[RallyBob]

More woodworking in the shop today. I put together the pedestal (from poplar) for my engine parts storage.

3/4” plywood will go on top of the pedestal frame, and then individual compartments will be built and stacked on that. Those compartments include camshaft storage, cylinder head storage, and crankshaft storage.

But before I get to those compartments, I’m going to build the steel counter support framework and lag it in place to the wall. This way, I know my upper and lower height restrictions for the compartments.

 

[RallyBob]

Switched gears, and worked with metal today. I began the process of designing, cutting, drilling, and welding the 2” x 2” steel angle for the countertop. I’m not done yet, but still made some forward progress.

 

[RallyBob]

Almost done fitting the pieces of metal together. Then it gets removed from the wall and fully welded. Followed by painting, and finally lagging it to the wall permanently.

 

[RallyBob]

Well, today was supposed to be the day I started my ‘Goin EFI’ flowbench tests. No really.

I finally had all the pieces (intakes, heads, valves) and my flowbench cleared off. I was just trying to finish up my engine parts storage counter frame yesterday, install it this morning, then begin the 6-8 hour process of doing about 25 different intake and cylinder head tests.

I knew my day was screwed when I woke up to no electricity. We lost it at around 5 AM, but it came back on briefly at 8:00 or so. Then it went out again and has been off ever since. Only about 4” of snow, but it’s the heavy wet kind of stuff that takes down trees and power lines. Still about another 6” to fall today, so I’m not expecting power or heat for the rest of the day. It’s always something!

Anyway, I went out to my shop, and with the aid of an LED lantern and flashlight, I mounted the steel counter frame on the wall. Thankfully I charged both my batteries for my cordless drill yesterday.

Chances are, that’s my entire day.

 

[RallyBob]

Finally got our power back after our winter storm. I guess we faired pretty well, we had maybe 10-12” of snow total, but my plow guy said some of the homes he plows a few towns away at higher elevation saw 24-38”!!!

Had to restock the refrigerator in the house, as I emptied everything yesterday into snow-packed coolers and put them outdoors. Then today, had to bring it all back inside and put it away. Fun-fun…

That all said, I’m pretty tired today so all I did was paint the steel frame for my engine parts counter satin black, in keeping with my Opel Motorsports themed shop colors.

very interestingly, our house is usually kept at 68-69° degrees, and it dropped down to 56° after two days without heat. Not horrible, as it was built in 2008.

Now my shop, which is a recent build with a ton of insulation and 7” thick concrete floors with radiant heat, it normally maintains 58-60° in my fabrication area. The storage area has a basement under part of the floor, hence no heat there. It’s usually 55° at the furthest corner. Well, in 2 days, it only lost 2° with no heat. Very impressed!

 

[RallyBob]

Some of the setup process for a flow test (or ten).

I’m starting out by baselining a given cylinder head, which will then get multiple intake manifolds bolted to it and tested again.

While it doesn’t show what the intakes themselves flow, it shows how much a particular intake chokes the airflow compared to the original bare port flow test.

My first test head is a 1.5 head that has been fitted with 1.65” intake valves (stock 2.0), and 1.34” exhaust valves (stock 1.9). The exhaust valves are just there to seal things up, as I’m only testing intakes today. The bowls are blended on this head, but the port dimensions are essentially stock. Just ‘squared off’. Spark plug is fitted too since there can’t be any leaks.

Rocker studs were threaded in by hand, stock retainers and keepers are used too. The springs are very lightweight for flow testing. On most race heads I use clay to emulate a radiused port entry, but since this head is nearly stock my Corian fixture I made 30+ years ago is quick and easy to bolt in place.

Here’s my cylinder head adapter plate I built back in 1991 for Opel heads. You can buy clear acrylic fixtures for common bore sizes (Chevy/Ford), but when I asked Superflow about one for the Opel heads they said a custom fixture was $500 back in 1991!

Mine isn’t fancy but it works. A steel cylinder liner, plywood, and 3/4” Corian were put together to make my adapter. Note the multiple holes for head bolts…every Opel cylinder has a different bolt pattern.

A smear of grease eliminates vacuum leaks…

My valve opening fixture I built for CIH heads.

A few washers are needed to space the valve opening fixture properly.

A single poly-lock holds the fixture in place.

My magnetic-base 1” travel dial indicator now set up.

I always try to make the indicator travel match the valve angle travel for accuracy.

 

[RallyBob]

First few low-port intake tests.

Here is a stock 1972 intake manifold.

Next up is a stock 1975 EFI intake manifold.

Followed by a Steinmetz angled single side-draft intake manifold.

Here is a Cannon 2-bbl downdraft ‘Holley’ intake, which is slightly modified.

 

[Young Gt Lover]

First few low-port intake tests.

Here is a stock 1972 intake manifold.
View attachment 454885


Next up is a stock 1975 EFI intake manifold. View attachment 454886


Followed by a Steinmetz angled single side-draft intake manifold.
View attachment 454887


Here is a Cannon 2-bbl downdraft ‘Holley’ intake, which is slightly modified. View attachment 454888

I would like to know what the Steinmetz intake does. When I build my 2.0L some day I have a weber 40dcoe for it. And I have an intake but I think I might have to cut the heater box for it. But a Steinmetz intake would work perfect. So it will be interesting to see the results.

 

[RallyBob]

I would like to know what the Steinmetz intake does. When I build my 2.0L some day I have a weber 40dcoe for it. And I have an intake but I think I might have to cut the heater box for it. But a Steinmetz intake would work perfect. So it will be interesting to see the results.

The angled Steinmetz intake is the worst flowing intake I’ve ever tested. Worse than the stock downdraft intake even, by a considerable margin.

