's have good reputations and this was back in 2010 so they seem good. With the machining and packaging to port the unit price is more than the cheap cast main's too, so they are top end ductile iron castings but they will be more expensive due to that.

Anyway it's not only manifolds but anything cast and I've done the leg work on quality standards etc if anyone has thoughts on parts?

[c00k 435]

Thermostate housing, in Ali.

So they won't crack or break on the inner lip. 

I know you can already get metal ones, but there about 300, and made in the states I think. 

So wonder how much they would be from China. 

[RBPE 198]

48 minutes ago, c00k said:

Thermostate housing, in Ali.

So they won't crack or break on the inner lip. 

I know you can already get metal ones, but there about 300, and made in the states I think. 

So wonder how much they would be from China. 

The parts themselves are far more cheaper than you realise, it's the mould initial costs that are the big expense.... also casting techniques differences that can cost more, material and so on, but the IP/design/mould costs make multiple production cheaper afterwards.

Main point is getting a list of needed parts, get pics for the supplier if needed - something small with medium machining like that is about $80 to the port for shipping, few more bucks delivery costs and duty/tax in the Queen's currency or State equivalent will up it a touch but that's the cost differences and as a basic guide, could be $50 more but you get the idea, money is in reselling, bulk/group buy discounts etc - I'm basically giving people options here. Mould costs can be a few grand  though - hence rattling the old grey cells between us to make the option available.

Still, options are there