SRT Manifold - polished, ported and polished!

tx_bandit · 11-11-2012, 02:02 AM

Greeting everyone! I've been working on this project almost every evening for way too many day. I know I have an easy 50+ hours into it. But last night I finally finished.

It all started when I decided to try and port my intake. I've never done any porting before but armed with youtube videos, pictures of ported manifolds from the various forums and the Eastwood porting guide, I jumped in feet first. And it came out pretty good if I do say so myself. While certainly not a CNC job it is definitely better than what came from the factory.

Pre Porting Prep

Plenum detail - BEFORE

Plenum Detail - AFTER

Manifold Runner - BEFORE

Manifold Runner - AFTER

Shiny Internal Goodness!

The next step in the plan was to powder coat the manifold. I had powder coated the manifold once before but I felt there there was a lot of room for improvement and that I could do a better job this time. So I started grinding and sanding and dremeling.

Grinding

More Grinding

Sanding stage

And every time I stepped back I would find an area that could use "just a tad more" attention.
And each time the manifold got a bit shinier.

Once I had about 20 hours into it I figured "I've gone this far, might as well go all the way and see if I can polish this sucker!
And if it doesn't come out right I can always go back and just powder coat it".

Gathering the polishing tools

And while under the hood I gave my valve covers the "scratch" test. Hot dang! They were aluminum!
So off they came and they went under the polishing process too.

And in case you are wondering why I need a hammer to polish stuff...
I use it to drive nails through the screw holes and into the workbench to hold the stuff in place so they don't fly across the garage when the buffer wheel catches on something.

And while I was at it I might as well do the throttle body

and the fuel rails...

and the CAI intake pipes...

Until finally - this:

Like I said, I just finished,
Tomorrow I will start putting the engine back together.
I'll post more pics of it once its all back together.

SRTWOG · 11-11-2012, 05:52 AM

I once polished a 440 BB Edelbrock manifold and swore I would never spend all those hours doing that again but by god dan that's looks super

nraider420h · 11-11-2012, 06:54 AM

I was just searching threads yesterday for some info on this exact process! Would YOU do this again? It is awfully time consuming from your descriptions, but I think it is one of the best looking improvements on the engine bay, simply beautiful! Awesome work! I love it and am now subscribed!

I would not be able to do this until I have another intake, as mine is a DD and can not be down for any length of time. I am going to search the buy/sell forum for one, any idea what a reasonable price for an intake would be? Thanks for the thread and any replies.

**yamabob** · 11-11-2012, 09:56 AM

Steve-that's why you've been hiding! I'm glad to see that you finally decided to try and do a mod on your own

. See you can do it. As always a fantastic job by you.

btstarcher · 11-11-2012, 10:03 AM

Jealous....these damn engines are already beautiful, but that looks more like art.

tx_bandit · 11-11-2012, 11:10 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by nraider420h

Would YOU do this again?

If I had the cash I would let someone else do it. It would probably be $1,500 to have this work done. Getting an intake polished runs 400 to 800 dollars depending on the quality of the job. I've seen several $600 dollar jobs and honestly think mine looks better. The amount of porting I did would go for $700+. Now I may not have money but I do have tools and I'm reasonably handy so I gave it a shot.

Quote:

Originally Posted by nraider420h

It is awfully time consuming from your descriptions

Understatement of the year. LOL!

Quote:

Originally Posted by nraider420h

I am going to search the buy/sell forum for one, any idea what a reasonable price for an intake would be?

Lowest price I've seen has been in the $300 range. Check ebay and your local junk yards.

The last bit of advice I can give anyone looking at trying this is make sure you have the right tools.

#1Safety Equipment - Aluminum dust can seriously HURT you. Wear eye protection and breathing protection.

A good quality dust mask is the first thing you need. A cartridge mask like this would be even better:

For eye protection you can wear safety glasses or a face shield. I would recommend what are called "splash proof" safety glasses. They are more like ski goggles in that they seal stuff out of your eyes. Trust me, on this project there is stuff flying everywhere!

#2 Tools you need to make the job do-able:

Angle grinder

Flex Shaft Rotary Tool

Sander/Buffer

You stick a buffing wheel like this on it:

Palm Sander

Cartridge Abrasives for rotary tool - for getting into the million nooks and crannies these manifolds have ;-)

You can get all the tools at Harbor Freight for under $200. They won't last forever but will be more than enough to get the job done. Figure another $100 for supplies; sand paper, metal polishing rouge, buffing and polishing wheels, band-aides. As I already owned all the tools it was a pretty good deal for me. Good luck. If you have any more questions I'll be happy to answer them if I can. And thanks for the kudos!

Quote:

Originally Posted by yamabob

Steve-that's why you've been hiding! I'm glad to see that you finally decided to try and do a mod on your own

. See you can do it. As always a fantastic job by you.

And this mod about kicked this old man's behind. No doubt in my mind that it was the most difficult one I've taken on but on the other hand probably the most rewarding. Thanks!