Tubular Manifold? and 3"Down Pipe

Now that my '13 Passat has the fix, I want to finish my offroad performance mods. I have the suspension, brakes, and transmission all completed. Now I need to add some ponies...

I currently have a GTB2260VK brand new still in the box. I am now looking at the Darkside tubular manifold. Would this be a sound purchase? I know the tubular manifold can be prone to cracking on these engines. Is the reliability/performance/cost good enough to go tubular over a cast manifold?

So far Darkside is the only place that I have found that even makes a tubular manifold for my application...

Also, can someone please give advise on a 3" downpipe selection? Darkside does not sell them separately for my application. I can only get it from them by buying a complete turbo kit. Is the Buzzken pipe a good product?

Thanks!!

I can't say I've heard any complaints about the darkside manifolds, and they have always been great about standing behind their products. Hopefully they'd be willing to break up the kit since there are domestic sources for turbos, but imagine it's all pieced together expecting to sell as a kit.

I have a tubular manifold I'm installing, it's very stout looking material. 2.5" downpipe is enough, not sure Buzzken makes one adaptable to the GTB turbo though. Shoot Darkside an email asking about piecing out the kit since you already have turbo, they are all great people. You will need oil feed and return lines as well from them, 4bar MAP sensor, TIP and boost pipes/silicones as well.

Thank you for the quick responses Gentlemen! I am now feeling good about getting the tubular manifold. And of course the other parts you mentioned

I have emailed Rob at Darkside a couple times in the last few days about parts and his last response regarding the downpipe was this so I hate to ask again.
""We only supply the down pipe with the complete package, this is also in 3" not 2.5""

Once I get ready to place the order I will ask again. Sometimes when you show folks you intend to do business and not just milk them for knowledge the will bend the rules a little for you.

adjat84th said:

I have a tubular manifold I'm installing, it's very stout looking material. 2.5" downpipe is enough, not sure Buzzken makes one adaptable to the GTB turbo though. Shoot Darkside an email asking about piecing out the kit since you already have turbo, they are all great people. You will need oil feed and return lines as well from them, 4bar MAP sensor, TIP and boost pipes/silicones as well.

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That is a thing of beauty. What are you going to run yours in?

mrmoto35 said:

That is a thing of beauty. What are you going to run yours in?

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GTD1752vrk
Just waiting on the oil return line being fabricated by Darkside. It's a different fitting on the CRUA than previous common rails, but is close to done!

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mrmoto35 said:

Thank you for the quick responses Gentlemen! I am now feeling good about getting the tubular manifold. And of course the other parts you mentioned

I have emailed Rob at Darkside a couple times in the last few days about parts and his last response regarding the downpipe was this so I hate to ask again.
""We only supply the down pipe with the complete package, this is also in 3" not 2.5""

Once I get ready to place the order I will ask again. Sometimes when you show folks you intend to do business and not just milk them for knowledge the will bend the rules a little for you.

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What Rob was saying, you need to purchase the 'kit' without a turbo to get everything -

https://www.darksidedevelopments.co...kit-for-2-0-16v-common-rail-engines-2011.html

Not just a manifold/DP alone. There are enough differences in the kits for it to be worth ordering everything.

adjat84th said:

GTD1752vrk
Just waiting on the oil return line being fabricated by Darkside. It's a different fitting on the CRUA than previous common rails, but is close to done!

Sent from my Pixel using Tapatalk

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We will have this with you shortly

There are alternatives well made at 5-550 euro/kit..just have to search well enough. PS. not selling anything but since you asked, i gave you an answer.

You guys need to stop posting porn here, my wife will kill me!

I've been running a darkside 1756 kit on myMK4 wagon alh for 50k and love it.
Tubular manifold to gtb1756vk turbo out to 2" I cooler supply piping with DS 3" down pipe.
The only thing I had to do was re clock the down pipe flange holes a hair so pipe was not hard up on the body.
I also made a turbo support bracket to help hold the turbo of the stock bolt on the block,because I've seen and welded up gasser tubular manifolds where they crack from holding all the turbo weight alone.

Adding a brace usually makes things worse, 50k trouble free means the brace must be OK but we never run them. The manifolds are plenty strong enough.

If you have a pic showing the DP modification that will help future kits, not had to do anything to RHD cars we fit to here

thermal and differential expansion means any bracing will be adding stress rather than relieving it
sort of like individual port flanges rather than one across all four, thermal expansion happens.

I must say I think this 3 inch ex is over kill 2.5 will get the job done in any 4 cyl we run.

for the turbo I would add some brackets to hold the weight of it.
And to date I have never seen any one show a dyno test on 3 in that made and more power back to back.

