It is not complete, I only have the injector bases done but they sure do look good. I didn't get to work on it last night and didn't get started until late this evening so only the injector bases are completely finishing.

I'm leaving the office early tomorrow in order to get everything finished and tested out. So there will be more pics of the manifold tomorrow along with another post documenting the process of putting everything back together.

But I am quite pleased, with two and a half hours of work they came out great. Now that I have done it I could probably get both done in an hour and a half, about fifteen minutes per runner.

Pics are below:


Injector Base Inlet:


Injector Base Outlet:


And now for the close up with before and after pics:

Before:


After

 

Looks very nice... professional work-quality!!

I noticed you didn't take too much meat off the runners... that's a
good thing!

Are you going to match the gaskets??

 

wow that looks like a must do mod!!!!

 

I had planned on posting this later but will go into it now...

I had planned on it but when I checked it out gasket match up, the gasket is slightly over sized, maybe a half millimeter. So I checked the port match up expecting the injector base outlet to be slightly smaller than the heads inlet port and they were exactly the same. Well close enough that there was nothing to do.

I then checked the manifold to injector base ports and they were the same way. So in shape and match up the factory did an excellent job.

So that left me with just grinding down the high spots and polishing. But as you can see, the polishing certainly smoothed out those passages. I can't wait to put it back together and test it out!!

 

Steve You Are The Man!!


Props to you for having the patience and balls to do this yourself !!!!!!!

 

that looks awesome. what kind of tool are you using?

 

man give up your secret... How did you polish that thing? using a dremel tool with a steel brush?

 

Great pics! Looks great! Man I wish I had some of your talent.

 

Very nice Steve! Can I send my injector bases to you?

 

that is incredible Steve!
If you choose to make some money doing this, let me know, i can easily take my top end apart!

 

wow that looks great... I'm sure it will perform great too!!!
so out with it what kinda tool are you using and will you do this for other members???

 

will you also let us know the tools used to polish it?

 

Looks like you're doing a great job! I have on question...are you actually boring out the port, or just smoothing out the imperfections and polishing it?

-Aaron

 

Well judging by the before and after pics he made the oval a complete circle!


Hahahaha just playin'

 

WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

That looks AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!

You need to let us know what you are using to do this!!!!

Dremel???? (Doubt it, but it might work)

 

Thanks guys, the actual tool is an air grinder so I am running my compressor most of the time. It will maintain 80 PSI with the grinder constantly running which gives me about 18,000 RPM. Unfortunately, I doubt a Dremel would do it. It would burn out quickly and I doubt there are sufficient cartridge rolls made for this type of work.

On the grinder I am using your standard aluminum oxide tapered cartridge rolls starting with 120 grit and working up to 320. But that really only gets the primary roughness out; there is a trick my father-in-law showed me which rivals the best flap wheels. These tapered cartridge rolls are made up of a cone of cotton backing with aluminum oxide impregnated in it (similar to sand paper). But since it is in a cone, you can cut the end free at the base and pull out about a couple of inches. So now think of it as the cone coming apart with a flapping piece. So as it turns there is a piece that is basically swiping due to centrifugal force. The beauty of it is as the flap end wears more and more cotton is exposed. There ends up being an optimal point where there is perfect balance of cotton and aluminum oxide with the 320 grit that it polishes up in no time. I could have a single port done in fifteen minutes.

I made a quick sketch below to describe what the flap would look like but I'll take a picture tonight of one.



Here is where I get the cartridge rolls in boxes of fifty which I will probably go through one hundred and fifty total; fifty120 grit, fifty 240 grit and fifty 320 grit. One nice thing about using these cartridge rolls is that you can replace them in just seconds:

http://www.mscdirect.com/PDF.process?pdf=873

I'm flattered for people asking if I would do this for them, of course with pay. But honestly I would charge more than a shop probably would as I don't do this daily. Heck, I would probably charge in the range of $300 which would include the rolls but not tear down and re-installation. I would suspect that some shops would do this for about that price including the removal and installation. I might consider helping someone out though.

