Here's a few photo of latest progress on new intake system.  A

minor set

back in that this was suppose to be the plastic plenum/throttle body
mount/injector bosses.  However, due to a little chemical process

called

exothermal (you fiberglass guys know all about this I'm told) produced
bubbles in the plastic resin, so the casting is not usable - expect to

make

a better mold and cast another one.

<Big snip>

Hopefully, I will have it completed this week and be flying with it

within

another week.

Best Regards

Ed Anderson

Ed;

Seems like a misnomer to call this a 'light weight' manifold; but then
that's just me - my 20B manifold weighs only 2 1/2 lbs.  (Just had to
get that in :)

I can't help but think how very much lighter and stronger the part would
be if you made a male mold and did it with glass cloth layups.  You
could even incorporate machined al fittings for injectors if you wanted,
epoxy bonds nicely to al.  It would, of course, also do away with the
exothermic heating problem.

What kind of resin are you using?  I'd be concerned about shrinkage
distortion, or possible cracking later.  Or are you going to post-cure
this thing before cutting and installing?

Just my thoughts.  I guess this may be a quicker/easier way to go to get
something done to see if it works.

Al

Are you including the weight of the TWM throttle bodies and
fuel injector holders Al?

Your manifold is a fine example of the hand made artistry of a 
highly skilled tig welder. A good tig welder can weld .035 thick aluminum.
My guess he worked on fabricating it for at least 16 to 20 hours. 

We on the other hand are restricted by the .140 wall thickness of a
low cost sand cast aluminum manifold. 

Too bad you are only getting 86 HP per rotor at 7000 RPM :)

Paul Lamar
 
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