Another somewhat useless mod

[DeanM45]

Got up this morning and decided to wash the car. While I was cleaning the engine bay I noticed the vacuum line that runs to the back of the intake for the "butterfly valve" control. Deceided I wanted to see how all that worked so I pulled the plenum off. Destroyed the gasket and the new one will not be here until tomorrow.

So I took a look at the plenum and noticed where there was a sizable blockage when the valves were open so out came the die grinder and I smoothed out all the passages. Then, since I had the grinder out I started smoothing the exterior to get rid of the casting flash.

Here it is "smooth":



Then decided that since the gasket will not be here until tomorrow I'll go ahead and "polish" it.

Here's the first go around:



Lots more to do but a pretty good way to kill a day!

I'm going to look into making some phenolic spacers to reduce heat soak on the upper intake. I think 1/2" would work well.

[cruzad3r]

isn't there one for the m45 already?

[Boonies]

Looks fantastic, nice work!

[DeanM45]

No phenolic spacers that I can find anywhere for the M45.

Need to get some more polishing compound tomorrow and shutting down for the night but here we go:

[06M4.5]

Nice job Dean

It's alot of work, it took me 2 days to polish my intake but I did it by hand.

Too bad I never got to finish my eng bay.

[DeanM45]

Nice job Dean

It's alot of work, it took me 2 days to polish my intake but I did it by hand.

Too bad I never got to finish my eng bay.

BY HAND?! You are a bigger man than me. Granted, I am dedicated to doing things but if I had to polish by hand, the manifold would have stayed as it was stock.

I'll button it back up tonight or tomorrow and see if the porting helped at all. Considering the size of the throttle body there will probably be little to no difference in performance but I would only know by trying. I talked to a plastics house this morning and I am really leaning more and more to cutting some phenolic spacers for the plenum. They would probably have far more impact in performance (and potentially gas mileage) with the stock throttle body as opposed to the intake manifold porting, especially for a normally aspirated application.

[06M4.5]

I had no fingers for a few days

Do you have room to fit a spacer and keep all the plastic in place? I'm sure just the cooling of the intake would help.

[DeanM45]

I had no fingers for a few days

Do you have room to fit a spacer and keep all the plastic in place? I'm sure just the cooling of the intake would help.

Yep, no issues at all. A one inch raise of the plenum would cause zero problems and just starts to touch the insulator on the hood so 1/2" would cause no issues at all. Would need longer bolts (easy) and MAYBE add the two bosses to the back of the spacer that are on the lower manifold now to help locate the upper plenum (or just replace the steel bosses with longer ones).

[06M4.5]

This is as far as I got:



everything else has been on hold for now.

[DeanM45]

This is as far as I got:



everything else has been on hold for now.

WOW! That looks really good!

[06M4.5]

Thanks Dean

the other colors never made it on to the covers and the see thru hood just cost to much and takes too long to do.

[DeanM45]

Finished the install last night. Car feels about the same, maybe a little more low end torque. Can't give a definitive answer as since the Uprev I can light them up pretty much any time under 20 MPH. It idles about 50 rpm lower but that may just be from the new gasket and having polished the mating surfaces so a slight vacuum leak may have been solved. In addition to the slight porting I also polished the "trumpets" that the butterfly valves are in and then adjusted the arms (on the back of the plenum) so that the plates are completely closed with no vacuum to the canister.

Sure does look a lot better IMHO though. If I can find a used plenum cheap enough I will have it extrude honed. Until then I will just work on making a phenolic spacer.





I'll be working on the side covers next. Something a little different in mid for them.

[pedsemdoc]

Dang Dean and Freddie....you make my engine bay look pretty doggone pathetic-I may have to tackle that in the summer time. I'll make my dremel do all the hard work though.
Dean, if you get the phenolic spacers worked out, I sure would like one--you think you'd sell some?

Craig

[DoN_BLaZe34]

This is as far as I got:



everything else has been on hold for now.

So when are we going to do mine?

Dean, love the engine bay by the way

[06M4.5]

Lets see what shoes you have on order for your M, stop holding out on us.


After the shoes we'll talk about the eng bay.

Don has these on order:
http://www.carid.com/360-forged-wheels/ ... 86208.html

[DeanM45]

I need to get some new rims as well, something WIDER!

I have access to a water jet to cut the phenolic but the problem is figuring out which to use. Teflon sheet may be the best as it will "give" a little. The problem is the size, needs to be a 17" X 11" sheet minimum....most of which will be cut away. This stuff is not cheap.

We'll see.

[seymore4]

I'd be down for a spacer as well