XS Power customer service...

... is really rather good!

I ordered a manifold from the XS Power Ebay site last week, and when it arrived on Monday, it was the wrong one. So I emailed their sales team and got a very prompt reply, apologising for the mixup and asking when would be convenient for them to collect the incorrect one and drop off the correct one. I said Wednesday would be good, and sure enough, they turned up this morning and swapped them over.

Mixups happen, but I was pleasanly surprised with the rapid responses and quick turnaround on getting this sorted.

I thought some of you might be surprised...

friend of mine had similar experience saying they were very helpful, glad u got it sorted

Cool, out of interest why have you had to have a new manifold?

Because my old one cracked. And before you tell me I'm being silly... I couldn't afford a BL one.

Did they give you a new one free of charge?

Because my old one cracked. And before you tell me I'm being silly... I couldn't afford a BL one.

isnt that a downfall, surely people would learn the quality of xs-power:p

No, not free of charge... the old one was a couple of years old.

And, having consulted various people on here, I've been led to believe that any manifold can crack, but the chances of this can be substantially reduced by having some support fabricated, which is what I'm going to do.

P.S. The BL one is literally ten times more expensive. At that price, I'm happy to take my chances with an XS Power one cracking after another two years...

Make sure you get all the crap out of it before fitting as i think this has caused some problems for people.

Make sure you get all the crap out of it before fitting as i think this has caused some problems for people.

Darren knows, I've been quite clear about what to check for on them It's being fitted by a specialist garage who know what they're doing so it should be okay.

Impressive service from XS power though, must admit I had my doubts about a quick swap when Darren said the wrong one had turned up!

All i can say is it about time! they must have A either got their act together at last, or B got some sensible people working for them now, certainly was not the case when i had a problem.

It turns out that every single surface of manifold is not fit for purpose as it stands, so it's being sent off to be machined. This was not unexpected, given the price.

Thought you guys would like to be kept up to date.

It turns out that every single surface of manifold is not fit for purpose as it stands, so it's being sent off to be machined. This was not unexpected, given the price.

 

Thought you guys would like to be kept up to date.

And soon as it goes though a few heat cycles they will warp again. total waste of money imo, if you want to save money over a BL manifold why not go with a cast manifold?

Setting the manifolds 2 faces up for grinding or milling will probably cost as much as the manifold itself... This is where it gets cost ineffective.

But even if it did cost as much as the manifold, the overall cost (including custom fabrication of the support) is still well under half the best price I could find for a second hand BL manifold.

And I was under the impression the support was a good idea regardless of the choice of manifold, so if you take that out of the equation, I'm still paying only a quarter of what I could get a used BL for.

The way i see see it is most people hate everything xs power so your car will always be worth less.

How much is it costing to change it?

What if this one only lasts 6 months instead of 2 years and you have to do it all again?

And soon as it goes though a few heat cycles they will warp again. total waste of money imo, if you want to save money over a BL manifold why not go with a cast manifold?

All metal will move through heat cycles, some grades more than others, even you're BL manifold,and even that will warp if the bolts come loose, a lot of problems with XS and others, is down too the machining in the first place, if not good then people bolt them up and they proceed to leak, which compounds the problem, if the faces are flat to start with, and the bolts are tightened properly then there should be no problems.

pick yourself up a quality cast unit and be done with it mate if you cant afford the tubular ones thats the best advice I can offer! There are plenty on the market now but I would stick with PHR or arnouts one, personally and its difficult to comment on as ive never gone down the whole single route, but if I had the money to blow and wanted a tubular one I would get one fabricated from scratch from inconel or something like a fuel race one with a lifetime garauntee....However, would prob opt for a cast one as this would best suit my goals for the car IF I were ever to go single

pick yourself up a quality cast unit and be done with it mate if you cant afford the tubular ones thats the best advice I can offer! There are plenty on the market now but I would stick with PHR or arnouts one, personally and its difficult to comment on as ive never gone down the whole single route, but if I had the money to blow and wanted a tubular one I would get one fabricated from scratch from inconel....However, would prob opt for a cast one as this would best suit my goals for the car IF I were ever to go single

Inconel is very expensive, i would use a cheaper type of nickel alloy to achieve the same results

Inconel is very expensive, i would use a cheaper type of nickel alloy to achieve the same results

I cant argue with that. But its expensive for a reason the thermal expansion and conductivity is much lower than a nickel alloy and tensile strength is much greater

I paid under £900 a couple of weeks ago for a new BL manifold, it went straight on with no issues and should last a fair while, false economy fitting poor parts IMO, just add up the labour cost getting them to fit, work and last

Good luck getting it all sorted though

I got my pipes from them and they where very helpful and quick to respond, I thought they had a team in the uk but my parts came from america so il be waiting for the dreaded tax bill

Captain chaos bought a full gt45 xs power turbo kit and since fitting has had on issues with it at all. The manifold to head face did have to be skimmed but apart from that its going very well.