water seal we don't need no stinkin water seal...

 

You're correct sir.

 

Finally got everything measured up the other day. Total runner length is 18". Anyone have suggestiong for taking 2" out of the manifold?

 

Is this what you are wanting to do? The entire TII assembly? Not just the LIM and a custom TB setup? I'm basing this on using the entire TII intake assembly. Although I'm all for fabbing a custom UIM and TBs. Aluminum is cheap. Very cheap.



My computer went on the fritz and now I'm on this new machine, I have NO pictures handy for referencing.



Here's an idea for keeping your costs DOWN. It's going to take some artwork to pull it off. All you really need to worry about is it looking pretty on the INSIDE of the manifolds, but...



Cut the LIM just below the fuel injector ports, and see how much you can trim down before welding it back together. That being said you won't need much of an extension on a die grinder to smooth out the runners on the inside after it's complete. But I remember a small portion of the LIM not having too much of a drastic change and there was availablility for trimming. If it turns out you can trim quite a bit, perhaps cut it at an angle rather than parallel to the current LIM/UIM flange as to "tip back" the mounting flange for the UIM and TB assembly. There IS clearance above the rotor housings with the bottom of the dynamic chamber portion of the TII UIM (especially with the vacuum rack out of the way). But not alot. The slightest angle would produce plenty of clearance. Wouldn't even really be that noticeable anyways. No TMIC yeilds yourself alot of area to play with. An N/A elbow (plastic) in STOCK form on the TII "upside-down" TB points your intake to the front of the motor. You can also use a stock N/A intake hose assembly. If you chose to go this route, ultimately your intake filter is right in the general area that your AC/Power steering would usually occupy. Again I'm making assumptions here that you won't be using AC and Power steering. It would permit you to mount a box or heat shield directly on the front cover/front iron area of the motor. Just a space friendly idea to toss out there! So back to the N/A intake hose assembly. Cut it in half as at the point where it has the ridges so it can flex, use the longer portion. Where the ridges would be, clamp about a 2" length of (I believe 3" OD? Really could be using my old computer at this point for better information) 3" OD to that end and then get a cheap big cone filter from the auto parts store to go on the other side. You won't ever see that piece of pipe, it's just used to hold the filter on. The N/A intake hose is a decent material and not to stiff, once you clamp it, it will seal just fine. Whichever cars are advertised on the box by those companies as being the 3" ID type, just open the boxes up in the store and measure the 3" ID filter, the civic junk is all 2.25" or whatever. Then you just mount that spiffy setup on the N/A TB elbow flange, and you can pivot it on the flange to gain the proper position (closer or further from the block). The N/A TB elbow is perfect for tapping a 1/4" NPT hole right at the bend, and mounting your IAT sensor. It produces little heat soak as compared to the stock N/A chamber (aluminum) or the TII albow (also aluminum).



N/A elbows and intake hoses are ridiculously common and inexpensive. Those Ractive generic cone filters (one time use, no cleaning) I've seen in stores for 20 bucks. A 2" cutoff of 3" OD tube is under a buck if not free, and large hose clamps won't be more than 5 bucks in total. The rest is LIM fab work.



Although you'll need some talented aluminum welding, cast aluminum isn't weld friendly. At all.



Hope this wasn't all typed in vain, but there's a cheap idea for getting your runner length and using OE parts.



Oh and this recipe is dizzy friendly as far as space goes, if you use the dizzy or not. I had tons of fun using the megasquirt with a dizzy setup in my FC. But I'd love to see your project with the MSnS and ability for playing with the timing and the timing split between the lead and trailing plugs. Speaking of the MS, you can retrofit a full range TPS to the FC TB very inexpensively as well. 1996 (I believe) Mustang V8 model car TPS was inexpensive from an aftermarket parts store. Remove the actuating arm assembly off the throttle shaft for the plunger style TPS, use the nut that holds it on, and weld it to the shaft. Round the bolt off with a flap wheel and use a zipwheel to make two notches 180 degrees apart. Slip the mustang V8 TPS on, and it should fit perfectly. Then just bend up a tiny portion of sheet metal and use the OEM bolt holes on the TB casting to mount it to. Just be careful of the TPS calibration, assemble the tin portion so the TPS is "open" very slightly. You can calibrate the Megasquirt for the full open and full closed values and you won't have any issues. But that mustang TPS has the proper amount of range, wires, and is just a breeze to retrofit.

 

Good thoughts. I am right now looking at using the whole intake, upper and lower. The cost to buy tubing bends to complete the upper section will be cost prohibitive. What I have right now is free. I'll mock it up on an engine and see how much I can get out of the lower. Thanks!

 

Just took a good look at it. Though I like the idea cutting the lower below the injector bungs doesn't look feasible. The front secondary kicks out in this area and getting everything to line up after knocking an inch or more out of that section would be next to impossible.



I'm back at looking to do a custom upper. I'm under budget right now and would like to stay that way.

 

if you look at the rb bonneville car (its a full bridge turbo, hint hint), and they are using a 48ida intake/slide throttle/mechanical injection setup, like the 80's imsa cars, BUT they have a big aluminium box bolted on the top.



you could make a plenum box that simply bolted to the stock t2 lower, and had a big TB on the side.

 

I had hoped it would be that easy. The TII lower measures out at 11". The front secondary runner is actually about 1/2" longer than the rest. At any rate, by stuffing a plenum on top of the lower all by itself the runners will be way too short. I thought about cutting the plenum off and welding it to the upper flange with 4 sections of straight tubing of around 4" between to get the runner length right. Problem with that is that we're already tight on hood clearance and that setup would be 6"+ taller than just a stock manifold.



Looked at cutting some length out of the upper between the flange and the plenum but it looks like I'd end up with a very odd angle or with the thottle body point directly down and stuffed against the engine. Not good either way.



I can get the aluminum u-bends for around $50 to make a 90* turn off the lower and run those into a custom plenum with the stock throttle body bolted to the side. But I'd rather not blow the $50+ on materials.



What we'll probably end up doing is creating a custom upper and trying it versus the completely stock upper/lower and see how they compare. The added length will move the powerband down which might be good and it might be long enough to totally ruin any gains from the big port. The good news is that the car is incredibly light so low end grunt isn't as important as it would be in a full-bodied car.



Damn the budget!

 

Any thoughts on the ITB route? Those ducati tb's on ebay went for $16 shipped, a bit of tube welded to some flat and you'd be set - and you'd be able to get the 16" easily. Something a little like this: [attachment=37693:attachment]

 

I probably oversold how much you could cut out of the LIM since I didn't have one in front of me to compare or at the very least pictures of one of mine.



FYI the TII intakes on an N/A 6 port stock ported block brought my peak power area at about 7000 to be generous. The power kept climbing right up until it was time to shift on that OEM S4 block.