Since being on here for a year or so I have noticed that there are not a lot of options for our cars in terms of intakes. There is the truelo intake but I don't really like how it looks. So I am starting a thread to make my own intake. This isn't going to be a pizza box intake because I plan on shortening the middle plenum runners and making the whole top narrower. Pretty much anything is better than what we have now and I want to experiment to make an attractive looking intake that also works well.
My plan is to make it almost a cross between a stealth ram top plenum and super ram runners bolted to the stock base. I also want to be able to use stock gaskets and be able to take top off when needed which you can't do with the truelo intake. I also want to run a tpi twin throttle body but I'm not sure if that will mess up idle speed or what not. Right now is to get manifold done.
I attached some pictures of what I have so far. Templates are rough and are made out of cardboard even though I probaby should have used card stock.
This will be a learning experience for me because I am going to be learning how to weld and stuff like that and making sure everything is good. I will literally be making this out of scrap steel I have laying around and if it works, possibly build another which is more refined. If it doesn't work, I have nice "have it your best shot" trophy.

 

I'll work on it more today and possibly get pictures up later. I hopefully want to get a full card board mock up ready by next week. I won't have much time to work on this weekend since I have to work long days. I will be taking pictures of my progress as I go all along.

 

In for this. Hopefully this will actually go somewhere.

 

I will try my best

 

So got a rough shape of what the base would look like.

First picture: shows how close the crossing runners will be so that will be a pain to weld. I might have to weld them together and then weld them to the base.

Second picture: doubling up on the runners that are close together. Will probably get a thicker piece to go between those.

Third picture: flanges just tossed on not glued on yet. I'll do that when I get home.

Fourth picture: mock up with fuel rail in rough positioning. It fits right in there so that's good.

Fifth picture: focusing on vacuum line going to fuel rail. Can you just turn that so you can have the vacuum line go in a different direction?

 

Pic 2

 

Pic 3

 

Pic 4

 

Pic 5

 

Got more time to work on the mock up. I realized that the hardest part probably going to make is the runners. That's because it's narrow at the base and wide at the bottom so I might just resort to making the runners out of tuning instead of sheet metal. I also tried holding up a tb for size comparison since that is what I want to use.

 

With tb pictures kind of suck.

 

I think it's a great idea , making your own intake and good for you to have the ambition to take on such a project . I don't really have any tech info to add , just wanted to give ya the high five for the effort .

One thing I think I would do , would be using a GPS and a little used road , I'd get an idea of the car's 0 to 60 time both before and after the intake , all other things being equal any increases in performance would have to be credited to the new intake . If you have no "baseline" how will you know if any improvement has been attained ?

 

Yeah I agree with you on the taking a baseline. I might have to wait until spring when the snow clears to actually put it on and test it if I get everything all ready and everything fits up right. I might give it to one of you guys too if one of you wants to test it if I cant haha.

 

Does anyone know if someone makes gaskets that are bigger than stock intake gaskets if I wanted to port this out?

 

Ok kind of have an update. I drew up all the stuff that I need to cut out in CAD. I attached a picture of what I am thing its going to look like. The bottom flange isn't going to be that thin so don't worry. I was probably going to use 6 gauge for that and probably 18-20 gauge for the runners. This will make it easier to bend. I also have a small enough welder so I don't think ill burn through it but we'll see.

 

tpi tb is to big and ur runners tapper in the wrong direction

 

I have seen people run ls tb's on 3500's like caffeine I think. What problems exactly would it have on it if I ran a TPI tb? And also what's wrong with the runners. They are a really weird shape and the flange for the top and bottom are differen widths and different lengths. Thanks for you input though.

Drew

 

if u look at the stock runner they dont tapper , the way ur making those runers they start small get big and then go back to small

by all means the tpi tb will work it will just be an on or off switch , u will need a progressive linkage
u also need to taper the plenum smaller to the rear runners

 

I'll have to upload a picture of the runners when I get home. I noticed the stock runners at the top are 42 mm wide and taper down into 30 mm wide at the base. Then at the top they are 26 mm long and then go into 59 mm long at the base.

 

u need to cut the runer stright across to get an acurate measurement , the way it meets the base is on an angle which skews the measurement alot

 

Do you see what I mean now? The whole runner is kind of weird and changes shape to go into the lower manifold. Like the top is as long as top is wide and the top is as wide as the bottom is long.

