Modified Intake Plenum - Mazworx Prototype 1 of 1 :)

[npez]

Hey guys,

I didn't want to let the cat out of the bag until Mark at Mazworx told me it was ok. So here it is - the result of Mark's and my colaborative efforts to modify the intake plenum (Mazworx prototype 1 of 1). It's in its very raw form in this picture (just after it got welded) but I am planning to get it polished and chromed when I receive it this week.

The intake manifold in the picture was CNC'd by Mazworx to provide a full 1 inch additional hood clearance. This means that my Z hood will clear without modifications and this should work on S-chassis cars as well. The runner length was not impacted at all, but there has obviously been a slight reduction in plenum volume.

Mark told me he will make these available for sale now that all the #s and process have been developed, so this may become an alternative for people that don't want to cut up their hoods and don't want to go the path of fabricating a new one.

Anyway, I thought I would post it so you all can take a look. I want to personally thank Mark and Mazworx for making this thing a reality for me and for putting up with all my "input". I'll post an update once it's all cleaned up and shiny

Thanks,Nick.

[gs14racer]

I had heard about this, it looks great.

[Mettler]

Heh, that actually looks pretty cool _b

[Carl H]

is plenum volume altered any?*edit* im illiterate...dont mind me.

[gs14racer]

Yea plenum volume will be less with this setup.

[John Dixon]

Nice Fab work.Now I'm learning to weld Ali myself I can appreciate just how good that is!

[npez]

Nice Fab work.Now I'm learning to weld Ali myself I can appreciate just how good that is!

Thanks John and everybody for your kind words. John, I'm learning to weld in general, so Mazworx fabricating this thing for me was a God-send - I had heard horror stories on cleanly welding the cast factory stuff. Mark told me the plenum casting itself wasn't all that great so welding it was a little more difficult. I give kudos to Mark and Mazworx for producing such a nice result.

Thanks,Nick.

[Carl H]

welding cast with a good pressure seal = insanely hard to do.

[John Dixon]

Thanks John and everybody for your kind words. John, I'm learning to weld in general, so Mazworx fabricating this thing for me was a God-send - I had heard horror stories on cleanly welding the cast factory stuff. Mark told me the plenum casting itself wasn't all that great so welding it was a little more difficult. I give kudos to Mark and Mazworx for producing such a nice result.

Thanks,Nick.

Absolutely!I bought a TIG a while ago and started playing with it. Stainless is lovely to weld, really easy and almost flows together its self on the 1.5mm wall oil lines I was doing.Ali I'm having a hard time with, can do 4mm OK-ish but the thin stuff is really hard, keeps ending up as a puddle! Just practice I guess but it's far less forgiving and much harder to get the setup right on the welder too.

[Carl H]

for welding aluminum you HAVE to keep the work area clean and immaculate...this means degreasing with nonchloronated brake cleaner or metal prep solution and every time you stop a weld you HAVE to clean it off again...very tedious.the basic chemistry behind this is that Al oxidizes very easily and forms aluminum oxide...which has a MUCH MUCH higher melting point than normal al metal.what happens is the al oxide forms a skin coat on the aluminum metal and thus does not melt intialy but the al metal does...so once you melt the al oxide skincoat the moten al flows free.very tricky to weld this is for sure.

[mdotcarter]

That looks really nice! Who's gonna produce the oilpan needed for the swap?

[Q45tech]

Make sure and leave at least 2" above the runner so the air can turn the corner into the runner. If the top of the plenum gets too close to the runner entry it will impede air flow.

Actually without an engine dyno to compare the VE losses everything is a guess.

[npez]

That looks really nice! Who's gonna produce the oilpan needed for the swap?

Thanks. I'm not aware of anyone commercially doing an oilpan; I think Tyler or someone else I can't recall at the moment had posted an interest thread on a fabbed oilpan, but right now there's also some variability in approach (front sump versus rear).

What you're seeing is mutually beneficial collaborative efforts that produce something that's then made available to others. The plenum was something I wanted to do to keep my stock hood intact; the opportunity presented itself that Mazworx could then produce it and make it available commercially.

The same goes for engine mounts, cross-member mods, exhaust manifold, etc. I'm sure if there's enough demand presented, Mazworx or someone else would come up with a turn-key kit to do the conversion on a Z. For now, things like this reduce the amount of effort one has to go through to do the conversion. Far from turn-key but slowly getting better.

Thanks,Nick.

[npez]

Make sure and leave at least 2" above the runner so the air can turn the corner into the runner. If the top of the plenum gets too close to the runner entry it will impede air flow.

Dennis, there wasn't 2" above the runner from the factory. I looked at the intermediate photos (work in process) that Mazworx sent me and it looks like the top of the runners are pretty much intact, so hopefully airflow will not be impeded. I'm going to be doing FI so it wont be as much of an issue.