When my brother was fooling around with exhausts on his truck he came to the conclusion that when you go to big, and one of the things you get is that annoying drone. Now that could probably be easily fixed with a resonator but I have nothing to go by as there are not many folks out there with a Passat NMS that has been modded with the gtb2260vk, /dpf delete/3" downpipe, and a tune. It is a bit...well...eccentric. There is really nobody in the USA that put out high performance stuff for the NMS, rightly so, not enough demand to make it feasible. But quite frankly if I were going to build a little tiny car with lots of HP it would be another vw bug with a big turbo motor and Porsche alloys :-D

The guy I met a couple years ago, when I first start fooling with the car tells me to go 3" downpipe to a 2.5 cat back so that's where I came up with the 3". I have a aFe 2.5 cat back, and so far the only place I have found that makes a manifold and the downpipe for my car and the gtb2260vk is Darkside. Their kit comes with a tubular manifold and a 3" downpipe so the point is moot. They have some other parts I am interested in but should have my list ready soon.

Lastly, what kind of HP could I expect to achieve from this 2.0 CR, the turbo, manifold, downpipe, and a custom tune? What would be the next step do getting more out of it after these are installed without breaking the bank?

Thanks to all I appreciate your help!!

Well things had to be put on hold, again. Life just gets in the way sometimes...

Anyway, I am picking back up were I left off. I just need to get the manifold kit ordered and a new tune. Looks like I will be installing everything myself. I can wrench, but I have no experience with TDI's so it will have to be a slow process with lots of patience.

I think my only remaining concern is the manifold kit. I am just not sure how Darkside can guarantee a fit in an NMS. Not sure how they could produce a manifold for an NMS. The chances of a common fleet NMS being imported to England AND finding it's way into Darkside's shop are slim and none. I would assume they would accept a return of the kit and refund my money if it did not work but I am not going to tear my stock turbo out without knowing for sure. I am going to contact them again and see what they say.

They wouldn't need the whole car. All they would need is the turbo/manifold combo. The NMS has quite a bit more room between the firewall & turbo than the golf/jetta, so clearance shouldn't be an issue.

turbobrick240 said:

They wouldn't need the whole car. All they would need is the turbo/manifold combo. The NMS has quite a bit more room between the firewall & turbo than the golf/jetta, so clearance shouldn't be an issue.

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This definitely makes it much more plausible. It is a bit of an eccentric path to take but I doubt I am the only person looking to add a little hp to this common fleet sedan.

The guy I had originally setup to do the work for me had a Jetta wagon and he showed me the clearance it had. There was none compared to the Passat

i love seeing this thread come back now and again, i get a boner every time i see that sexy pile of pipes!

Mongler98 said:

i love seeing this thread come back now and again, i get a boner every time i see that sexy pile of pipes!

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Me too but I wish life would give me a base on balls once in a while. All these curve balls have me swinging in the dirt.

Can somebody tell me what the orifice I pointed out does exactly. If I had to guess I would say it is something to do with cold environment. In any case I am trying to determine how to deal with it if I were to install a new manifold. The new manifold does not cover it

High pressure EGR port. Darkside has a blank to cover it which you will need otherwise can suck in unfiltered air through that.

Yeah, I think the ckra must have the egr plumbed internally through the head for faster warm up. Somebody probably makes a block off plate if you want to delete the egr.

Thank you Gentlemen!

Yes deleting the EGR has already been figured into the turbo update. But I do not see how that can be blanked properly with only one stud to secure it?.

I have sent an email asking them how their kit addresses that.

Instead of just a flat plate blank, it could have one ear offset to go over the manifold flange- I think the stud is long enough to accommodate that. Though I think one fastener should be sufficient since there's no pressure against the plate. Another option would be to use the gasket as an alignment tool and tack weld one side of the blank to the manifold flange.

turbobrick240 said:

Instead of just a flat plate blank, it could have one ear offset to go over the manifold flange- I think the stud is long enough to accommodate that. Though I think one fastener should be sufficient since there's no pressure against the plate. Another option would be to use the gasket as an alignment tool and tack weld one side of the blank to the manifold flange.

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I thought about the same thing.

I checked the studs and they have maybe 2 threads with the stock manifold. I cannot say what would be left over with the new manifold

I've replied to your email

ryanp said:

I've replied to your email

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I responded back.

Thanks!

And the hits just keep coming. Pretty sure VW is never going to fix my car...

http://forums.tdiclub.com/showthread.php?t=483063

Wow, that really sucks! I was looking forward to seeing how thing were going to turn out with your car.

Does anyone has tested darkside tubular manifold for simple flow test ?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Mp9-DlkGVc