More FE Power Cylinder Head Dyno Results

[jayb]

It is 510", 13:1.

[jayb]

Jay, what material are you using in your 3-D printer?  Before I retired, I had considerable experience with Stratasys/Fortus Titan and MC-900 FDM machines, mostly making aircraft production shop aids and jigs/fixtures.  Polycarbonate was our material of choice most of the time but we had about 6 - 8 materials to choose from.  We would sometimes paint the parts with Featherfill primer; it was thick enough to hide most of the ridges.  I've contacted a former co-worker who is still running the FDM lab at Lockheed Martin to see if Featherfill was effective in sealing the leaks or if he has any suggestions.  I'll let you know what he says if you are interested.

I would be interested in what he says, thanks.  I also have Featherfill on hand here.  I don't know how it will respond to fuel, that would be the only concern.

My printer uses PLA filament (Poly Lactic Acid).

[475fetoploader]

So the printer is potentially Lactose intolerant?

[Joey120373]

If memory serves me, it’s 504 cubic inches at 13:1.

[JamesonRacing]

Wow, great progress!

Curious if the porosity in the manifold would be an issue on a dry manifold fitted with injector bungs?  What do you imagine a SEFI intake would look like for these heads?

[427mach1]

Jay, what material are you using in your 3-D printer?  Before I retired, I had considerable experience with Stratasys/Fortus Titan and MC-900 FDM machines, mostly making aircraft production shop aids and jigs/fixtures.  Polycarbonate was our material of choice most of the time but we had about 6 - 8 materials to choose from.  We would sometimes paint the parts with Featherfill primer; it was thick enough to hide most of the ridges.  I've contacted a former co-worker who is still running the FDM lab at Lockheed Martin to see if Featherfill was effective in sealing the leaks or if he has any suggestions.  I'll let you know what he says if you are interested.

I would be interested in what he says, thanks.  I also have Featherfill on hand here.  I don't know how it will respond to fuel, that would be the only concern.

My printer uses PLA filament (Poly Lactic Acid).

Well, I'm not going to be able to help you much.  He said the best way to make a leak-free manifold would involve a machine other than a typical 3D printer.  It would require an SLS (selective laser sintering) machine with Nylon-CF as the material.  Another option would be an SLA (stereolithography) with a high temp material.  I would suggest you call your printer manufacturer and see what they say about sealing but can suggest a few things for you to look into.

We used a Devcon 2-part epoxy called Plastic Welder to glue large parts together.  This stuff might work to fill any larger voids, cracks, etc. that you might have.  It might also work as a sealer but that would involve a lot of work, especially inside the plenum and ports.  I'm not familiar with PLA so you would need to check compatability.  I believe Plastic Welder is solvent resistant but it would be worth contacting Devcon to verify.

We used our FDM machines to build a wind tunnel model with built-in surface pressure ports and it was a nightmare trying to leak-check each of the ports due to the porosity of the material.  We could not get a good seal with the suction head.

Edit:  I've asked my former co-worker if he can suggest anything to seal an existing part (rather than build it with another machine/method).  Still waiting for his reply.

[Gaugster]

Cool updates! Just looking at TQ results since HP is also a function of RPM I am seeing general categories as below. My sample size is only 9 dyno results and there are certainly exceptions but....

FE Power heads/induction unported ----> 1.4x ft-lbs per CI
Other aftermarket heads/induction ported ----> 1.3x ft-lbs per CI
Factory ported or aftermarket unported heads/induction ----> 1.2x ft-lbs per CI

Seems reasonable to get into the 1.5x realm with a ported FE Power setup. 

[WConley]

Cool stuff Jay!  I bet that backfire was an exciting moment 

It seems that vacuum impregnation is the way to go for getting an airtight part.  You could make up a fixture and apply an epoxy or silicone compound to the PLA manifolds.  Seems like a fair amount of work, but then you'd have awesome capability!

[Royce]

Bill,  The backfire WAS exciting...

[jayb]

Yes, wish I'd had a camera rolling...

[428 GALAXIE]

 What was the talk about chikencoop live cam.


Just awesome!!!!

[427mach1]

Jay, I heard back.  Featherfill might work but multiple coats would probably be required.  How smooth is the surface of the manifold?  Can you build a test square, spray with featherfill, and pull a vacuum on the surface using something like a brake bleeder?  Another product to look at would be Eurofill Gold body filler if the surface is rough.  Once you get a test square sealed with either featherfill or Eurofill or both, put some gasoline on it to see if it is resistant.

[gdaddy01]

Bill,  The backfire WAS exciting...        kinda like when Curt Johnson's intake blew off in the pits at a nhra race , no nos of coarse ?

[JC-427Stroker]

It is 510", 13:1.

Wow ... 1.72 hp per cubic inch from an FE at 7,200 ! !

Nice job Jay.

[JC-427Stroker]

" I've been thinking about running these plastic manifolds on the dyno for a while, and one concern was if they were going to be airtight or not.  Before the dyno session I had briefly considered painting them all to try to make sure that the external surfaces were all leak free, but I didn't get around to that before the dyno session, so I decided to just bolt on the red sheet metal style manifold and try to run it.  Unfortunately, when we started the engine it was obvious that there was a big vacuum leak, and a few seconds after starting the engine, it backfired and broke the plastic manifold.  So, it was clear that some sort of sealing on the external surfaces of the 3D printed intakes was going to be required.  The joys of R&D. "

How was the one manifold printed differently that the other ?

Nitrous bust panels might be a good idea for the future. If not mounted to the manifold end then burst disks  in the carb spacer(s)