Sheet metal intakes

J

jedimaster

Well-known member
Has anyone here ever made a sheet metal intake? Just curious as to the process involved and the type and thickness of metal used.
 
Sure, I'm very well-versed in the construction of sheetmetal intakes. My old boss used to make them fairly often; I observed several being built. Can I build one? Hell no.

Trust me on this: they cost $2500 and up for a reason. You haven't got what it takes to build one in equipment or fabrication skill, never mind knowledge of manifold dynamics to get it right. It's not something you can do in your garage with a Sawzall, MIG, and hammer.
 
well you could but it would look like crap and run worse asumeing it didnt leak.....there is a shop localy that has been makeing them for small and big block mopars(there personal race cars) and has been doing it for several years now and they still say they have ALOT of bugs to work out...this is a serious machine shop so i wouldnt recomend attempting this
 
Wasn't planning on making one. Was just curious as to how they make them and what processes they use. I would think they would use aluminum and a tig welder, as a tig gives the cleanest welds, and aluminum is lighter. Do they use them in high end NHRA drag cars or do they usually use aftermarket ones available. I have seen a few for sale here and there usually in the 2-5000 price range.
 
the ones that the machine shop was makeing(or atleast the 15 i saw sitting there) were all steel ....yes aluminum may be lighter but you have to be thicker for strength..i talked to the guy in some depth about it cause they were kinda cool looking and he said since tubeing cant be had in the size needed that they even had to make the tubes from scratch...he also said that the only realy"easy" part was the ends that bolt to the block and the ends for carb/carbs..and that performance gains wernt measureable like a "normal" intake since you could literaly make it give more whereever just by length,size,distance
 
I have seen several people make them for turbo MPFI setups on V8's. I would imagine it would be more critical for runner length and diameter as well as plenum size and carb location in a carb setup. But from what I have read when the intake is under boost and the injectors are close to the head, plenum shape and volume isn't as big of a concern. I saw a guys corvette twin turbo car tha had a very simple design intake and he dyno'd over 600hp. I talked to him briefly and he said he just slapped it together from what he saw on other setups. Maybe he just got lucky.
 
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