Turbo_Steve's Custom SHEET METAL INTAKE MANIFOLD Design / Build Thread

[Turbo_Steve]

Over the past couple years I have pondered and played with the idea of making my own custom sheet metal intake manifold for the mazdaspeed 3/6.

I will save the blab talk and just say that after many hours of design time & a couple 3d printed prototypes I have finally come up with a design that I feel worthy of building.

A simple manifold flange featuring single port runners & set up to use off the shelf extruded tubing.

Plenty of room in the flange to add injectors.

Only parts needed to be machined are 4 velocity stacks, head flange & throttle body flange. Everything else can be sourced from Ross Machine Racing.

Be patient as this will be a while before I have a finished product. I am very near to having parts machined and ordering up everything.

Only thing to figure out yet is some minor plumbing / port placement.

Pictures of rendered components below.

[Enki]

TMIC support? Runner alignment straight on or arched so there's no sharp kink in flow pattern?

[littleloogy]

I don't know if I'm half asleep or still high from last night, but this IM looks like an Imperial Walker.

I want one.


Sent from my iPhone 6

[Easter Bunny]

Now that you say it I tend to agree.

[JakeMS3]

Lmao! Naw I was thinking the same thing. Looks good though man good luck can't wait to see this. Will this be a little easier on the wallet vs JMF manifolds?

[Tokay444]

This has the potential to be a great manifold, if the runners follow the same angle as the head runners.

[Tokay444]

The shape of the head side ports should also match the port shape of the head.

[Yatta]

If you are going to design one, why not a dual plenum to even up flow?

Building a dual plenum/dual intake, a few questions. - Turbobricks Forums


http://www.jenvey.co.uk/products/turbo-plenum

[Turbo_Steve]

Originally Posted by Enki TMIC support? Runner alignment straight on or arched so there's no sharp kink in flow pattern?

No TMIC mounting. As of right now the runners are a straight 90 degrees alignment with the plenum. I actually thought of having the runners angle towards the inlet side a few degrees for flow improvement and also to provided added clearance by the power steering pump on the genwon & Speed 6. It would be just a matter of cutting the tubing on an angle as I have left enough clearance in my velocity stack & head flange. I will have to wait till I get all the parts in my hand to see how fitment is.

[Turbo_Steve]

Originally Posted by Tokay444 This has the potential to be a great manifold, if the runners follow the same angle as the head runners.

I agree but from a design aspect / keeping costs down so far this is the best option I have come up with.

I think that comparing this design to the oem manifold, having the runners come in straight is still better than having them curve up like the oem mani.

The major improvement is the relocated throttle body & the tapered plenum. Also I think the runners I have selected being larger than oem, but smaller than JMF should allow this manifold to perform very well up to 7,000 rpms but still promote more mid range power.

I still am undecided about overall runner length right now as well.

[Tokay444]

The majority of the manifold wouldn't need to change.
Just making the flange a wedge with the correct angle would do the trick.

[zenit]

@Turbo_Steve; we should be friends.

Let me know if you need help with anything. I'm not too far away.
@WetzMS3;

[WetzMS3]

Originally Posted by zenit @Turbo_Steve; we should be friends. Let me know if you need help with anything. I'm not too far away. @WetzMS3;

Haha, I almost tagged you as I was creeping in here yesterday. We definitely need to be more friendly with @Turbo_Steve;.

[ms3andrew]

thats dope

[MS3Shadow]

Originally Posted by ms3andrew thats dope

Sweet intro..

[maisonvi]

Glad to see you are moving forward with this. I really looked at doing it last year when we talked about it, but I just haven't found the time/ambition. Too many other projects. Hopefully it all goes well!

[monkey.bones.007]

Subbed for results.

tapatalk, it sucks

[speedfreak44]

Will oval velocity stacks work as efficient as circular ones? Could always have a circular stack inside the plenum with tubes that gradually switch to oval before the head. May be minimally affected however and machining costs would probably increase. Also, if our map sensor is in the plenum and these velocity stacks result in increased pressure would it result in a messed up tune? IE would we tune for 24 psi but see 25-26 actually entering the motor? As always ignore me if I am way off base

[Turbo_Steve]

Originally Posted by Tokay444 The majority of the manifold wouldn't need to change. Just making the flange a wedge with the correct angle would do the trick.

Thank you for getting the wheels turning in my mind on this.

