There have been several questions in various threads concerning making one's own intake. Where possible, I like to use aluminum for weight reduction. My problem......I cannot weld, period. But there is a guy up the road aways that can weld the wings of a fly together in midair, so not a problem for me. Anyway, when making a manifold, one can easily acquire the following: (1) The slab that fits against the head(s). Acquire a piece of aluminum sheet. 1/2 inch is normally sufficiently thick. (2) The slab for the carburetor mounting. Acquire a junk carburetor with the same aluminum flange, and cut the flange from the throttle body. (3) Runners. Aluminum tubing in straights, 15's, 30's, 45's, and 90's is readily available from an electrical supply house. Its called conduit. By doing ones homework, one can really produce some fairly decent product that looks good as well as working. And this is not an ad for me to do one for you, I won't. This is simply a suggestion of one way to go about the process. Jon.
Steel is easier to work with and makes a good manifold. There are ready made flanges that can be bought. The rest can be made of pieces of exhaust pipe tubing and flat steel. Brazing is plenty strong enough, and makes it easier to fill in all the pin holes. The major auto makers used to make manifolds of steel plates and tubes, soldered together with soft solder. These were not very durable but quick and easy to make, and lasted long enough for dyno testing and limited road testing. You probably know Bruce Crower started in the speed parts business with his U Fab manifold kits, made of steel parts to be welded together by amateurs. Some of them still turn up from time to time, 50 years later, still perfectly functional.
http://i816.photobucket.com/albums/...D-8637-589022F45077-4303-00000F40F89253ED.jpg Here's one I made earlier
The major auto makers used to make manifolds of steel plates and tubes, soldered together with soft solder. These were not very durable but quick and easy to make, and lasted long enough for dyno testing and limited road testing. Every time I see a tpi manifold, I think of this and what carbking is saying. Get out of my head you two !
Welding up a V8 intake is a LOT harder than it might appear. Many feet of welds, all which must be air-tight after grinding all those feet of welds. A fabricator who knows how just blew an expensive engine at Bonneville. He'd vacuum tested the manifold on the bench. The race engine was just slightly different dimensionally than the mockup engine he'd used as his welding jig. After being torqued down and heat-cycled a few times a seam developed a crack out of sight underneath. The engine went seriouly lean and holed a couple of pistons at the five-mile mark. Your results may vary. jack vines
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