It takes a little more than this pile of "strategically removed" plastic!!





So a long time customer of mine was inquiring about having me port a new 102 intake for him. He said he read in a few places that the new intakes don't need any porting (or very little). I laughed and I casually threw out there on the phone I could probably fill half a coffee can full of chips with the plastic I remove from a single intake. Of course I always do my porting on a down draft bench I built with grates that allow air to flow thru and the chips to fall in the bottom which I clean periodically, BUT, I know how much plastic I knock out of these things from the small piles that don't even fall thru the metal grates. So just for grins (and curiosity), I decided to throw a towel on top of my down draft bench before placing the intake on it and having at it. I was curious how close my half a coffee can statement actually was. While I didn't have one handy (an empty coffee can), I included a pic of a 12 oz can of root beer next to the pile of chips for "scale"....LOL

It's a BIG pile of chips and this was only from the first phase of the work which is roughing all the ports into shape. It doesn't include all the chips that fly off the grinder and land on me or the floor when Im working and none of the finish work with a smoother carbide and a fine sandroll when Im done with the final shaping (thats where the downdraft bench comes in handy so Im not breathing in all the finer plastic dust).

While its really hard to see all the work performed in pics (hard to photogragh inside a black intake), here is a couple of before and after pics of one of the intake exits I was working on. As you can see this ruler barely fits in the stock port....





And after the work....with the ruler again helping to give a better idea of the material removal involved. Now of course its swimming in there and actually casts a shadow behind it. Note its very difficult to cut perfectly straight walls and consistant radius's in plastic (or any material). It doesn't just "happen".....lots of experience with the grinder is mandatory here. If your attempting this yourself be prepared to go slow and spend alot of time if you care about neat results when its all said and done. Its easy to turn this $800 piece of plastic into an $8 plastic recycle fee.





Here is the same intake with the runner removed placed against the entrance of our soon to be released 245 head.....its an excellent match up after all the porting work. I designed the AFR 245 with a ported FAST intake in mind as the manifold of choice for this cylinder head and it shows.





In summary, the newly designed FAST 102 is a really nice piece, but much like its predecessors (the 90 and 92 versions), it needs quite a bit of work to extract all it has to offer in regards to airflow. However, when the smoke clears you left with a better piece with more potential than either the 90 or 92mm intake had to offer. Also, for you boosted guys, this manifold is a no brainer because it has one piece runners for zero boost loss at higher PSI levels.

Good stuff guys....technology and product development (in this case product improvements) working for all of us addicted to the horsepower bug!

Cheers,
Tony

 

Will it make more power on nmy stock 99 camaro with long tubes?

 

This is the rectangular port head right? Sorry. havnt read much on the 245 head.

 

that pile looks like the bath tub after my ol' lady gets done shaving.

 

^ Grose lol

 

that is a cadtheredal port head.notice how the the intake port rises up to meet the injector hole of the intake.

 

Oh, I was looking at the Swirl in the combustion chamber-lol. And how well its port matched

 

Guys who call their cartridge-rolled shine jobs ported intakes need to take some notes. Tony is certainly not showing exactly how he gets the airflow gains, but he is definitely showing that considerable effort and material needs to addressed to make it a better piece. Glad you are able to use a flow bench to quantify those gains Mr. Mamo. It is why your combos are always top performers!

 

What do you think it would pick up against one of YOUR ported 90's??

 

Good question....hard to say and I would be purely speculating but in a very aggressive combination with very good heads I would think no less than five and likely no more than ten.

Its obviously a more cost effective purchase for a guy that doesnt have one yet (similar outright purchase costs.....better results), but for a guy that already has one of my ported 90 or 92 intakes its a choice based on how badly you want to get the most from your combo.

I'm building a very optimized 416 for a customer right now (similar to Steve Smith's build but a little more aggressive), grappling with that same situation....he already has a ported 92 I did for him last year and while I haven't pushed for the 102, it was he that mentioned it and is somewhat wrestling in his head over the money spent versus the potential gains the new intake might provide. The only good thing is a manifold that you can prove I ported is worth decent money in the used market.....your not going to take that big a beating selling it. Thats what my customer with the 416 is considering....the net difference which isnt nearly as ugly as buying a ported intake twice.

