FE Intake Adapter

[482supersnake]

I started building a similar setup before Jay started this project. I cut the top off a Victor and added a 351c RPM airgap. The carb flange sits quite a bit higher than a standard RPM FE intake. I have a 67 Shelby hood on my Mustang and don't have much clearance under the hood scoop with a factory Hi-Po air cleaner and an extra short throttle body. It would not fit with a stock Mustang hood and carb. Jay's may be at a different height though.

[Barry_R]

I know some guys that make heads.
The finish is from a combination of the alloy used - and stainless steel shot in a tumbler style machine.

Looking good BTW

[jayb]

Getting started on the CNC ports.  I've worked on this all week in the evenings, and it has turned out to be much more time intensive than I figured it would be.  I was hoping to be done with all the ports this weekend, but I'm still working on the first one today!  Fortunately there are only four, as they are duplicates from side to side, but still it will take me longer than expected to get this done.  Here is a shot of the first port, partially finished, still in the CNC machine.  You can see at the lower side of the port where the roughing cuts were taken; the smoother cuts are working down from the top in this photo.

[427Fastback]

Very nice....Is that the program to match up to the Edelbrock air gap .The Edelbrock 7564 air gap is the manifold I am thinking of using.....Cory

[jayb]

The port is designed to match up to the 4V Cleveland intake, but be undersized just a bit to allow some port matching if required.  The Performer RPM is for the 2V heads, so the ports in the intake adapter are larger than the manifold's ports; the manifold may require some port matching.  I am on the fence on that one, though; when I did all my intake testing it became very clear that unless you were really pushing the horsepower envelope, sometimes a port match doesn't do a lot of good, and may actually harm low end torque.

I'm interested in using that 351C intake too, so when I get the first intake adapter on the dyno I'm going to test it with the 351C Performer RPM, and may do a before and after test with port matching, depending on how the "before" test turns out. 

[427Fastback]

Sounds good...I have only looked at the pics of the manifold.I was hoping it was somewhere in between a 2V and 4V port...I have a mild mannered 427 and don't think I need to go to a full size 4V port on the intake.Especially when I just have std size Edelbrock ports on the other side...The dyno testing should provide some interesting info....Cory

[cjshaker]

Two things you can always count on....

Figure how much a job will cost....then double it.
Figure how much time a job will take....then triple it.

That usually gets you in the ballpark

[jayb]

Yep, funny how I keep having to re-learn that lesson LOL!

[Joe-jdc]

Looks great Jay.  I have been away for a couple of weeks trying to figure out where to retire for good.  On the CHI intakes, there are different bolt patterns for Cleveland and Windsor style heads used.  You cannot interchance the Cleveland intakes because the bolt holes are located in different areas that will not allow slotting them to make them work.  I just went through this with a Boss 185 3V intake/head combination and a regular CHI 185 3V head.  The intakes are specific for the head and intended block usage.  CHI made sure of that.

Are you going to test a stock Edelbrock RPM for the FE and a ported FE RPM against the Cleveland stock RPM and Ported Cleveland RPM?  That would tell you lots about the viability of the intake adapter against stock FE intakes.   Just more testing, LOL.  Joe-JDC.

[jayb]

Joe, Thanks for the info on the intakes, looks like I'll stick with the Cleveland versions.  On the testing I plan to run on my 428CJ engine first, because it is currently on the dyno and I'll be putting it in my "road test mule" soon.  For that engine I have data on the port matched FE Performer RPM, but I'm not sure if I have tested that one with the unported RPM.  I will at least test it with the unported 351C Performer RPM Air Gap, and maybe will port match that one too, depending on how the unported tests turn out.  I also plan to test the 351C Torker II and 351C Weiand tunnel ram on that engine, although I don't expect to see big variations in the intakes because the engine is only 450HP engine.

Further on down the road I need to get some higher horsepower dyno mules on the pump to test more of the 351C intakes, but currently most of those engines need a little freshening up before they are dyno ready.  Therefore most of the dyno testing will be a winter project.  I'll be posting progress and results on the board as I progress on this, of course...

[lovehamr]

I just went through this with a Boss 185 3V intake/head combination and a regular CHI 185 3V head.  The intakes are specific for the head and intended block usage.  CHI made sure of that.

Joe, I'm the one who bought those heads from Brent while you were away.  I'd like to pick your brain sometime on the combo.

Steve

[Joe-jdc]

No problem, just PM me at joedvick at swbell dot net.  Joe-JDC.

[fe66comet]

I will have to send Jay my Cleveland Trick flow EFI intake anyhow for some machine work, maybe I will send the whole deal and he can check out the numbers on that combo also. I would be interested to see what he can come up with with that combo....Jon

[jayb]

I'm guessing that on my 428CJ that intake won't provide a big power boost over the others.  The engine is cam and head limited; when I did all the intake testing for my book, on that engine all the good intakes were clustered at the top within 5HP or so of each other.  The trick flow intake would probably be up there too.

Later on this year, when I get my 500 and 650 HP dyno mules back up and running, we might get a better indication of how the trick flow intake compares.

[jayb]

Here's some pics of the progress this week.  The ports continue to take a lot of time to program, and they are kind of a cut and fit proposition to get them the way I want, but the last couple have started to look pretty good.  First shot is a new tool that I needed to get around some corners with the cutting:



Using tools like this I can do the porting without having a 5 axis CNC machine.  Next is a photo of the manifold in the machine with the ports being cut, and finally a couple shots of the intake on the test engine with ports 1-4 done.  Ports 1 and 2 have some errors, including breaking through into the pushrod hole in port 1, but ports 3 and 4 are pretty nice. 







I need a couple more sizes of those special "lollipop" tools to finish up the ports, but I can get those this week.  I also put port 5 in tonight, which was pretty easy because I could just mirror port 4 for that program.  It looks like I will have to make a side to side adjustment on some of the 351C port openings in order to get both sides of the manifold to match up, but now that I have the first four ports programmed, making a modification like that is not too big a deal.  Assuming I can get the tools I need this week, I feel pretty good about finishing up the ports next weekend, and that will basically cap off the machining operations.  I've been modifying the programs as I go, so I should be able to plug another manifold into the fixtures and run the whole program after the ports are done.  With luck, no further changes will be required and I'll be good to go with the machining operations.  Without luck, which is more likely  , I may have to make a few more tweaks.  But in any case, I'm encouraged by the progress.  I'm thinking it won't be too much longer before I have a finished intake in my hands...