 

You can't compare them like that. The flange on the bottom is not perpendicular to the flow. You would have to cut the runner at a different angle than the opening happens to be at to get an accurate measurement.

The design is simply for ease of assembly but has no effect on flow. When the mid and lower are bolted together the flange is not really a factor in how the air flows through it.

 

Are you saying that to me? But I am starting to see what project is talking about. Why would that make a difference though? I was also thinking of using thin wall tubing to if that would help anything.

 

Ok ok I got it now. Was just thinking about it on the way to school. Thanks for putting up with my nonsense and helping me out.

 

This looks like a promising build. V6 cars don't have many options for aftermarket intake plenums. You can get an intake manifold for a carbed V6 anyday.

 

simplest and best solution build a pizza box , of course for an n/a car theres a few slight changes that must be made but they are simple to build

 

Yeah, even though a big barricade are the heads, I think with a decent port job and gasket matching, this will work with what I want to do. I am not expecting to get a huge gain from this but using it for a learning piece for future builds.

 

u would be surprise at what a pizza box will do for the engine , it eliminates the biggest restiction in the intake

 

Doesn't it still keep those very sharp bends into the runners though?

 

Good luck and happy welding!

 

it cuts the bend in half and also adds a small striaght shot before the bend.

removing the bend all together is the best bet but not easily done, the part if the bend thats left with the piza box is only 40 something degrees not 160* as with the stock upper

 

Oh ok.

 

Ok, while I am waiting for some metal to start fabbing up, I started thinking of other stuff I am going to need.

1. 3.4 fuel rail. The 2.8 and 3.1 fuel lines won't fit since the runners will be closer together and 3.4 fuel rails don't have that block where the lines go in. I don't know why but they don't so it will most likely fit under the upper plenum. Can I ask where the schrader valve to test for pressure is?

2. Since I'll have to use a 3.4 fuel rail, I'll have to convert my car to get rid of the cold start injector. I plan on upgrading efi anyways so that will be taken care of.

3. Change in plan of the runners. Instead of using sheet metal for the runners I was going to use thin wall steel tubing for smooth flow. I'll have to figure out a way to bend the tubes and then kind of smash the ends to get the right form to fit into the flanges. Anybody have a good idea on how to do this? I was maybe thinking roughing out a piece of wood and putting it in the tube and then heating up the tube and then using a vise to squeeze to form of piece of wood. Suggestions are appreciated. Anything I am missing let me know.

 

Well I got some progress done tonight. Not much but it is some progress. I got the base plate roughly cut out. Next time I am going to clean it up more and get everything where it needs to be. Having a plasma cutter makes it so much easier even though I am doing it free hand and following an outline.

 

Sorry I haven't updated you guys in a while it seems like. Been tossing a few ideas around in my head and the guys over at 60 degree v6 have been talking with me too.

Just drew up some Basic images of what it could look like. Might be angled up a little more to clear the valve covers but same basic idea. Sadly enough no one really make ITB's in three's so I sought to find a solution. Here is what I found. Polaris has the 650 triple and would be just 5mm off which is fine because they mount to rubber boots and the way I made all the runners the exact length to make sure that they run fine. Now in the drawing, thats not how the throttle bodies will be mounted, just didn't have enough time to draw the boots and stuff on CAD. I also didn't want to just leave you with a blank manifold.

1.Now if I go this route which sounds like it could be pretty awesome or painful ill need to figure out mechanisms to get both sets to open and close. I also have to figure out a throttle position sensor too. The polaris TB's have a 3 wire sensor like the 3.1's and 2.8's but I am not exactly sure if they run from 0-5 volts and I have been digging around to find out but not much.

2. I really dont know much about ITB's like idle control or how to hook up speed density or MAF. I was thinking that maybe if I went with speed density I could use the cold start injector bung because that is all plumed to each runner which would also help equalize pressure unless I am wrong on that. The throttle bodies also have vaccuum lines that I could possibly tie into their.

3. Right now I am currently waiting for my dad's friend from work to get some bases flanges back to me so I can start ordering tubing and get going on this project. He is cutting them out with a CNC plasma cutter which is real cool and stuff

 

The 3.4 rail has the schrader valve on the front of the rail instead of the back. You will also most likely need the fuel lines off the 3.4, at least the part that will fit into the 3.4 rail.