put your intake on, your gov springs in, and get a good exhaust system. Don't waste your money on an intake manifold or exhaust manifold, use the money you save there for a set of injectors and a supply fuel pump.

And exhaust manifold is only a bad investment until the crappy oem single piece casting warps and cracks your head.

If the wastegate is modified and its allowed to cool down before the motor is shutdown the manifolds don't seem to crack near as much

My manifold cracked because it was bolted to something else while it expanded. It expanded because it got hot, not because it wasn't allowed to cool before it... cooled. Before it sounds like I'm just being argumentative, I've learned a lot from you here and I'm hoping to learn something else now: I fail to see how modifying the wastegate has anything to do with when the engine gets killed. Or how it keeps the manifold from getting hot enough to expand at a different rate than the head in the first place, for that matter- although I might be able to logic that part out.

Most manifolds I have seen that crack either crack where the collector is or on the back three cylinders. Opening the gate up allows more energy and heat to bypass the very restrictive hx35 lowering the temps seen and relieving the pressure built up in the manifold.

:humm:

OK, that makes sense.
Still, small price to pay to not have to worry about it.

Thing is the aftermarket ones will crack as well. Had a T4 3 piece on my truck that cracked right at the divider less than a year of me having it. After getting the pressures and heat in the collector back in check have not had an issuse since

Huh, never heard of that. Well, not with a good one anyway. I've heard of cheap ones leaking.

Was a PDI t4 never leaked till it cracked