 

There is minimal, unavoidable enlargement. The smoothing and polishing is bound to take away material. But yes, it is mainly just smoothing out the largely rough areas and polishing it. And no jokes here!! I basically don't look at it but stick my finger in there and feel for the roughness. That way you can tell how smooth it is and try to think of how the air will flow through it.

 

heheh, I was waiting for someone to point that out. I had thought I originally took a picture of the injector base inlet for the 'before' pics and so I did the same for the 'after'. But obviously it was of the outlet!!

I'll snap a pics from the same angle to correct this...

 

Nice job but Humor me what is the purpose of doing this? how many HPs are you expecting to gain?..

 

Gains are not known right now which is one reason for trying. Typical intake manifold P&P will net gains but the amount varies per application and the quality of the work done. But in all, a 3% - 5% is a modest expectation and fairly typical. But as expected, some will gain more and some less.

But I am very optimistic after looking at the stock runners, they were very rough with plenty of room for improvement. So hopefully they will be the one's to gain 5% - 7%, maybe more...

Hrmm, 7% on a 250 WHP car, 267.5 would sure be nice... Just wishful thinking though...

 

Just for your, a new pic:

Before:


After:

 

I got the manifold done tonight but didn't get eveything back together. So tomorrow will include the re-install with pictures. Below are the pictures of the finished intake manifold; I am very excited about putting it back together and taking it for a drive...

Throttle Body Oulet:

Before:


After:


Front Chamber Inlet:

Before:


After:


Runner Inlet:

Before:


After:


And lastly, the whole assembly:

 

And for those wanting to know about the tools; below is primarily it on an air grinder. Left is the normal roll and right is the stripped one.

 

WOW. Very clean

 

these are the kinds of posts that make me proud to be a member of a-cl


btw, scalbert, do you have a before dyno? you do, huh

 

Well yes and no. I ran a dyno back in early August. But this was with a different intake than what I will be sporting now. Additionally I only had 800 miles on the car then. To top it off I had OAT readings of 86 F and IAT values of 140 F. So when I go back all things will not be equal. So some assumptions will need to be made, IMO...

Old dyno:

 

You are the Man. Kickass work!

If I lived in your area I'd pay you to do mine.

 

those are #'s w/ i/h/e



nice!


:edit: it would be sweet to see you lay down 260

 

I bet someone named Scalbert will be getting a S/C too!

 

Looks Great Steve !

 

WOW 240HP!!.. you have a 6spd right?
what is your mod list?

 

Yes, 6-Speed...

At the time of that dyno I had 800 miles on the car in early August in Georgia. I had Comptech Headers, the AEM intake but for the AV6 (long story but it is smaller and not optimal) along with AEM pullies.

I would expect that with a proper intake (which is being done right now) more miles and cooler air it would hit 250 WHP. But I do plan on going back in mid-October for additional pulls.

 

Is it just me or did you cadmium coat the manifold after you P&P it? Or is the camera registering different colors? It looks bronze to me! Nice job. You saved a lot of money by doing it yourself. Don't they usually run about $200-300 per part at a shop?

 

250WHP .. ??!? some people here would be considered lucky to get that number even with the 6spd.. how come your so special?. haha.

 

Scalbert's the KING of "TWEAK"

 

It was a DV camera acting as a still with indoor lighting versus the before pics which was outside on a cloudy day. The actual color is silver, a ver shiny sliver.

Yea, I did save money on this but that really wasn't the reason. I was more curious about being able to do it myself. Which in the end I was quite satisfied. As for shop pricing; I guess it would depend on the shop. Labor would be in the five to six hour range so $300 would not be far off.

 

Actually, that is in line with what i would expect. Stock is in the 215 - 220 range for a 6-Speed. Add a GOOD intake, headers and even the AEM pullies and you could expect about a 30 WHP gain if not a little more. Add good air and you are at 250 WHP. We just haven't had that many 6-Speeds with headers on the dyno that still had stock wheels and tires.