im sorry i dont have any pics to post tonight,but they will be up tom night. as most of u remeber me talking about designing/building some custom upper manifolds for the 2.8/3.1,well i finished up the prototype a few days ago,and got it installed on my car today.and man does it make a huge difference.though i cant vouch for it on an n/a engine.though i know it will make a huge improvemnt. so what im looking for is one person to test out and upper manifold so other ppl can hear from somone else besides me how well it works. i will offer a nice discount on the upper manifold to the first person to buy one for that reason. price and pics will be up tom. besides this a few of the other projects i have talked about doing are almost near completion (twin turbo headers, long tube headers, aluminum frame braces and some other things)

Right on! Get the pics posted!

Anxiously awaiting results!

I cant express the importsnts of pics for this one. cmon, cmon , cmon already.

Pics and price guess please.

Might be able to help on the testing on a n/a engine part if need be

what kinda price are you thinking? cause ill be looking for one probably may or june. (gotta love college loan refund checks, lol)

...

alright guys i instealled it on my friends car today,and i made a slight miscalculation, it interferes with the stock hood by about 1/8 th inch.(i have a 2.5 inch cowl hood) its an easy fix.so tom ill make a new one and take the pics.
cost is gonna be in the low to mid 100$ range.ill know for sure once i figure out cost of materials and welding/machining time.
ill post up all the pics/info/prices tom after i make the change to the hieght of the manifold

give me a hint as to what this intake accomplishes.

3 things really,
#1 larger wide open plenum
#2 it gets rid of the nasty bend were the upper meets the mid manifold
#3 it shortens runner lenght about 3-4 inches,which is better for mid to upper rpm hp

Too bad you didn't desin a manifold that makes it easy to get the valve covers off! PITA! Now that I have done it, will be easier in the future .
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GET SOME PICS FOR US!!!

So I guess your friends engine is pretty much all stock?

yes its bone stock for now anyway

Painted my UIM today with some anodizing translucent paint:
manifoldfromleft.jpg

manifoldfromright.jpg
The paint is made by Dupli-Color.
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Definately interested to see what you've conjured up, Dave!

How much of a gain over stock will this give?! I'm highly interested for my daily driver!!!

alright guys heres the deal,instead of modifying th eone i made for my car(wont clear stock hood) i just fabed up a whole new manifold,i didnt get to finish it but here are some great shots of it,i will have it completly finished tommorow.
and i was off on price these are gonna cost anywere from low to mid 200$'s.
if u pay attention to all the machine work and the amount of welding u will understand why.
notice the nicely radiused port entrys



RUFFLY MACHINED FLANGE

PORT MATCHED FLANGES

RADIUSED PORT INLETS



AND SOME MORE ASSEMBLY

AND A FEW MORE

Sweet! That's a HUGE plenum! Do you want to test it on my motor, lol.
Can't wait to see the finished product. Do you think the valve covers will come off without removing it?

no they wont,the manifold still uses the mid section of the stock manifold which is what interfers with the valve covers.

Yeah, that's what I thought. Almost had the covers off without removing the MIM, but my 1/4" swivel didn't quite clear the rear on drivers side and front on the passenger side. Just a big PITA especially seeing I'm probably going to have this motor apart a few times .

How will the throttle body mount? I'm really interested in purchasing one of these for my 3.1! Another question, was the taller than the stock hood allowed one that you made be cheaper to be made? If so (I have a cowl hood.) How much would that one cost, and would installing this be a bolt on procedure?
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Also, gains over the stock one, how noticeable do you think they'll be?

the one i made for my car had less machine work,and wouldnt be as durable as the one pictured above.u can see were the tubes for the bolts go to suport the top,those also spread out the force of the bolts for a better seal on the manifold.for something im gonna sell its gota be liek that so noone has any problems with leaking gaskets or warping manifolds etc.
the throttle body will mount in the stock location,pics of that will be up tom of that.it will be bolt on except for a simple modification to the throttle cable bracket.
right now were looking at 200-250 price tag,maybe cheaper if i can get a few orders at a time.but deffinate prices and finished pics will be up tommorow

Awesome Dave! Any estimated numbers on a gain over a stock engine? EXTREMELY INTERESTED!

IMHO that is an excellant price for the work involved.

i could tell u 25hp and x amount of tq but id be lying to u,since my car is turbocharged i cant give u gains for an na engine.alls i can tell u is on my car its made a huge difference in throttle responce and hp.
once i get one of these on an na car and get to the dyno i can give u some solid numbers.
but anyone can tell u just by comparing it to the stock uim that it is deff going to make a difference

Well if you can get it to me before the turbo is on, haha.

I'd gladly test one out for you but my pockets are pretty empty at the moment.

What about places like on the back where ya gotts bore a hole n tap the big vacuum ports? Gonna weld a thicker block in them places for more thread depth? Can see it working fine as is but can also see folks strippin it out much easier if only a few threads.

Will the stock TB be compatible? or would you recommend boring it out/polishing it?

