Today i got a civic intake manifold that was gonna be junked at work and i had nuttin to do so i took the wiring harness off, the fuel rail off and the hoses and injectors off and decided to try porting/polishing it with my new die grinder.....took me 5 miniutes to get nice and comfortable with the grinder....but i realised that i can only get the open end of the runners on the intake manifold ground/ported.....my die grinder won't reach the insides (obviously) is there some tool i don't have? or is there a whole different method for porting manifolds?

This maybe crazy and all but since i dunno bout this stuff i thot maybe some kind of special corrosive fluid/liquid is forced thru the intake manifold and voila......it gets ported......just an idea! (RATED S for might be too stupid for some )

P.S: please post ur previous experiences and difficulties and tips to make this helpful for all

 

This is a helpful link that will get you started. He has a pic of a drill and that sucks. Keep the die grinder. Note the sandpaper rolls and the shaft they go onto. Those are just part of what you need. When you get more comfortable or want to practice for when you are get a tulip carbide rotary cutter and it will speed things up. But be damn careful once you get close to where you need to be. Then you switch to the paper. http://fly.hiwaay.net/~lbrewer/howto...html#polishing

 

Oh, and what it sounds like you are describing is not a corrosive fluid process. There is what is called extrude honing or "abrasive flow machining" that involves a fluid with a suspended abrasive that gets pushed back and forth to cleanup/polish. They work great for manifolds.
This link will teach you all you need to know about that http://www.extrudehone.com/afmpro.html

 

there is one problem tho.....the manifold that i have here has a gradual 90 degree bend and no regualr bit is gonna go all the way in there and polish that stuff.....unless i use a dremel with a flexible shaft and a lil camera attached to it......and that could take ages

 

That is where extrusion honing comes into play. abrasive suspended in fluid gets pumped back and forth under pressure. What you describe is exactly what this process does best.

 

Click on this link and go to the two way video http://www.extrudehone.com/afmpro.html#
The blue piece in the video is the part being honed. Keep in mind that the video is just to simplify the description of the process. The blue part could be replaced by a manifold and the two pump mechanisms attached to each end of the runner being honed.
They would force the abrasive fluid back and forth on whatever you connect them to.

 

Now for the really cool part! Here is a used machine for sale on Ebay! http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...category=25279

 

thats a lottta money......but to tell u the truth u could make ur money back in less than a year by porting peoples manifolds.....scalliwag i don't ahve acrobat so i can't download the price list.....have u ever had anything ported from them? how much do u think it would cost on an average to port a regualr 4 cylinder intake manifold by that honing method

 

hasn't anyone else tried porting their intake manifold or anything.....c'mon post ur experiences....if i had to talk to scalliwag only i'd just pm him......but this is for everyone's benefit.

by the way my civic intake maniolf is coming along fine.....finished one of the runners nicely.....it's not as smooth as i'd like it to be but that i'll do when i begin with my dremel for now im gonna finish everything with my die grinder and smooth out as much as possible and then i'll get down to business with the dremel....still haven't been able to reach the insides.....i tried using this thing it's like a bottle cleaner kinda thing that is wirey and is used to clean the throttle plate.....i connected it to my die grinder.....perfect fit and then fired it.....what it's doing for me is smoothing down my die grinder work and since it's nice and long i can send it down the runner and get things deep inside a little polished.....i'll try using the flexible shaft with the dremel tool and stick it in there and see what i can do.......what im thinking of doing with the dremel is to use that flexible shaft to port the place inside the intake manifold where the main plenum separates into the runners....i wanna port it in such a way that the runners bend toward the throttle body entry area so that the air flows smoothly into the runners....gonna go sleep now....gettin pretty late....tell me wat ya think scalliwag

peace and good night

 

So your after methods, not theory? They make long shank burrs and rotary files for a longer reach. I suppose you could also try a piece of cable chucked into the grinder with a sanding drum, rotary file taped onto the end. And just be careful with it.

 

im gonna take a trip down to the hoe depot and check out the bits they have......im gonna try the cable idea today if i have time and let u know how that goes....i guess if i wrapped the cable with sandpaper to a certain length, that would work fine.

later

 

thanks for the links very useful

 

I got my bits from Northern Tool. They have a website that you can order off of. There are also a couple threads that I've read on here about porting and where to buy supplies from.

GL

 

I used a carbide burr to gasket match the ports and then a flapper wheel on a dremel flex extension to reach as far as I could down the runners. I started with 80 grit and then went to 120 so far. I'm still not complete.

 

When I stop spending money on my other projects, I'm just going to port match the intake, then have it extrude honed.

 

heath.....does dremel make the flapper wheel? i found the carbide burrs at sears today there were 2 in a pack for 21.99 canadian pesos.....is that an ok price?

 

chop it up into dremel sized pieces and weld it back together

 

hans.....r u telling me to chop up the intake manifold? i was thinking of that as a possibility.....chop it according to the original weld lines and then port/polish it and then weld it back together? what do u guys think.....would it be easy to chop it?

 

cutting isnt the problem, its re-assembly

the only problem is if its cast. Then its a ****'n female dog PITA to weld back. so I only recommend this if you have cast welding experence.

if your are going far as to cut it up and port then weld it back togerther, Id suggest if oyu could do that, you might as well get some almn or mild steel sheet and make a new manifold from the get go. IMHO almost always modifying is just that, starting with something less than ideal in attempts to make perfect. althought sometimes engineers get their ways and the bean counters are shoved aside

 

I bought the flapper wheels from Home Depot in the tool department. I'm not sure the brand but they were near the buffs, buffing compounds, wire wheels, etc.
I purchased my carbide burrs from Ebay. I think I got 6 of them for around $26.

 

how hard is it to make a custom intake manifold? is there anything to it like the length of the runners or anything like how u have to measure the length of the header to have the perfect layout so that one exhaust puff pulls the next one out.....theres nuttin like that with intakes is there? i've seen these alumnum intake manifolds for sale that look like tin can material....they look easy to make and cost like 200USD and ****...

 

there is more to it that i could ever dream to know. in an FI application, it shouldn't really matter. NA has some different applications. In general the longer the intake runner the broader and stronger the trq curve in the lower rpm range, chokes trq up top.
real short runers, scream up top, but whimper down low.
in theory of course.

if its Turbo can go wrong with a bread box, short runner design.

NA, hell i had a formula for piston motors, but anything decently engineered aint, bad. And besides if it doesnt work well, sell them to ricers on EBAY

here is an example
cheap intake
http://www.sdsefi.com/techinta.htm

general tech page
http://www.sdsefi.com/tech.html

 

What is that other place that had a ECU kit for $150?

 

Sorry I need to clarify. The flapper wheels that I used with the Dremel and flex attachment are indeed Dremel brand. The other flapper wheels I used were much larger in diameter and I used these to smooth out the inside of my Greddy elbow and in the compressor housing of my t-78.

 

Do a search for any local industrial supply companies in your area. You can also just speak with your local Grainger or Fastenal rep. Who do you think supplies all the industrial cutting/media removal tools to manufacturing companies? These guys... don't waste your time at home depot and pay mark up on junk products unless you enjoy throwing your money away and not getting results with good tools.

There are a large variety of bits and paper media to choose from, as well as tools. One company is Merit abrasives for instance. There is also vibratory deburring, tumbling, centrifical, etc, that you can use with various media to both deburr, clean, polish, etc, both the inside and outside of the parts you're working on at the same time.