Here is something I am playing with. I can get a 7 degree angle on the runners fairly easily. I will have to put the injector bungs further back in the runners themselves with this setup but not a big deal.







I will play around with this a bit more and may end up 3d printing a model of this just to check clearances in the car.

[Turbo_Steve]

Originally Posted by speedfreak44 Will oval velocity stacks work as efficient as circular ones? Could always have a circular stack inside the plenum with tubes that gradually switch to oval before the head. May be minimally affected however and machining costs would probably increase. Also, if our map sensor is in the plenum and these velocity stacks result in increased pressure would it result in a messed up tune? IE would we tune for 24 psi but see 25-26 actually entering the motor? As always ignore me if I am way off base

I would bet that a traditional round velocity stack would be an improvement over the oval design, but I am trying to make something that is simple to machine and uses off the shelf tubing, etc, etc.

As for the question about messing up the tune. The point of the velocity stacks is to provide a smooth transition from the plenum to the runner for both the intake charge and pressure waves. Ideally a smooth transition will let more air flow through the runner into the head and cylinder thus allowing your engine to flow more air and make more power.

The mas air flow sensor still works just as before and lets the ecu know how much air is going through the motor so that it can send enough fuel.

[speedfreak44]

Yea after my post I thought about the sensors and turbo being pre stack and how it will adjust via the tune. Are there off the shelf oval velocity stacks like you need? I'd assume a round one would be easier to source and a tube transitioning from round to oval wouldn't be difficult to have made for cheaper than a custom velocity stack. Just throwing ideas out there. Love your ingenuity

[maisonvi]

Steve, if you want to send me any designs of this, I have access to limited flow modeling. (I have a seat of solidworks simulation, but dont use flow often) If you had multiple designs you wanted looked at I might be able to help you chose.

[Turbo_Steve]

Originally Posted by speedfreak44 Yea after my post I thought about the sensors and turbo being pre stack and how it will adjust via the tune. Are there off the shelf oval velocity stacks like you need? I'd assume a round one would be easier to source and a tube transitioning from round to oval wouldn't be difficult to have made for cheaper than a custom velocity stack. Just throwing ideas out there. Love your ingenuity

The stacks I designed are relatively inexpensive to manufacture. Due to other fitment issues, the off the shelf stacks are also a no go.

[Turbo_Steve]

3d printed runner mockup.

I think the actual runner length I go with is going to be about 1" shorter overall.

[zenit]

How do you feel above sharing the STL files?

[Justin@Freektune]

Looks awesome man. Looking forward to seeing what you end up with.

[Turbo_Steve]

Originally Posted by zenit How do you feel above sharing the STL files?

I will have to think about that one. I have put a lot of hours into this project.

[Realgib3]

Originally Posted by Turbo_Steve I will have to think about that one. I have put a lot of hours into this project.

I'll give you the best advice I can possibly offer to this thread.

Don't. Share.

[Djohns]

So many Illinois peeps in this thread and I haven't met any of you, but it sure seems like I really need to. @monkey.bones.007; you're a Colorado peep now so idk if that counts or not lol.

[neganox]

Found some welders to help out this effort

[Djohns]

If you're looking for a welder I can see if I can talk my brother into helping you out in that department. He went to the best school in the state for welding.

[udntknw]

If you're looking for a test mule when the time comes. Let me know.

[Enki]

Originally Posted by udntknw

Fixed for you.

[Turbo_Steve]

Can we please hold off on silly cat/animal memes until I abandon this thread for 2 years.

[Easter Bunny]

Originally Posted by Turbo_Steve Can we please hold off on silly cat/animal memes until I abandon this thread for 2 years.

so stick to serous cat memes for now?

[NCspecV81]

Originally Posted by neganox Found some welders to help out this effort

Aren't those guys employed by HTP and CPE?

Prolly under contract.

[Dano]

Originally Posted by Easter Bunny so stick to serous cat memes for now?

absolutely

[Enki]

Hey at least mine was science based.

[knocturnal]

Subbed. This looks interesting. Your mock ups with the XS power manifolds were good so I know you will get this one right. I just hope you source good welders.

[Turbo_Steve]

I reworked the port shape at the head. Came up with a design that is going to flow smoother into both ports from a single runner. I have a 3 printed model of a single runner That I am going to have flow benched. I will flow it both by itself and up against a 1 inch thick plate that will have the exact cutouts of the stock intake ports. This will let me see how the runner flows by itself and how it would flow when merged into dual ports.

Ideally you would port the head to a single runner.