MikeH
Diamond Level Sponsor
No holes. But how about a MGC style hood? Or a slight bulge where needed?Today I'm putting the finishing touches on the intake manifold. Goodness sakes, you say. "Why is he messing around with the intake manifold". Listen carefully children. It is an excellent example of "You can't change just one thing". Or one change leads to another.
The new Alpine came with Tiger style steering (poorly) installed. I decided to stay with it I was impressed with easy the (only) Tiger I have driven driven. Okay, so your going with a front steer setup, why mess with the intake? Well, the alternator was in the way of the rack and pinion steering shaft. The only available spot for the alternator is high on the right hand side engine block. Problem: There is no clearance between between the block and the inner fender with the engine laid over to the right. So the engine has to be upright, almost 90 degrees. That makes it tall, too tall for the intake manifold to clear the hood. Boss says"No holes in the hood". Lowered the manifold the most I could, 3/16", not enough. The throttle plate assembly sill hit the hood. Shortened the intake runners as much as I thought I could without drastically altering performance. Still not enough. Shortened the "throat" between the throttle plate assembly and the plenum down to zero. BINGO. That last step removed some important plumbing, which had to be restored. By the way, lowering the intake manifold required ditching the coil on plug ignition and using the Ranger valve cover, which required installing a dipstick hole in said cover.
Anyway, while messing with the manifold I cleaned up the air passage a bit. Here is the finished job, ready for paint.
View attachment 22025
The large opening is for the PVC and Idle Air. The little one is the reference port for the Fuel Pressure Regulator and MegaSquirt Manifold Pressure Sensor.
View attachment 22026
Here you can see inside the plenum. The sensor port is in front and slightly to the left of the air port.
Bill