It wouldn't hurt to bore it out some. I think that the stock one will fit.

gumby im its going to have aluminum pipe fittings welded to the back,u would have to remove the fittings from the stock manifold,and screw them into the aluminum pipe fittings.though i could just get some aluminum fittings and weld them directly to the intake.but then u wouldnt be able to change the sizes cause they would be permanant


v8 slayer they will accep tthe stock tb,or a bored stock tb.but i could put diff flanges on them to accept diff tb's,like a mustang tb or a tpi tb

Dave, what would you charge to have the stock one ported to better match this manifold?

BTW, when will the 3.1 longtubes be ready? Will they pass the sniffer test? Will the car still use a Y-Pipe?

almost finished need to weld in the bungs for the vacum ports,and the bung for the throttle cable bracket

to be honest i dont see much gain from porting the stock tb,u can bore the stock tb slightly larger though,its not something i can do though,the butterfly needs to be machined in a special fixture so it seals when the throttle is closed.and i dont have one

i cant give a deff timeline on the longtubes,i work on this stuff in my spare time,which is usually saturday and sunday,or during my lunch break during the week
they will need a custom y pipe,and they wont be emmisions legal,though if i add in provisions for the air tubes to be installed u might be able to sneak them threw inspection

Looks great Dave! What modifications to the TB cable bracket need to be done? Another question, I noticed some of the accessory mounts use the bolts on my UIM, will those be able to be mounted with this one, or will I need to find a different way to go about doing it?

Did you use a stock "neck" off the UIM? Looks awsome, Dave!

the part of the throttle cable bracket that bolts to the uim needs to be cut off,and a piece gets added onto the back of the bracket so it bolts in using a second hole on the mid manifold section,the ontl bracket that connects to the uim is the brace for the ac compressor,i dont have one on my car,but the stock one will not work with this,what my plan to do is ship a modified throttle cable bracket,and ac bracket with the manifolds

yeah thats a stock neck lol,i found it to be the easiest way to do it,the stock neck can be bored out quite a bit,and by using the stock neck there salready a solid egr mount in it.not that i use an egr valve lol,its there but i have a block off plate instealled under the line were it connects to the manifold


thnx man

Awesome! Will you need us to ship you our UIM's so you can use the TB neck, or will all that be taken care of? I'm 100% interested in buying one of these, as soon as it's available for sale, let me know, hehe.

using the stock uim for the neck is the best way,and ill prolly require ppl to send me an uim for me to cut the neck off of.which u can get from just about anu junk yard for a couple bucks.
though im gonna look into getting some mandrel bent aluminum tubing i can use to make the necks instead,ill have more info on this in a day or so

Awesome Dave! I can't wait, hehe.

Or you could do like every other manufacturer and require a core charge untill they send you the old manifold.

pic's of the welds



not bad for .090 aluminum

Nope, you made nice work of them!

Great Stuff Dave!

ok guys ive figured everything out,and im not gonna be able to sell these as cheap as i though originally
ive got about 14-16hours per manifold,+ the cost of materials,etc,id have to get atleast 400 bucks to make it worth my while and to cover the costs.if i had a cnc machine i could do this alot cheaper,but each one of these is hand made.i could farm out the machine work but most places that do cnc stuff wouldnt even take the project for less the making 50 parts,which would mean 25 manifolds and i highly doubt im gonna sell 25.

though if anyones still interested i did talk with chris from ce coatings(member of the board here) and i can get these polished,powder coated,ceramic coated,or anodized at extreamly good prices.

so if anyoen is interested let me know

$400 is a lil pricey. How much gain did you see on the turbo motor? If you give me a copy of the parts you need milled, I can work out a deal with my CNC buddy (he wants me to remodel his house, haha). All I would want in exchange is a discount on some of those saucey welds you've made .

Woah $400 is too pricey for me at the moment. $300 maybe. i might have to pass.

Not in comparison to taking something like that to a shop and asking them to make it. Dave is being reasonable for 14-16hrs plus the cost of Aluminum is high right now ($400 is not alot to ask of a welder for 1/2 week of work).
Dave, PM if you want to work out something on the machining to lower the cost for everyone.

yeah i had no idea it was gonna be that much,but when u think about it it takes like 1.5 days to build,and thats working on that without anything else,that means nothing else in the shop gets worked on,and i/we cant get enough to cover the costs,theres no reason to do it,otherwise we just lose money.
im gonna see what i can do about getting the prices down, without sacrificing strenght and durability,quality.

yeah man i can make up a single flange and get it out to u to give to ur buddie,and im sure me and u could work something out
i havent had the car on the dyno since i built the manifold on my car,but the butt oh meter is very pleased im gonna get it out on the dyno when i can.
or if i cant do that im gonna have the stocker flowed,then have the custom one flowed,which i think would be much better comparision for u guys that dont run a turbo on ur car

btw
powder coating will be between 25-40$'s per manifold depending on the color
and comes with a 6 or 12month warrenty gota talk to chris again
ceramic coatings are 80$ and up depending on the color and carry a 3 year warrenty

I understand the price. It's good work and alot of it. The welds are very nice and the design is solid. I was just saying that It is out of my budget. Sorry if I sounded demeaning.