It's been quite a while but I am finally getting close to finishing up this project. Just as a refresher, here is a picture of the 3D printed billet intake, that some of you may have seen at the FE Reunion in April:
More pictures of the 3D printed manifold are shown earlier in the thread. Most of the plastic is now in aluminum. Here's a photo of the runners, equipped with O-rings on both ends to seal to the intake adapter, and then to the plenum:
When they come off the CNC machine they are kind of a dull silver in color, and I wanted to see what they would look like polished up, so despite the fact that I am really not set up to polish aluminum, I took a stab at it to get the general idea. They actually polish very nicely, which I guess makes sense since they are billet aluminum. Next I bolted them onto the intake adapter; here's a few more pictures:
Once I had the runners machined I started on the plenum, which was a much more complicated prospect. However, over the last week I've made some pretty good progress, and am almost finished up with the inside surfaces; see the photo below of the part, still on the CNC machine:
Once the plenum is done I just have to machine the brackets to hold the fuel rails, and the project will be complete. As mentioned earlier in the thread this intake will be used with a Vortech supercharger blowing into one of those Holley LS front facing tops. As it happens I have another tunnel port customer who wants the same basic setup, but instead of a Holley top he will be mounting a 6-71 blower on top of the plenum! That should be a really cool setup; I have the runners done for that one as well, and will start on the plenum when I have this one completed. I will post some pictures of that setup too when its done.
