[williamb82]

im sure you have all seen the tons of things ive done or am in the process of doing to this car. for those that havent seen, just click the cardomain link in my sig for my 84. its ~20pages so far. lol. anyow, decided to start 1 thread so EVERYTHING i do to the car can be collaborated in one place from now on. as most of you know ive been planning a front facing intake manifold for a long time. well this weekend had unexpected free time so me and my friend brian got a good start. i forgot my camera so these are the crappy cell pics i took. he is taking it to work to weld tis week then ill test fit it on the car and mark where im cutting the tube and make the end cap and tb flang. no iscv or cold start injector for me. dont need them. i have a polished 75mm ford tb ill be using and this pipe i recall was ~3.5in diameter. ive had it for awhile and planned to use it as at 16-18in long ill have the volume i wanted. its a long runner manifold obviously. gonna test fit it on the car to see if it clears the strut brace or if itll need a lil "massaging" lol. i did a rough measurment and it should just barely clear. lol. and dont worry how ugly it is. the plan is to polish it to match the tb.

and the tb pics.

 

[williamb82]

well he welded it. said he made 4 passes to make sure its sealed. way overkill. ill have to clean it up with the grinder. no big deal. lol. ill post better pics when i pick it up as ill take my digital cam with me.

 

[84ptype]

thats something like what my FFIM looks like.

Its ok tho cause it will get ground and wrinkle coated.

Where did you get that TB...and how much was it if you dont mind me asking?

 

[williamb82]

got it on ebay. was ~$100 shipped. no egr or coolant ports or anything. just a nice clean 75mm tb like i wanted. lol. and yeah, the welds can be ugly, i dont care. a grinder fixes that. lol. plus i got tons of sanding anyway cause im gonna polish it.

 

[williamb82]

well, got better pics. my friend is gonna try to borrow the mig from work so we can get real work done on it. pics of what it looked like after welding and then what it looked like after we cut the back and then started smoothing the welds with the sanding disc on the grinder till the grinder died. needs brushes. ill have to go to the dewalt place tomarow on lunch. its like 2 blocks from my job. once i put the new brushes in we can get the flange i started making finished. forgot to take a pic of t. already got the 3in hole cut in it and the bolt holes drilled and tapped. just got to cut it off the piece of plate.

as for the manifold as it is. we are going to weld on it more to fill the pockets so we can get all of it smooth for polishing and the entire thing will be polished. even the runners. i cleaned up all of the casting marks the 4.5in grinder would reach with the sanding wheel. ill do the rest with my dremel. once we get all the pockets filled and smotted out then we will weld the flanges and fit it on the car so we can get to work on the alt relocation bracket and the bracket for the trottle cable etc... its taking time but will get done.

 

[BigRed]

It was a little bit over kill on sealing it, but after cleaning it up. looks pretty nice and sleek now!

 

[williamb82]

well the thing is it is mig welded, not tig. the mig at his job lays a high bead. he said it just wouldnt lay flat. idk, i wasn there. i dont care honestly as its sealed and the extra weld at the front joint being smoothed out makes it look like it was cast that way almost. lol. itll look nice when done. i just am a lil worried i might have to dent a spot on the top slightly where the strut brace goes over it. itll be a tight fit.

 

[williamb82]

well put new brushes in the grinder so we could cut the flange i made off the plate and made the back cap etc.. also dd a lil moe cleanup of the outsode of the runners to get ready for polishing. hopefully my friend can borrow the welder from work and we can get the flange and cap welded on and the finishing welds to smooth it all out done. the front of the pipe is gona be trimmed a lil so the tb flange will angle down a bit. make it easier to get the cold pipe to the tb.

 

[Muchbzy]

Just sick William just sick. Can't wait for more information...:thumbsup:

 

[BigRed]

wow, i think the never ending project is about to come to an end! add pics when its installed

 

[williamb82]

nope. still need the flywheel for my tripple plate clutch and a couple other odds and ends so i can install the 6 speed. still need oil lines and the dp etc.. to install the gt40 turbo, still need machine work and cams and forged rods and other misc stuff to finish my built 7mgte, need to grab more stuff to do the custom axels, 2 more gauges and a fuel level sender to finish the gauge cluster. the calipers and rotors for my rear bbk, front seats to complete my interior swap, a 6 point cage, blah blah blah blah.

but yeah, when its all done pics will be posted. i need to get a set of 2jzgte coils and some good n/a 7m valve covers to make the isntall look right though.

 

[BigRed]

I take back my previous comment.

 

[theWeezL]

With as much heat as your buddy put into that manifold I will be surprised if it ever seals. I would suggest taking it to a machine shop and having the mating surface true'd and plane'd just prior to final polish. Also, it looked to me as though the tops of the runners were not round and square to each other. Was the top of the old manifold just ground away? Im referring to the 2nd pic of your OP. That is going to give it some odd flow charactistics.

Still I applaude your efforts.

 

[williamb82]

the top of the plenum was cut off leaving the factory entries to each runner. we did some grinding on the inside after welding as well. itll be fine. i may make a nicer one later once we have my tig hooked up. but to be honest this manifold has come out MUCH better then we thought it would. and yes it is sealed. that thing is rock solid.

 

[theWeezL]

by sealed, I was referring to the mating surfaces. It MIGHT be flat, but I would be surprised. I suppose enough RTV can seal anything though

So thats the way the stock runners enter the stock plenum? wow, have to admit Ive never seen the inside of a stock one. I would have thought the factory had a better entry to the runners. Most FFIM's I see people build they essentially build velocity stacks into the tops of the runners. I guess it all comes down to how much work you want to put into it though.

 

[williamb82]

well ive seen velocity stacks sticking out into the plenum on turbo manifolds before. that little lip in the front has been smoothed out where the stock piece fits up into the pipe. im not worried about it. sure i might loose a couple hp at most when off boost. but when its under boost i dont see any probs. i expect over 500rwhp on pump gas with my gt40. like i said, this is our first time making one and neither of us have experience welding aluminum like this tlll now. im pleased with the results and am sure this manifold with the 75mm tb, the 24x12x4 i/c, 3in i/c piping etc.. will make a VERY noticeable improvement.


and what would i need rtv for? and what "might" be flat? there are no leaks in the welds. trust me, we ground it all down and its sealed in and out. we are only welding more so we can smooth it out further for asthetic reasons. make it seem like it was cast this way and then polished. im going to grind down the welds on the flanges also for the same reason.

 

[Dave A.]

He's referring to the mounting flange possibly having become warped from the heat during the welding process.

 

[williamb82]

the mounting flange isnt warped. the lower manifold bolts to it and fits flush all the way across. ive seen the flange warped on manifolds other people have made. he didnt do those long beads all at once. lol. lots of short beads. he complained alot about it. lol

 

[Dave A.]

Just to be sure, it's very easy to check for warpage by using a piece of tempered plate glass and some wet or dry sandpaper.

 

[williamb82]

it would of been pretty hard for it to warp. all the runners were joined at the top where they were welded to the pipe. no way for the runners to pull together to flex the mounting surface. i have a lower intake here that bolts right to it.