57 Black Widow

iTrader: (1)

I would love to know how you shaved the knobby ends of the intake runners. When you get those cut down do you have to fill with something, or is there solid material in there to sand down?

Thanks very much,
Jake

Wildkard

Yeah the ***** on the intake runners left oval holes about 1.5x1 inch, the entire top of the intake has been covered in fiberglass, cloth for smoothness. I started not knowing if it would even work, but I knew I needed a half inch, and if it didn't wok it wouldn't cost me anything but time since I would have to go with a car intake. When I finished cutting the top I had several holes to fill there anyway, so i figured if I could fill them I could fill whatever was left by going all the way with the "horns" on the sides. It didn't really take all that much time or effort, about 2 hours total grinding, and maybe another two total in glassing and finishing plus drying time.

LS1 pwrd NOVA

iTrader: (2)

Nice, very nice.

57 Black Widow

iTrader: (1)

That is awesome Wildkard, great work and thanks for the info.

Jake

99VetteFRC

So where did you tap into the intake for the PCV valve and fuel pressure regulator and MAP sensor?

99VetteFRC

So here are some pics of my smoothed truck intake.

Steve01SS

iTrader: (43)

I really like the one done by Wildkard. Very nice. Glass should hold up pretty well.

Is there any concern using bondo or body filler because of the heat of the engine and under a closed hood. Like peeling or cracking? The intake does get warm.

BOXCHEV

iTrader: (3)

Using fiberglass is not a good idea.

99VetteFRC

Don't know about the filler and heat, but will let you know.

noonzor

iTrader: (1)

care to elaborate? ive got a truck intake i want to shave for fun/kill time while im broke. i was looking at smoothing it all then covering with fiberglass, so i'd like to hear your argument against the idea before i go ahead with it.

BOXCHEV

iTrader: (3)

Plastic and fiberglass do not exactly like each other. There is no chemical bond between the two. Take some chop mat fiberglass cloth, some polyester resin and apply it to a piece of plastic. Then let the fiberglass cure. At the moment it might seem like they are stuck together pretty good but their not. If you take a flat head and wedge it between the fiberglass and plastic it will pop off easily.

In some cases it will be fine for quite some time but then the edges of the fiberglass will just become very brittle and just come apart.

Only type of plastic that I know of that works somewhat good with fiberglass is Foam PVC or sintra or whatever other name it goes by.

See http://www.fiberglassforums.com/ if you ever have any questions about fiberglassing or any kinda plastic modifications. I actually had a build thread on there where I built some complete fiberglass door panels and kick panels for one of my cars but had some issues with photobucket so all my pics are gone of the build.

Anyways. As for the intake, I haven't played around with plastic welding it or anything. I have lots of scraps of it left over from hacking on it to get most of it off.

Dose anyone know the EXACT type of plastic the intake is made out of? I know with ABS plastic it is very easy to plastic weld with it. You can also grind of tiny pieces of ABS plastic and toss it into a glass jar then add a little acetone to melt the plastic to turn it into a sludge. Basically like a body filler but its just melted abs. So whatever you are working on there is no need for body filler it could be 100% all abs. So there is and excellent bond. I haven't been able to test this out with the plastic from the intake. But I'm guessing it can handle the acetone no problem. For an intake it has to be a tough plastic to handle all the heat from an engine.

I have big enough pieces to hopefully use plastic welder to "weld/melt" together so I can close off a lot of holes on the intake. Then I plan to grind it all up as best as I can with 24-36 grit paper or roloc discs. From there I will go over it with some kind of epoxy or urethane filler. So no bondo needed. Then just sand all from there. 80 grit, 120 grit, 180grit, Hit it with some adhesion promoter then few layers of high build primer then 220 grit, etc until I feel it is smooth enough to paint.

BTW. There are some ways to somewhat get fiberglass to bond with plastic. But again its not permanent. You can use some kind of epoxy that works well with plastic and fiberglass and it should last longer for you and hold it on pretty good.

You don't need to fiberglass the entire intake. Just be careful when chopping off plastic. Some areas I used a sharp chisel and took my time. The more you take your time here the better it saves you in extra work in the long run. You dont want to get careless with a body saw or angle grinder or dremel and dig too deep into the plastic. Then you will have large cuts in the plastic that will need to be filled in, fiberglass will not save you here.

A lot of people think fiberglass polyester resin in a can is strong but its not. The resin is very weak and brittle. The strength is all in the fiberglass chop mat or fiberglass cloth that you see at homedepot in the lil packages folded up.

The fiberglass cloth and resin at homedepot and walmarts suck though. I get the good stuff at a local plastic shop or a local boat supply store.

I get everything at a local tap plastics. http://www.tapplastics.com/

Like $17 for a can of much better quality resin. Which is like $1 more then it cost in store. Last I checked it was like $15-16 for a can at homedepot or the bondo/3m brand crap.

99VetteFRC

Wow... now I don't know if I want to even try to put mine on the car!

noonzor

iTrader: (1)

im curious as well.

garys 68

iTrader: (1)

What about epoxy resin with fiberglass bonded to the manifold. A few years ago, I had a magneto cap that was carbon tracking and no longer available. I ground out the affected areas and rebuilt the cap with fiberglass and epoxy and thickener. That cap was very brittle and hard, almost like bakelite. The mag was 60s vintage so it might have been bakelite. Not sure what kind of plastic they use on the intakes.
Btw, mag is still running strong.

68BBChevelle

iTrader: (12)

That turned out very nice man. Reminds me of the ram jet intake off the 502s.

Squeezer

Can't wait to see more modified truck intakes !

99VetteFRC

Thanks!! It does look alot better in the pics than in person though. I rushed it and didn't get it as smooth as I wanted.

squrrielsz71

All the intakes on this post look awesome. i am a little curios on how the fiberglass held up? i have a 5.3L and just want clean up the engine compartment. smoothing the intake and adding aftermarket fuel rails makes a huge difference. I've made a few pulleys and polished the belt tensioner. ive also colour matched the alternator and installed a k&n cold air intake.

jlcustomz

Boxchev, the material is glass reinforced nylon 66.This material is capable of handling 400 plus degrees & is pretty much the same material as an 88 cent spatula from wal-mart, but with glass reinforcement. You cannot solvent glue it, glues arem't reccomended for automotive high heat repair.
I learned a lot on plastic welding before doing my2010 camaro nose conversion on my 83' el camino. Urethane Supply Company is the main place that deals with auto related plastic welding. I have their steinel lcd display hot air gun I use for most plastic welding. Plastic molecules are crosslinked on the original material, they won,t be on a weld, so not as strong as original, but will permenantly bond when done correctly.Ribbon material is used in plastic bumper welding, you could make your own ribbon strips from donor materials to thicken up areas.
I posted earlier this year on making a budget cross ram intake. I cut a stock ls1 intake apart into individual runners with approx 2" of exposed length to connect rubber adapters to the new aluminum runners I'll be making. The ports are mostly d- shaped, so I will need tobuild up material to make the outside rounder for rubber hose & clamps to work. I'll be trying a nylon spatula for donor material.
http://www.urethanesupply.com/
https://ls1tech.com/forums/generatio...am-intake.html

lemkerailroad

check out my web site in my sig

i used fiberglass and body filler to smooth it

carbide bits to grind it down

cut the bottm of a old evap and filled the cup of it with platic filler and smoothed it as well

but give it a look in my blogs as i have pics posted all the time