 

[Young Gt Lover]

The angled Steinmetz intake is the worst flowing intake I’ve ever tested. Worse than the stock downdraft intake even, by a considerable margin.

Really. That is crazy! Well maybe I will stick with my longish one.

 

[RallyBob]

Done for the day. Today was my ‘mild street’ low-port flow test day.

Tomorrow I’ll dig out one of my personal 1.9 race heads and start all over again flowing all the same intakes. Bad intakes will only get worse with a good flowing head. I will probably pop on a set of welded/ported DSD intakes for posterity, since that is what my race head will actually be running.

Anyway, these were the final tests I did today.
This is a Cannon DSD intake, completely stock.

And here, (drum roll please), is the prototype Goin Manta EFI intake. It did quite well, but I’m holding off on the actual numbers until all my flow tests are completed. Since the prototype was 3D printed from four different sections, it had to be taped together to create a vacuum leak-free test.

 

[DavidF1972]

I'd be interested in seeing the difference in flow between ports 1&2 ....

 

[Nitromancer]

The Goin intake looks good - might need to get one.
This is fascinating but arduous work.
I love it.

 

[RallyBob]

Next head in the flow-test queue is my own 1.9 for vintage racing. It has 1.85”/1.50” Manley undercut-stem Raceflo valves with 11/32” stems.

It was originally going to be put onto a period-correct 1.9 shortblock for rallying, so the ports are small-ish to maintain good torque. The cam is pretty modest, with a bunch of lift but modest duration…again for torque and flexibility.

I did a baseline bare-head flow test, and tomorrow I’ll test all the intakes on this head for round 2.

The head flat-lined early (ceased to gain flow) in terms of lift, but the low-lift numbers didn’t disappoint. This head, with .375” lift camshaft, will outflow a stock 2.2 head at .550” lift. By just .240” lift it surpassed a stock 1.9’s maximum airflow. Should be a torque monster!

Interestingly, the exhaust also flows like gangbusters, but the ports are barely larger than stock. Just careful reshaping. They also surpassed any of the production CIH heads, with small 1.5” valves.

Intake:
.100” - 40.5 cfm
.150” - 57 cfm
.200” - 74.5 cfm
.250” - 90.5 cfm
.300” - 106 cfm
.350” - 117.5 cfm
.400” - 123 cfm
.425” - 124.5 cfm
.450” - 124 cfm
.475” - 123 cfm
.500” - 125 cfm
.525” - 125 cfm
.550” - 126 cfm

Exhaust:
.100“ - 37.5 cfm
.150” - 49 cfm
.200” - 60.5 cfm
.250” - 74.5 cfm
.300” - 85 cfm
.350” - 93 cfm
.400” - 97.5 cfm
.425” - 99.5 cfm
.450” - 100.5 cfm
.475” - 101.5 cfm
.500” - 102 cfm
.525” - 102.5 cfm
.550” - 103.5 cfm

To put this in perspective, here’s my race-ported 2.2 head with 1.94” intake valves and over 20 cc’s larger intake ports.

.100” - 39 cfm
.150” - 53 cfm
.200” - 69 cfm
.250” - 85 cfm
.300” - 100.5 cfm
.350” - 115 cfm
.400” - 128 cfm
.450” - 137 cfm
.500” - 145 cfm
.550” - 146 cfm

So, even the much desired high port 2.2 has slightly lower flow below .400” lift, and this is with a .090” larger valve and much larger port!

The 1.9 is a MUCH better street head when properly ported.

My camshaft for this head is a custom split-profile I designed, with .534” intake lift/.529”exhaust lift, 250° intake/ .246° exhaust duration @ .050”, and 107° LSA. Should be quite docile but have a broad powerband. 2500 to 7500 rpms or so.

 

[RallyBob]

I'd be interested in seeing the difference in flow between ports 1&2 ....

I actually did that today. Charles can (if he wants), post the differences.

Worth noting is that intake port #2 flowed a bit better than intake port #1 on its own. There’s typically an 8-12% variance among the ports, with the exhaust ports being worse! Sometimes more, sometimes less. Castings do vary quite a bit.

Only twice in my life have I spent the time to flow-balance every single intake and exhaust port, in addition to matching combustion chamber volumes. It turned an 8 hour job into a 28 hour job No thanks….

 

[GoinManta]

I actually did that today. Charles can (if he wants), post the differences.

I think the intersting thing is seeing in the chart the "variances" BUT that at .450" they cross over.

 

[RallyBob]

I’m currently taking a lunch break, but flow testing continues today otherwise.

No surprise, but so far my one-piece ported/welded DSD intake is the team leader on the 1.9 race head. I have another heavily modified DSD intake which I think will be even better, but I currently don’t know the whereabouts of it.

I’ll get the stock/unmodified Cannon DSD intake results later for a comparison.

 

[GoinManta]

Think it would be hard to find anything that flowed as close to naked as the Magnoletsi.

 

[RallyBob]

View attachment 454954

Think it would be hard to find anything that flowed as close to naked as the Magnoletsi.

Believe it or not, a heavily welded/ported Cannon intake should improve the flow of the bare port even higher, based on previous experience. They often gain 3-4 cfm over a bare port!

It’s not even the size of the intake, but the shape. They straighten the airflow nicely and eliminate turbulence.

I have this intake I built years ago somewhere, but couldn’t find it today.

 

[GoinManta]

Believe it or not, a heavily welded/ported Cannon intake should improve the flow of the bare port even higher, based on previous experience. They often gain 3-4 cfm over a bare port!

It’s not even the size of the intake, but the shape. They straighten the airflow nicely and eliminate turbulence.

I have this intake I built years ago somewhere, but couldn’t find it today.

Didnt say impossible..