Finally finished my modified intake manifold. This is my take on modifying the stock manifold. I tried two different designs.
The first one I tried was an "economy" version I was thinking about. I just bored down from the top to remove the columns. What I found was that it would leave a lot of a couple of the columns still intact inside the intake. I did not want to make the hole any larger for fear of cutting into the sides of the manifold. Idea #1 scraped.
Idea #2 was to remove the top of both sides of the intake. I then bored the columns down and counter bored the bolt holes so the attaching bolts would sit below the floor of the intake. I also removed all casting inside the manifold for the EGR valve. I found several obstructions still left from the machining of the columns that needed to be removed. On the side with the alternator bracket I found the side walls had some obstructions that needed to be removed. I welded extra material on the outside of the intake and then ground out the obstructions on the inside. I decided that I wanted to keep the radius ports on the floor of the intake. I for one think they act as a velocity stack. I then welded up the hole from removing the EGR. Then welded on new tops to both sides of the intake.
My idea on how to access the attachment bolts was to make an access hole in the top over each hole and the seal those with a pipe plug. I added extra material around each hole to allow a few extra threads after tapping the holes. Checking the inside of the intake after installing the pipe plugs shows they sit flush with the roof of the manifold.
I hope to test this manifold in the next two weeks. I am going to do a before and after dyno test with the manifold to see what it does. I changed the intake on my shop/test truck a couple of weeks ago. It has a 05 style intake that I had cleaned before I installed it. During the intake swap I installed an EGR delete kit from RCD. My plan is to do a couple of runs with each intake. I will also test the stock air filter vs. air intake kit debate. I have a AFE intake kit to this test with.
The first one I tried was an "economy" version I was thinking about. I just bored down from the top to remove the columns. What I found was that it would leave a lot of a couple of the columns still intact inside the intake. I did not want to make the hole any larger for fear of cutting into the sides of the manifold. Idea #1 scraped.
Idea #2 was to remove the top of both sides of the intake. I then bored the columns down and counter bored the bolt holes so the attaching bolts would sit below the floor of the intake. I also removed all casting inside the manifold for the EGR valve. I found several obstructions still left from the machining of the columns that needed to be removed. On the side with the alternator bracket I found the side walls had some obstructions that needed to be removed. I welded extra material on the outside of the intake and then ground out the obstructions on the inside. I decided that I wanted to keep the radius ports on the floor of the intake. I for one think they act as a velocity stack. I then welded up the hole from removing the EGR. Then welded on new tops to both sides of the intake.
My idea on how to access the attachment bolts was to make an access hole in the top over each hole and the seal those with a pipe plug. I added extra material around each hole to allow a few extra threads after tapping the holes. Checking the inside of the intake after installing the pipe plugs shows they sit flush with the roof of the manifold.
I hope to test this manifold in the next two weeks. I am going to do a before and after dyno test with the manifold to see what it does. I changed the intake on my shop/test truck a couple of weeks ago. It has a 05 style intake that I had cleaned before I installed it. During the intake swap I installed an EGR delete kit from RCD. My plan is to do a couple of runs with each intake. I will also test the stock air filter vs. air intake kit debate. I have a AFE intake kit to this test with.
