Intake Design and Building: How to?

Asphalt_Gundam said:

Get a new stainless steel wire Wire Brush. Scrape the crap out of the joints (till shiny) then wipe down with acetone. Should go a long ways in improving your welds by getting rid of most of the contamination.

THIS times how many times it takes to make you actually do it. Buy the brushes in bulk, a new one often makes things go much smoother.

Coming along great and no issues with the stack throats high off the floor. Not blended is bad, blended into the floor is not great, off the floor is good, but no issues at all with what you've done. My personal manifold is like this and is the highest hp na version (of what it is) in the world 

Got some more chunks of aluminum in.  Started tacking it together.  Might have the welder at work finish the top half of this.  Was going to start cutting up the big aluminum tube, but I remembered that work has a couple bandsaws and I can get it cut up there better than I could here.

I need to get some pie sections for the ends of the intake.  Or something.

Then maybe one day I'll clean up the garage... :-/

Well done sir, this thing is looking great

I'm open to ideas of what to do to get around needing curved sections for the end pieces.

For a reference, one end is shown here, the other I was going to try and figure out the angle and split it in half.

You can buy alum pipe end caps (mcmaster has them) or just weld pipe segments the beat and grind until you don't hate it.

In reply to mke :

I do hate the annealing process for aluminum, but it does help.  I could beat the E36 M3 out of a pie cut of the normal pipe.

Might work, I've got a set of cheap body anvils and hammers somewhere. 

Don't forget the grinding part, And I sometimes use the welding rod to fill in low spots a bit.  Here's the runners on the frankenferrari intake....curved, round transitioning to oval with a decreasing cross section, and just made from pipe.  An end cap that looks decent..figure an hour, hour and a half.  Anytime I can I weld 1 side,, then grind a weld prep on the use side cutting into the 1st weld, weld the second side and it seems to not crack when I beat on it.  You really only need the outside to look good....the air won't care if you leave it a little pie shaped inside.  The shape FAST a grinder with a regular steel grinding disc then hose everything with wd-40 or the alum will plug up the disc instantly.  Then switch to sanding discs (again wd-40 keeps them cutting) and finally scotchbrite.  Note....wd-40 is a BUGGER to get off if you find you need to weld again, I gave up on solvents and just wipe, TIG torch to burn the E36 M3 then wire brush and it welds again.

or this, just plate, pipe, weld then  grind and sand until you're proud.....hint, wrinkle paint is your friend.

As others have said, fuel rail is sold by the foot usually, and by AN-number so you decide what size lines and go from there.  You need to ream the injector o-ring holes and pipe threads on the ends are probably a mistake as they tend to leak, I machine for AN o-ring fittings.  It comes ribbed or smooth and with some slight variations of profile depending on source.

Mr_Asa said:

Was going to start cutting up the big aluminum tube, but I remembered that work has a couple bandsaws and I can get it cut up there better than I could here.

Remember this post from way back in ~27 hours ago?  Got bored.

So, then I thought of doing a pseudo-mock up.  The end of the aluminum cylinder head is somewhere between the existing #4 and #5 cylinder sparkplug.  I like it so far.

Looks great!

In reply to Paul_VR6 (Forum Supporter) :

Thanks.  It feels good to be this far along with only my own two hands doing this.  Makes me think I'll be able to get through the electrical portion of it without killing myself. 

It does look good.  Anything scare you clearance wise?  

How did you settle on the runner dimensions? sorry if I missed it as I read though

mke said:

It does look good.  Anything scare you clearance wise?  

How did you settle on the runner dimensions? sorry if I missed it as I read though

The firewall has a bit of a recess for the engine that you can't really see in any of these pics (google a 93 F150 underhood if you want) and where it starts to climb might be right about where the back of the intake will be, that might require a BFH, but it shouldn't be too bad.  I bet I'm going to have to do something with the power steering pump, but nothing overly concerning.  Ask me again in a couple decades when I start eyeing a 600ci V12 on the same architecture. 

About the only real clearance issues I might have are going to be the welds around the lip where the upper and lower halves are bolted.  That wasn't 100% thought out, but I may have a plan.

Runners, honestly I didn't think I could physically go more than 3" from flange to flange, so the rest fell in there.  With some 3D scans of the engine bay and block I could have done something better, but cie la vie.

I originally wanted to adapt the stock intake in such a way that anyone opening the hood would get very confused, and one day I might, but right now I want it running.

V12s are a pita, just sayin 

I spent way to much time playing with an simulation software on mine worrying about taper angle and length and anything else I could dream up to worry about...just running sounds like a wonderful plan.

mke said:

V12s are a pita, just sayin 

I spent way to much time playing with an simulation software on mine worrying about taper angle and length and anything else I could dream up to worry about...just running sounds like a wonderful plan.

