Hey just wondering if anybody on here has purchased the Banks twin turbo setup for their thirdgen and if so does anyone have any pics of this kit installed on their ride? Just trying to see how everything fits under the hood. Also any information whether it be good or bad on this kit would be a great help as well.

 

I have a banks kit lying around somewhere, it's not in a thirdgen. What do you need pics of? Fitment IN the car?

 

Ya pics of placement would be nice and pics of the entire unit setup looking down at the engine. Did this kit perform well for you?

 

 

Wow, the Gale Banks system is so sweet. That's without the intercooler too right? More pics plz!

 

Here is the very same system. Correct, no Intercooler...

 

Yeah, that vid is on their website...
There's also another vid from SEMA2013? where he is pushing their water/meth controller system, which makes sense when running no intercooler. BTW, I noticed your windshield washer bottle is full in your other pic, lol.

 

Oh Gawd lol. I wish that was my setup lol. I am running a single turbo, I posted that picture because I have the same picture saved in my hard drive, but I used the actual link to post it here...

 

Those manifolds can't be purchased though right? You have to buy the whole kit?

I saw some STR manifolds once on ebay and forgot to bid. Have yet to see a pair since, but I was told they were clones. I'd go twins in a heartbeat if I could get a pair of those. Perfect packaging.


edit: STR not STS. STS is a different company.

-- Joe

 

Just make a simple log

 

Banks would have probably made so much more money as opposed to a whole entire kit if he simply sold the manifolds separately. Not too many people even bothered with the whole entire system, too costly. I still have my cast manifolds that I would like to finish myself, pic of them mocked up below, the drivers side I brazed not too long after taking that pic in the second pic, and we held a torch directly on the weld well exceeding 1000 degrees and it held no problem with weight to that of the turbo placed on top of it. Didn't budge. Would like to position some GN Turbo Buick 3-bolt flanges on them, and run two turbo's with internal wastegate's, just too lazy to finish them, not to mention I hate welding cast iron, hate it. I mean hate it. Did I mention... I hate it lol?

 

I've been doing a lot of cast stuff this year with my big stick welder. Welds very easy.

I did the LT1 manifolds into a single setup that way.

I wish they made some nice cast manifolds with big ports but they don't. The stock Fbody smog manifolds won't even cover the afr210 exaust ports.

-- Joe

 

Thats why you build a log lol

 

I was thinking about cutting them again, and redoing it with the correct weld, not brazing them, then cutting the three bolt flanges off and welding in these so I wouldn't limit myself to just three bolt turbo's. Just can't get inspired enough to do it...

 

I like cast iron

-- Joe

 

I dont see why lol mild steel sch 10/40 is just as good and easier to work with lol

 

Cast iron manifolds are stronger and hole their shape, less warpage. Can be easily milled a number of times as needed, and you can have tighter bends and packaging with a casting than you can do with welded bends.

They also hold more heat in, which is better for spooling on a street car.

-- Joe

 

Meh spool time is overrated. Proper mild log spools anything just fine and sch 40 thickness holds plenty of heat and is plenty strong. To each his own tho

Castings would be nice if you could create your own cast shape

 

I have a set of the str manifolds. Dont know if I will use them still. I would need to do a ton of work on them, and I dont know if they would be capable of handling the afr210 ports or not. They have a t3 flange, so I would need adapters for a t4, and placement will be funky on standard turbos. The banks and str manifolds are designed for on-center turbine housings. I would swap turbines if economically possible on my 6766 turbos, but not sure how bad performance might suffer going to the on center housings. I would probably port the gate mounts and try to get some 40+mm gates on there.... I think the str manifolds are designed for 38mm gates.

 

Got any pics of them mounted in your engine bay?

Selling them?

This is the time of the year I buy stupid stuff I don't need for future builds

-- Joe

 

Never had them in the car, but they are mounted to the engine on a stand. I will try to get some pics up in here. They look to be a better flowing copy of the banks manifolds, but with a t3 flange. Banks were t4. My car had a banks setup on it back in 1990, and I was going to try to put it back together in a similar fashion albeit with bigger turbos. Back then, the car had a pair of t04b turbos on it with a miniram. Now I will be using some 6766s.

 

Cool. If you don't mind emailing me some pics, anesthes@cisdi.com and if you wanna sell 'em let me know. Don't want to clutter up this thread.

-- Joe

 

Here is one random shot. You can see how waay off the turbo is without an elbow or on center housing.

 

You can buy just the cast turbo headers through Jegs.

http://www.jegs.com/p/Banks/Banks-Tw...17514/10002/-1

 

OMG, the set of manifolds would cost $1700.00...



http://www.jegs.com/i/Banks/139/5110...ductId=3017514

 

That is insane..

-- Joe

 

That's not much more than a fabricated hot side costs using quality parts/materials. Sure you can do it cheap but if you feel like cast manifolds are giving you a significant advantage over a fabricated setup then the rest of your system should be maximized for efficiency and that isn't cheap either

For example my current hotside:

$450 for my headers, 6 v-band assemblies @ $50 each, 10 mandrel bends @ $20 each, t4 flange $25, $50 for argon/filler/power/tungsten/welder, remflex header gaskets $30, ARP header bolts $20 - total = $1075 Keep in mind that doesn't include the labor/testing costs to get them working right and it's mild steel, stainless would be minimum 50% more for a 3xx series.

The turbo game may be cheap to play, but it's expensive to win

 

the initial thing about the banks setup was that it would be a 100k mile setup. put it on the car and drive it like any other car everyday with little to no maintenance and/or repairs. no cracked headers or whatnot.

i think at this point i would probably sell my str manifolds. they are new, only used for mockup, and i think i might have the original box and everything they came in. what got me into these was putting the car back to the way it was in 1990. however, i think the car will be a little too aggressive for these once i finally get going on it again.
i would take $675 for them, i think im $750 deep into them.

 

Thanks for posting that! Very expensive headers, but maybe worth it in the long run. The banks setup is so nice and compact! $6K for the whole TT Kit.... $4k for just their turbos. Says something maybe about their turbos being a special design? They brag about being able to not use intercoolers....

 

I guess the real question is if their proprietary headers have a special bolt pattern that fit only their turbos? Another note on their headers, as they 'look' cast iron, but they say they're high silicon steel.

 

No, they have a t4 flange unless something has changed. Banks prices reflect the fact that its somewhat of a total package thats all figured out. You just bolt the kit on and go. The turbos are custom to the point where certain wheels and housings are installed to work well with the rest of the kit.

 

Maybe their turbos are proprietary in order to match the headers? A left and a right turbo, different angles? Maybe you found this out? Just looking at your earlier pic... Remember, turbo n00b HERE, not poking fun.

 

Nelson is the only one with mirror image turbos I believe. Banks stuff is expensive. Hes not marketing to the low buck guys, hes aiming for guys with more money and less time. You can buy a set of garrett or whatever turbos for half as much that will do the same thing as the banks units.

 

Thanks alot for the pointer to Nelson symmetrical turbos. Turbo pairs start @ $3600, real close to the $4K Gale Banks units, but their outlet angles seem to point downwards presumably for piping to an intercooler...

Another thing about the Banks TT product is that the $6K pricetag does not cover the Accel FI package? Which is another $4K?! Is this correct? I hope I'm wrong. I don't see an Accel ECM in the JEG's pic from the link posted earlier...

 

I just downloaded the Banks owners manual. The Accel ECM is included... $6K is not too bad for a TT setup like this IMO The only thing not addressed in the sales points is the fuel pump... Got some good readin to do tonight.

 

So nice!

 

Here's some pics of banks stuff: