This was posted by Plan9 here: http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=302676&page=2 I checked out the last link, and what I found certainly had post-able merit! Enjoy! And hey - Plan9, if'n you're out there, we'd love to have some of your thoughts on these! They're awesome! ~Jason
I built this one and used it for about 10 + years. I had to let it go when sold all my shop equipment because it was included in the deal. It worked very well and I rented it out a few times to other racers. It was not complicated and I could and will rebuild it or a similar one from memory. Don
I started talking about em in the 80s and my dad shrugged...."yeah, we built one when I was racing (mid 60s) Pretty simple really" Point is, lots of grassroots racers did shit that today we think is "hi-tech".
Check out this Forum: http://www.tractorsport.com/cgi-bin/forum/cgi-bin/ikonboard.cgi The guys there have been building home made flow benches and home made dynos for years. And they are a very friendly and knowledgeable bunch of people. That is all they do there on that Forum, flow benches and dynos. It is the best resource anywhere on the internet if you wish to build a home flow bench. The guy that runs the site (Bruce) offers flow bench plans for sale, and an excellent bench it is too. You don't have to actually buy his plans, because all the information to build a bench is spread through the whole forum in many different threads. But for only fifty bucks it is definitely the bargain of the century because all the information is right there, you don't have to read through hundreds to threads to pick up all the details. Basically purchased plans are a compilation of all the very best ideas, and latest thinking developed by many different members of the Forum. Bruce has put it all together into a single easy to follow plan. There is also MASSIVE support from regular members of the Forum for anyone building his own bench.
Funny thing is that "Bruce" guy actually hangs out here on this forum . . . wishing and hoping someday to actually build a car, till such time drooling over everyone else's cars!
is the flow bench in the video something you can buy and just set up? what about useing a mass air flow sensor from an EFI?
They're coming to YOU, man!!! Bruce - if you want to add your expertise, or maybe even paste in a few helpful links off of your forum that might help us out, by all means, feel free to do so! ~Jason
A few years back I collected quite a few references on that. We were doing some comparisons between clean and dirty (deposited) intake valves. I saved references and links from back then. I'll see if I can scare them up next week. We wound up using a Superflow, and we upgraded it to have the automated deltaP (pressure drop) adjustment. The experimental results were as follows: 1) Yes, deposits affect air flow at all lifts 2) Yes, deposits affect swirl at all lifts 3) Yes, deposits affect power as measured on the dyno (~5% power loss for moderately dirty intakes) 4) Yes, you can thrash the engine and get rid of *some* of the deposits 5) No, thrashing does not get rid of *most* of the deposits 6) Yes, bottled "Concentrate" and high-end gasolines (not necessarily premium) will clean up the valves *way better* than thrashing and will likely get your intake valves to flow and produce power like new clean valves. My testing was all on Chevron/Techron products (except for the gasoline we used to make the valves dirty to begin with). --Matt
I should have mentioned whenever i build anything I hire a sign man to make a plate (brass) or a sign for it. Costs usually $12 to about $30 although I think this flowbench one was about $35. I learned this from a friend who was great at building stuff. It makes you homebuilt stuff look more professional and even better , down the road it still has your name or Id on it despite who owns it. I used 3 inch gate valves in mine for vacuum supply control bleeds and I used a pair of electric leaf blowers with slight modifications(on suck of course). I also tried a Rohn fan and it worked good but wasnt big enough for the flow I was working at. All in all I spent about $1000 to build the bench. It made a huge improvement in my racing and engine building since I was no longer stuck in looks nice"" and ""common baloney mode"" but could actually test and see what did and even more important what didnt work. In porting, especially, knowing what not to do is probably the most important. A flow bench is also a super tool to use for matching camshaft lifts to cylinder heads characteristics. Some head's go backwards after reaching peak flow and often very quickly so too much lift can wind up giving much less power. As always the right lift will always go faster than the ""more is always better"" crowds choice. I got the design for mine out of Super'Stock magazine although they only printed half the article and never finished it. The author contacted me from a letter I wrote them and gave me the skinny on the rest and on using it and calibration etc. I built it about 1990 or 91. Don
The board on Tractorsport.com has EVERYTHING about flowbenches. Design,making your own, calibrating, sourcing parts, etc.
Well not sure about "spilling the beans" think we have pretty much done that already by demystifying flowbenching and showing it can be done in the garage at home not spending your life savings. Pretty much the same way this forum works by sharing car experience with others that are afflicted with the same "addiction". Any local PA people interested in learning about flowbenches are always welcome to stop over and chat. I've been trying to make one of the local HAMB get togethers but something always comes up.
Couple of other thoughts: Audie Tech makes a product called a Flow Quik that is amazingly accurate up to about 200 CFM@ 28 inches of water. I was only able to test it up to that, because the Shop Vac I was using for an air supply only went that high. I have no reason to think it wouldn't be accurate at higher airflows as well. http://www.audietech.com/flow-quik/what-it-is.html It's $579, the additional software is $99. If your budget gets up around $1000, just watch Ebay. Superflow 110's sell in this range pretty frequently.
There are many ways to go about building a flow bench. Most of us started out with a shop vac, and some means of measuring airflow. Nothing at all wrong with that, but you will quickly discover that the shop vac simply cannot supply enough air to test many of the things you may like to test. The next step up is to build a big box of some kind, and fit a whole bunch of surplus vacuum cleaner motors to get some serious airflow. You still need something to accurately measure airflow, but a flow-quick may not be up to the job, once you reach this level. A much better way to measure airflow is to use an orifice plate and measure the pressure drop across that orifice plate. It is very simple, and it gives a very stable, accurate, and repeatable result, for absolute minimum cost. If you use home made water manometers, you can build a very accurate flow measurement system for only a few dollars worth of hardware store parts, and a bit of fabrication work. Or you can purchase one of the commercial electronic flow bench "black boxes" to give a digital readout on your computer. Before you spend a pile of money doing this, check out the electronic Data Acquisition System that Bruce and the guys over at the Flow Bench Forum are putting together right now. It is at least as good as anything else you can buy, but at a small fraction of the cost. The reason the costs for this can be kept so low, is that Forum members are doing this as a group project for other Forum members. http://www.tractorsport.com/cgi-bin/forum/cgi-bin/ikonboard.cgi?;act=SF;f=27
Hey everyone, does anyone have a clue what cfm requirements are need for the plans posted? I shows a Ametec pump but thats it and tells to get a ball bearing and 110v. I am trying to figure out what pumps are needed but am at a dead end.... any help?
You can use any type and any number of vacuum cleaner motors you want with those flow bench plans. The total electrical power you need, and the final CFM capacity depends on that choice. The Forum members have discovered Amtec ball bearing motors to be very good, and very reliable, but you could use anything.
we built one in a friend's basement to test stock intakes and valve jobs for my friends that ran in the stock and super stock classes not all stock parts with the same part# are the same some are a lot better than others the same with carbs
I built a small one in the 80s rated at about 300CFM when I was road racing a stock head, intake, and carb class. I used a leaf blower for suction. Still have the parts in the basement. U can even make your own water gauges and calibrate to keep the costs to a minimum. Also have some vacuum motors for the larger one I never got around to building.
I built one in my late teens, still have it and use it today. Learned a LOT especially in the early days, the learning curve gets more shallow after you have used one for a while, but I still wouldn't want to be without it.
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