But they sound so nice!

I definitely have spent too much time chasing perfect.  Learned my lesson with my Herter's boat ("The world's most expensive boat" is the thread title) and just got it done and on the water.  

"Just running" is a big goal in my life now.

mke said:

  The shape FAST a grinder with a regular steel grinding disc then hose everything with wd-40 or the alum will plug up the disc instantly.  Then switch to sanding discs (again wd-40 keeps them cutting) and finally scotchbrite.  Note....wd-40 is a BUGGER to get off if you find you need to weld again, I gave up on solvents and just wipe, TIG torch to burn the E36 M3 then wire brush and it welds again.

Tap magic for aluminum. Wipes off with lacquer thinner. Welds thru even with some residue, no problem. No issues with paint either if you wipe with lacquer thinner first.  Lubricates better than WD. I use it on my burr bits, roloc disc's- scotch Brite and grinding, etc. Stuff is awesome. 

Also... works great for tapping. Obviously. Its a game changer. 

GaryC83 said:

mke said:

  The shape FAST a grinder with a regular steel grinding disc then hose everything with wd-40 or the alum will plug up the disc instantly.  Then switch to sanding discs (again wd-40 keeps them cutting) and finally scotchbrite.  Note....wd-40 is a BUGGER to get off if you find you need to weld again, I gave up on solvents and just wipe, TIG torch to burn the E36 M3 then wire brush and it welds again.

Tap magic for aluminum. Wipes off with lacquer thinner. Welds thru even with some residue, no problem. No issues with paint either if you wipe with lacquer thinner first.  Lubricates better than WD. I use it on my burr bits, roloc disc's- scotch Brite and grinding, etc. Stuff is awesome. 

 

Also... works great for tapping. Obviously. Its a game changer. 

Also, it smells nice.  Better than WD40 if you ask me.

Mr_Asa said:

GaryC83 said:

 

Tap magic for aluminum.....

Also... works great for tapping. Obviously. Its a game changer. 

Also, it smells nice.  Better than WD40 if you ask me.

Thanks.  25 years ago I used up the bottle of Aluminatap or something like that I had and couldn't find more .....it never occurred to me to look for a different brand...Doh!

Mr_Asa said:

In reply to Paul_VR6 (Forum Supporter) :

Thanks.  It feels good to be this far along with only my own two hands doing this.  Makes me think I'll be able to get through the electrical portion of it without killing myself. 

Too funny, to me that seems like the eazy bit!

This is one of the coolest things on this board.

Paul_VR6 (Forum Supporter) said:

Mr_Asa said:

In reply to Paul_VR6 (Forum Supporter) :

Thanks.  It feels good to be this far along with only my own two hands doing this.  Makes me think I'll be able to get through the electrical portion of it without killing myself. 

Too funny, to me that seems like the eazy bit!

Wanna do it?? I have a spare room, you are welcome to it.  I will feed you burgers and give you beer.

Mr_Asa said:

Paul_VR6 (Forum Supporter) said:

Mr_Asa said:

In reply to Paul_VR6 (Forum Supporter) :

Thanks.  It feels good to be this far along with only my own two hands doing this.  Makes me think I'll be able to get through the electrical portion of it without killing myself. 

Too funny, to me that seems like the eazy bit!

Wanna do it?? I have a spare room, you are welcome to it.  I will feed you burgers and give you beer.

That plus $100/hr is my rate. 

I ain't a narc so I'm not dropping dimes, but this is much better than previous welds.  

I need to figure out how to do pie cuts, then I can wrap most of this up.  I also need a roller to turn a flat piece into a cone.

Roll roll roll your cone, gently across the forms.

Merrily merrily merrily merrily, life is a series of norms.

One day I'm going to move to where I can't drop in on the USF Art Dept and steal time on their tools and I'm gonna be real sad.

Anywho, Solidworks for the cone shape and flattening it, SendCutSend for the actual metal. 

Obviously it isn't a perfect circle.  The first and last half-inch or so doesn't catch the rollers so it isn't curved.  The nature of how I had to curve it means it was closer to a spiral, so I had to get a little creative with how I clamped it in order to weld it.

Tacked it as I went, got to the point where I could put band clamps on it in order to get as close to a circle as I could.

Then I needed to clean the welds from the inside.  Not 100% there, but I need to figure out how to set the lathe up in order to machine an angle and I can get that last little lip.

The 3d printed fixture is a stroke of genius.  I'm totally stealing that idea and adding it to my bag of tricks.

In reply to APEowner :

It worked great, but I'm getting irritated at myself for how often I make something for a one-off use.