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There a number of bits and pieces in the the 3 photos that follow. It should be obvious by now that I work on a shoe string and make just about everything I can rather than purchase. What can I say? I am cheap! Some of both here.
Manifold - Passenger Side
Nice pretty color; Krylon Red. I seem to be able to use a spray can, LOL. What are you looking at here? Well the manifold itself is an Edlebrock Torker II for Ford small blocks. Nothing really special, but it is a single plane manifold. I bought the manifold on eBay fairly cheaply but it was coverd in black paint. Lots of aircraft paint remover and a final soda blast cleaned it up enough to be around. I bought the fuel rails and injector bungs from Probe over in California: they were from a 351 conversion. The rails are really big and should have no problem getting fuel to the injectors. When I originally took my block to a Las Vegas engine machine shop, I had asked for a quote on putting the bungs in. The machinist was daft and he quoted me in the negihborhood of 50 to 60 hours to install them,..at $50 bucks or so an hour. Was a real prick. So I did them myself. I knew what the spacing on the runners had to be, since it is the same as the bore spacing on the block (for Fords anyway). I marked an end one, measured from there for the remainder. I decided how far up the runner I could go and still have things like the throttle linkage work and made those marks on the runner. Center punch and I'm ready to drill!. Used my Sears 1/2 inch vertical mill (actually my 1/2 inch hand drill) and drilled pilot holes for every bung. Then I used a bung sized drill and just enlarged the holes. Of course I had to elongate the holes so they would stand vertically. I used a die grinder to make final corrections. About an hour to do all this. With a milling machine, I could have made my life much simpler because the holes would have fit the bungs much better. I made a jig to hold the bungs in alignment from simple flate bar stock. I used some 3/8 inch countesunk bolts to center the bungs on the tool. Worked pretty good. There is a slight mistake, but I wont tell you what it is. If you see the car in person see if you can tell what it is. The blue carb to throttle body adapter is also from Probe: they have nice goodies. It is sized for a 90 mm throttle body, but I will start by using a stock 60mm unit. I only installed 4 injectors so you would get the idea. There is a special fitting that goes at the end of each fuel rail to hold it in place: trick unit! The throttle body itself is, as I said, stock. I removed the IAC (idle air controller) and blanked it off. Just would not fit so will have to adjust idle the old fashioned way. The sensor in the runner to number 1 cylinder is the ACT or air charge temperature sensor. Right in front of it is the ECT or engine coolant temperature. I have moved this sensor since the photo was taken because it interferred with the distributor, and this bung is plugged. Just in front of the fuel rail is a pipe thread bung: this is where the water for the reservoir return and turbo cooling willcome from. On the driver's side, you see the instrument panel water temp gauge sensor. At the rear, there are 2 additional bungs in the runners: I don't know what they would be for, but they have to be plugged. After I, ahem, welded the bungs in place, I used my die grinder to trim the wasted weld and JB Weld Epoxied everything to seal up any small holes (yeah, right!). It actually loks pretty good and will no doubt be pretty servicable. It is supposedly good for about 6500 rpm in a normally aspirated condition and I see no reason why this should not hold true for boosted applications. No, I wont build you one.
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Manifold - Driver's Side
This side is pretty much the same as the other side, except now you can see the TPS or throttle position sensor on the throttle body.
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Manifold - Bottom Side
The bottom shot of the manifold is revealing in that it shows that I painted it with glyptal to aid in oil drainback and to keep it from coking on the manifold. The stuff is evil: a single drop will cover a square quarter mile! But it is slick! I had also painted the block innerds of the motor with it. In the runners, I used my die grinder and trimmed the bungs flush with the original casting. I back filled any gaps with JB Weld and then, when it hardened, smoothed it to match. No flow interruptions here. Nothing else is significant here.
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Copyright (C) 2003 - 2004, all dates inclusive - Lawrence E. Mayfield - All Rights Reserved