Manifold options
Thread Starter
Joined: Aug 2005
Posts: 2,649
Likes: 1
From: Mont Belvieu, TX
Manifold options Why can't we make a "sheetmetal" type manifold out of poly?
To minimize production cost, the "breadbox" could be interchangeable between different motors. The runners could be bolted on. That way if you had a LS1 and went to a LS7, all you would have to buy is runners.
My father in law works in the injection molding industry and he said that you could probably tool up for around $200k or less. Granted that is alot of money to us, but to someone like Edelbrock or Comp(fast) that shouldn't be that bad.
Am I way off base here or would this be possible?
To minimize production cost, the "breadbox" could be interchangeable between different motors. The runners could be bolted on. That way if you had a LS1 and went to a LS7, all you would have to buy is runners.
My father in law works in the injection molding industry and he said that you could probably tool up for around $200k or less. Granted that is alot of money to us, but to someone like Edelbrock or Comp(fast) that shouldn't be that bad.
Am I way off base here or would this be possible?
TECH Resident
Joined: Oct 2005
Posts: 787
Likes: 0
Its possible, but you would have to project future sales out to see if it were worthwhile. FAST went in with Wilson to develop theirs. (they have an established name) Weiand was first to the market with an aluminum intake, but I haven't seen many of those on the street.
Its a crapshoot. Do you expect Edelbrock or another company to lose money for a couple of years or so just because? That's the problem. After you tool you still have to machine, box, market and ship the intake (from maker to you and then to distributors) and that gets very expensive. To me there would have a be a feature set beyond just being modular for it to be marketable. After all is said and done you would probably be better off getting it produced in china.
Before all of that you would need to finalize what sheetmetal intake you were going to emulate in your design while understanding that the sheetmetal manifold was a low compromise design for a very specific application.
Without a full time marketing and research team behind you to evaluate demand you're just rolling the dice. Look at how many turbo kit companies go belly up and how often a part is advertised by the big boys and isn't available for two years after you read about it.
Wilson has advertised a SBC composite single plane intake. There isn't a single mention of it on their own website. I wonder why?
Its a crapshoot. Do you expect Edelbrock or another company to lose money for a couple of years or so just because? That's the problem. After you tool you still have to machine, box, market and ship the intake (from maker to you and then to distributors) and that gets very expensive. To me there would have a be a feature set beyond just being modular for it to be marketable. After all is said and done you would probably be better off getting it produced in china.
Before all of that you would need to finalize what sheetmetal intake you were going to emulate in your design while understanding that the sheetmetal manifold was a low compromise design for a very specific application.
Without a full time marketing and research team behind you to evaluate demand you're just rolling the dice. Look at how many turbo kit companies go belly up and how often a part is advertised by the big boys and isn't available for two years after you read about it.
Wilson has advertised a SBC composite single plane intake. There isn't a single mention of it on their own website. I wonder why?
Thread Starter
Joined: Aug 2005
Posts: 2,649
Likes: 1
From: Mont Belvieu, TX
I really hadn't thought about it that much. I guess your right about the demand for it. By the time you amortized the tooling and production cost's over the demand, you would end up with a product that is more expensive than a one-off sheetmetal. 