Actually without an engine dyno to compare the VE losses everything is a guess.

I fully agree with you. I will be taking the car to the dyno once I have it up and running normally aspirated. I'll post the findings once I do that. I don't have a baseline for my specific setup, but if we use an aggregate of others' results maybe we can create an overall baseline to compare to.

Thanks,Nick.

[dsagers]

Now, if Mazworx would just make one of these for a Whipple SC or Magnacharger, with the rear drive as used on the new super Corvettes...

Maybe add in the Mustang style under plenum intercooler.

Ahh, I can dream

[T45]

Wow, that looks slick. I'll wait to see what kind of coin it costs before I commit to that. I already have a hole in da hoody and it doesn't bother me. I like having the VH stick up. It's like, menacing and stuff. lol

[Nycist]

Now, if Mazworx would just make one of these for a Whipple SC or Magnacharger, with the rear drive as used on the new super Corvettes...

Maybe add in the Mustang style under plenum intercooler.

Ahh, I can dream

this man read my mind....

[WizardBlack]

Why not get some volume back from the bottom side?

[npez]

Why not get some volume back from the bottom side?

That should be do-able, but first I want to see how the car will run like this. If there is negligible change to the powerband there won't be a need for the extra work/expense. If not, then I guess v2 will need to be created to get the volume back.

Thanks,Nick.

[MRJERRY300ZX]

The Manifold looks great !!! It looks better than it did on the computer screen, I'm glad that it came out to acceptable standards.I'm pretty sure your happy with it. It will compliment the rest of your setup in the engine bay. So is the manifold going into production? Are you/family getting out of harm's way?

[npez]

The Manifold looks great !!! It looks better than it did on the computer screen, I'm glad that it came out to acceptable standards.I'm pretty sure your happy with it. It will compliment the rest of your setup in the engine bay. So is the manifold going into production? Are you/family getting out of harm's way?

Thanks Jerry; I think Mark knows better how he's planning on moving on with "production" plans. At this point he has the tooling/process done to be able to make many.

As far as hurricane Ike, the track of the eye is now 60 miles to the east of me after the latest easternly shift so I'm now on the "clean side" of the storm. Yesterday morning they were expecting 94MPH winds - now they're expecting 78MPH. I believe the house shouldn't have any problems structrurally with the winds but I'm hoping shingles, etc. will all hold up.

Good luck to you and your family, as well as our other members who are in the Houston/Galveston area - be safe.

Thanks,Nick.

[kbflip02]

[QUOTE=npez].

As far as hurricane Ike, the track of the eye is now 60 miles to the east of me after the latest easternly shift so I'm now on the "clean side" of the storm. Yesterday morning they were expecting 94MPH winds - now they're expecting 78MPH. I believe the house shouldn't have any problems structrurally with the winds but I'm hoping shingles, etc. will all hold up.QUOTE]

you lucky bastard....j/k...were still expecting winds around 85 mph...i wonder how long the power will be out for once it goes though...well see

[npez]

.

As far as hurricane Ike, the track of the eye is now 60 miles to the east of me after the latest easternly shift so I'm now on the "clean side" of the storm. Yesterday morning they were expecting 94MPH winds - now they're expecting 78MPH. I believe the house shouldn't have any problems structrurally with the winds but I'm hoping shingles, etc. will all hold up.QUOTE]

you lucky bastard....j/k...were still expecting winds around 85 mph...i wonder how long the power will be out for once it goes though...well see

Not so lucky - the track changed again and the eye is practically going to go over us. We're now on the east (dirty) side with 85MPH!

Good luck and be safe!

Thanks,Nick.

[XJared]

I doubt a noticable difference, but if you were intent on getting the volume back, the easiest way would be to use a throttle chamber spacer of the appropriate thickness.

[Q45tech]

From throttle body to plenum is another tuned volume, at WOT it is part of system from MAF/ airfilter to plenum [length] design.

Add volume to plenum end opposite TB.

[AntonZ32]

any updates?

[gs14racer]

theres nothing to update, if you want one call and order.

[kingkilburn]

There was talk of increasing plenum volume. That would be a worth while update.

[npez]

There was talk of increasing plenum volume. That would be a worth while update.

I just got power back today after 2 weeks without due to the hurricane. I will be picking up the rest of the chrome early next week if the shop has gotten power back, and should be able to re-assemble everything in the next two to three weeks. As soon as I get the car running I'll have it dyno'd so we can see if the small change in plenum volume has affected the powerband characteristics to any extent.

Thanks,Nick.

[qsiguy]

Very cool Nick. I missed this post earlier. I suspect you won't notice any adverse effects from the smaller plenum volume particularly since you are using FI. Without a baseline you'll never know anyway. As long as it makes good numbers and runs ok at WOT who cares?

What have you been doing for the last 2 weeks? Running off a generator?