I just knew that would get you to look. My great and often promised modded OE intake manifold project has finally begun. Got a complete manifold set from Josh (thanks again man!) and immediately cut it apart to see what was inside. Well, the short answer is, not a lot LOL Now before everyone flames the crap out of me for cutting out the flow equalizer that the much, much smarter than me engineers at Honda included for a reason. This is purely an exercise in what if that I have been wanting to do for a LONG time. If it works, great!, if it won't run right or loses power, then everyone will know not to try it again. Here are some pics, before and after. It currently is waiting for me to clean up all my grinding workk with some sandpaper and glue it back together. I will keep updating as I get more done

Shot with KODAK C310 DIGITAL CAMERA at 2010-03-19

Shot with KODAK C310 DIGITAL CAMERA at 2010-03-19

Shot with KODAK C310 DIGITAL CAMERA at 2010-03-19

Shot with KODAK C310 DIGITAL CAMERA at 2010-03-19

Shot with KODAK C310 DIGITAL CAMERA at 2010-03-19

 

Good so far. In for more pics/updates.

 

I need to get to a decent hobby store that carries cyanoacrylate glue in containers larger than a thimble LOL I was going to use two part epoxy, or JB weld, but I'm not sure which way I want to go. My adhesive will have to fill gaps well, because I hacked the seam up pretty badly getting the SOB apart. I'm port and gasket matching the lower runner as well as a full polish and mold line removal (no pics just yet)

 

Tagging. I think "SHG_Mike" did something similar to this and if I remember, he gained about the same power as his build intake manifold.

 

Am I seeing this right? Honda makes the airflow go all the way down to cyl 2 just to make a u-turn to come back to #4?

May have to consider this mod later, even if it does make #3 run a little hot like every other honda.

 

Is the flow regulator inserted just to keep an even air flow to all cylinders? How would removing it make cylinder 3 run hot?

 

I believe that the wall is put there to keep the cylinders closest to the TB from gathering in all the air, thus leaning out the two more distant cylinders. Without that barrier, the ECU may see the vastly higher concentration of air in the two nearer cylinders and try to balance it out with ignition timing. I would guess that the ECU would try to retard the timing and add more fuel to balance things out, but I'm really not too sure. I plan on glueing the whole thing back together tomorrow and trying it out on my original lower runner. I am in the process of porting and gasket matching the new lower runner I got from Josh, and when it is ready I'll add it to the modded upper. Unless of course, I succeed in blowing something up before then LOL. It was SHG Mike, and he never did a DIY on his, I searched for it forever, even contacted him directly about it, to no avail. So here, for you my friends is my version....

 

On a traditional Honda end-throttle manifold the cylinder that would get the most air and run leanest was #3. Cylinder 4 pulls air immediately before #3 in the order and #3 gets to benefit from that already-moving air. It was readily apparent on the plugs of many older hondas- #3 would usually get whiter than the others.

Was never really a problem in the older hondas until boosted. Some [rich] people put knock sensors on every cylinder, or block strain sensors like old man widmer, to keep things in check. Most said to heck with it, thats what conservative tuning is for.

Our engine has over 10:1 compression however...

above post confusion: less air to the farther cylinders means richer, not leaner. Honestly the differences between #1, #2, and #4 didn't seem all that great, just #3 would always torch the plug.

 

I'm still pretty new to the internals of an engine. Before my fit, I could change oil, spark plugs, and brakes and that's about it. So, I have a couple of questions if you don't mind answering.

#3 would get the most air without the regulator? I would think it would go in order 1, 2, 3 and then 4 with 1 being closest to the TB. How does this happen?

What effect does compression ratio have on this situation?

Thanks

 

Good luck with your experiment and +rep for trying it!

 

Polaski, you are right, i always get lean and rich swapped when trying to discuss them. Lean is too much air, rich is too much fuel. But you knew what I meant, right? I'm mainly hoping i don't cause the ECU to go into limp mode from all this screwing around. I've got a code reader just hoping i don't need it

 

LoL I had something backwards too. Working on that dang 1243 Ford tractor has corrupted me Want to really get lean/rich screwed up? That tractor has an AIR adjustment idle... turning the screw OUT makes it LEANER.... but turning the main jet that direction makes it RICHER. *torquedthebrain*

The way a flat-plane inline 4 is set up, you have a choice of two firing orders - 1.2.4.3 or 1.3.4.2. Honda uses 1-3-4-2 just out of preference.

Since firing order is identical to intake order, cylinder 4 pulls after 3 so my previous assumption that 4 helped it is invalid - apparently it just gets more due to proximity and angle to the throttle body.

 

And of course only someone who knows how to read either condition in idle quality or condition of plugs would ever need to adjust the a/f mixture anyway! Because I'm morally certain that the adjustment procedure isn't in the owners manual (thats assuming you would have one) The Model A Ford was only a slight step better than a tractor in that you could enrich the mixture by turning a thumbwheel under the cowl inside the passenger compartment. Anyways, I've gotten delayed waiting for all the epoxy to set up, so I'm working on the lower runner right now. Hope to have the upper mani back on the car and running by this weekend...

 

Do you think plastic welding it back together would be better?

 

I couldn't locate plastic weld (cyanoacrylate?) in enough quantity to do the job. Although I really didn't try that hard either. Yes, it would (will) probably do the job better. I am hoping that the glue/epoxy i chose will retain enough elasticity to keep the intake from falling apart under stress, we will see....

 

That would be the only thing that would scare me is the vacuum sucking some of the adhesive or jb weld into the head and possibly doing damage.my plastic welder uses plastic rods kinda like welding rods.thats the plastic welding i was refering.

 

tagged for interest

 

Best of luck!

I got that tractor running pretty darn well even on six volts, after I modified the ignition system a tad. It just purrs when idling at 375 rpm.

 

Here is where it stands as of this evening. Got a little crazy with the grinder removing the remainder of the flow equalizer and ended up going through the top of the manifold (do-oh!) A little liquid metal filler and shes good as new! Also sanded and smoothed the interior wall near the throttle body where I removed the most material. Also heres some pics of the lower runner, smoothed and ready for finish sanding. Haven't got to the port and match yet, I need to go get some more sanding drums for my air-grinder...

Shot with KODAK C310 DIGITAL CAMERA at 2010-03-24

Shot at 2010-03-24

Shot with KODAK C310 DIGITAL CAMERA at 2010-03-24

Shot with KODAK C310 DIGITAL CAMERA at 2010-03-24

 

You gonna have your throttle body bored?