-Tony

 

jesus christ i wish i had enough money to just BUY a normal FAST...much less having you port it.

 

Good **** Tony, Maybe you should PM a price of a ported 102.

 

Peace of ART.

 

Awesome, Im so glad I had my FAST 90 mamofied...Doug@ECS was very impressed with the gains I got over the LS6 after he re-tuned it. It took me from 383 rtq to 402 rtq! and 416rwhp to 440rwhp

 

Your right Patrick about some other so called port jobs. I dont attemp cause I dont have a steady hand to port or polish. Tonys hand work is very nice. Its the attention to detail thats has me impressed. As for heads Ive been thru Darts, a few sets of 243s, and Now some Trick Flows. I'm Later going with a AFR package on another vehicle, cause I like N/A engines. Ive should have went AFR in first place and would have saved time and money over my previous setups. Live and learn.

 

lmfao.

 

looks good Tony...I spend many hours on my fast 92 also...curious how long does it take you start to finish...

also in the picture where you have runner matched up to the head, why not port more off the intake, is there not enough material left or is it getting to thin...just looks like it can be opened up more, i can only see intake and not the outline of the head port yet...could just be the picture too...

thanks

 

Hello Tony,

What TB would you recommend for your FAST 102 Mamofied on my 418Ci ETP 240 please...might be in line for one combo soon!!!

Christian

 

The runner is almost a perfect match to the 245 entrance (when I'm done)....if its inboard at all it may be .010 or so. Most of it is the angle of the shot which was also challenging to get focused properly. Plus, an intake a shade smaller than the port opening is fine and is actually the desired situation....it allows a little left and right shift when installed without creating a forward lip at the head (where now the intake port protrudes a little into the path of air)

The porting work on these plastic wonders has been a journey for me....

I have literally ported over 200 of them since I pioneered doing this in 04' when everyone thought I was crazy and wasting my time (it didn't need porting of course per the general opinion on the Internet). It took me approximately 12 hours back then but I have worked on continually refining the way I go about it so I'm moving the intake around less and anything I can do in an effort to be more efficient and save time including getting the right type of carbide bits that work better on the plastic. With all the refinements I have made in the way I approach the work and the fact I have done so many I can almost close my eyes (Im able to do neater more precise work much faster now on this plastic material which is tricky to work with), I have reduced my porting time at least 30% maybe even 35%. BUT....that is calculated doing pieces at a time and adding up all the minutes invested in each segment of the porting. Meaning it's impossible to grind for that many hours in a row without losing your hands to carpal tunnel related damage quickly if you attempt this on a regular basis. I already have damage to my right hand from the last 15-20 years of cylinder head and manifold work and wear a padded glove to reduce the vibrations that attack the nerves. Point is it seems it takes longer because I attack one of these projects pieces at a time by taking breaks on the Internet or working on something else to give my hands a rest in between the various stages of the work.

Also, if I didn't care about perfectly straight walls and perfectly contoured radius's and getting every port to look and size exactly the same I could do one of these in half the time but I just took the "art" out of the artwork and thats not what I'm about. I would rather cater to a smaller percentage of the market and put out work Im proud to put my name on.

Sorry for the long winded response but my answering with "it takes "X" amount of hours" is really scratching the surface as far as a response. Anyone who's attempted to do this right can vouch for the time it takes to do so, and my guess is most of those people are still likely removing less actual plastic than I am and the end results probably not as consistent. Also, the key is knowing what to remove and what not to and I haven't even touched on the hours invested on the flowbench to figure that out. Part of what you pay me for is all the R&D I have already invested....not just my hand skills with the grinder.

Thanks,
Tony

PS.....Christian, shoot me a PM about a 102 combo for your Vette and get me up to speed on the 364 I built for Gilles.

 

AWEWSOME post as always Tony!!!!