My Diy Fi Intake Takes Shape.

I was gonna save this progress for my video, but that is just too much of a pain in the ass.

The intake is coming along, I got the throats to all of the ports radiused in, and built the remainder of the transitions to get the air from the throttle body going the way it's supposed to go.
To recap, the intake runners are built from 16ga. 1.750" exhaust tubing. The finished inside diameter of that tube ends up being 1.625" Considering that the stock port in this weenie head is 1.400, that leaves about 1/16" all around that I'll have to blend.

The rest of the thing is built from 2.50"16ga. exhaust tubing. I split a 2' piece that acts as the front of the manifold at the runner entrance, and split a 2.50"J bend to make the back turns. Finally, I'll plate the thing w/ 16 ga sheet metal.

The intake flange plates, and the TB flange plate is made out of 3/8" plate.




Now I don't know if the stupid thing will work or not, what I know about intake manifold design could fit on the head of a pin. All I know is that the turbo intakes I've seen on BMW's, and certain Jap cars kinda look like this, so hopefully, I'll be OK.

Tommorrow, I'll fit the injector bungs, and the TB flange plate, then weld that sucker up.

madspeed said:

this car has got to have more hand crafted parts than all the rest of the cars combined here on stangnet! Hats off!

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Thanks!
When I was looking to buy this car, that was the biggest criteria I had. I knew that I wanted to be able to go off the edge w/ a bunch of crazy stuff like this, and I just couldn't do that to any other fox body w/o getting stoned by the masses.
It won't stop at the engine. I have big plans......

84Ttop said:

You never cease to amaze me! The intake looks great! I'm curious how to where you will be putting the injector bungs. You have to have what, 40 hours of labor into this intake to this point? Nevertheless, this this is going to be one trick piece all around!!!

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No, I'll a total of about half that from start to finish.

Well here it is. For better or worse it's done. I honestly planned to try and TIG the thing together, but I suck so bad at TIG, and I'm so comfortable w/ MIG, I just had to go with what I knew best.

The injector bungs were a concern this morning. How to locate six bungs, get them all spaced properly, taking into account for height, and angle.

How was I gonna do that?

I went to to Home Depot, and bought 1/2" wood dowel. Exactly the same size as the interior of the injector bung, below the O-ring relief. I also bought a piece of 1"x 3/4" wood rectangle stock. Once home, I drilled the wood stock w/ a 1/2" wood bit at the spacing I decided for each port. I cut the dowel into (6) 3" long pieces, and jammed them each into an injector bung. I stuck the other end of the dowel through my wooden fuel rail, and stuck the whole menagerie into the holes I drilled on top of each port runner. I tilted the assembly as far as I thought reasonable, and tacked each inj bung in w/ the MIG. I checked the thing to be sure it hadn't moved, (at least I thought I checked it) and then proceeded to attempt my hand at TIG-ing the things in to the runners. I got it done, but I thought it a huge pain in the ass, and I'm certainly not good enough to make it look all pretty.

But, I managed.

After that was done, I took the jig apart and finished the thing by welding the plates on top and bottom, then welded the TB plate on the snout of the thing.

It was at this time I noticed that the one end injector bung looked ............skewed.

I don't know whether it'll be a bad thing, but that sorry assed thing is in there at a slightly different angle than the rest of them. To add insult to my methodology,.the one right next to it was about 3/32" lower than the rest of them.

I tell you,..it doesn't matter what I do,..I'm gonna screw up something, somehow regardless of what I do to prevent it.
If I have to have that bung machined out of the port runner because of the slight misalignment, I'm gonna be one pissed off mofo.

At this point, I am absolutely SICK of cutting, grinding, welding this intake. I hope like hell it works.


The holes are for future 3/8NPT weld bungs for the IAT sensor, and a Vacuum fitting.


Since it's steel,..I shot a coat of etching primer on it so I wont have to deal w/ a rusty ass POS when it comes time to install it. I posted these pics at 1024x768 to see if you can see the fuc ked up bungs.

rdharper02 said:

Big flat intake. Well, you screwed it up now. That much flat space on a motor needs a logo per man law. I'm voting on "Mad Mike Innovations" or just some random letters for small talk sake.

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Calm down El Hamster'o.

I plan on some form of decoration when I stop puking as a result of the "I'm sick of working on this thing" bug.

madspeed said:

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Uhh,...I was thinking something a little more subtle.

maybe I could make a little metal hood scoop to put on my intake.

NIKwoaC said:

F'n awesome Mike. Have you weighed it?

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Yep,...13lbs.

RacEoHolic330 said:

I'm digging it. Did you shoot the inside with any paint? I'm not sure if intake manifolds see much condensation or not.

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I contemplated spraying it w/ a weld through primer, but was concerned that it would peel/flake/ or other wise get eaten by the engine. I was thinking that sooner or later enough of an oily film would form inside so as to act as a deterrent to any rust build up anyway.