Picked up an Edelbrock TPI base a while back (actually it was supposed to be an Accel/Lingenfelter base but as it turns out, they no longer manufacture their own base and just ship out Edelbrock's version)

http://web.camaross.com/forums/showt...=1#post4382405


and over the past couple weeks, I've been taking my time cleaning it up a bit before I install it on the car with my new AS&M runners.

The Edelbrock was a nice piece out of the box, but it was quite clear, there was a lot of room for improvement. Having said that, it wasn't until I saw a stock TPI base a few days later, that I realized just how big of an improvement the Edelbrock base was, over stock. Seeing a bone stock TPI base in person for the first time, I have a VERY hard time believing that even with a HEAVY amount of port-work done to it,it still would not come close to an "out-of-the-box" Edelbrock base.

Still, even though the Edelbrock was clearly superior in terms of flow, as I said, there was even more room for improvement so I figured I would take the opportunity to port the Edelbrock base before I installed it on the car.

After finding out that getting it "professionally" ported would cost almost as much as the intake itself, I made the decision to do it on my own. For the record, I've never ported anything in my life and had absolutely no experience what so ever doing this sort of work but trying it out on my own would definitely be the most cost-efficient route to take and at the same time, I admit, I was kinda excited about doing the work myself. Not only would I gain experience and learn a skill that may come in handy later on, but being able to tell people you did all the port work yourself, is pretty darn cool

I picked up a dremel for $70 at a local hardware store and a bunch of sanding bits.

Since this was my first time porting anything, I decided that it would be safer to start off with simple sanding bit's so as to not accidentally remove too much material and destroy a brand new intake.

Although it takes much longer using sanding bit's as apposed to something like a carbide bit, the sanding bit's kept me out of trouble and allowed me to take my time.

Anyways, I've only done the intake ports on one side of the base, but I think they came out really good. Better than I expected actually, and I'd be willing to bet the work that's been is about as good as it's going to get. I really can't see how a place like, say, TPIS, could do any better. Best part is, I did it myself and saved a lot of money.

I was able to get about 2 & 3/4 inch's "into" each of the ports. Right out of the box, the Edelbrock has only "slight" porting a measly 1/4" in which you could see from the picture's below. Another thing I noticed is that there's a "lip" around each of the intake ports where there's clearly a huge amount of excess aluminum that serves no purpose but to obstruct air-flow. I basically ground them down which basically opened up each port. It's a very noticeable improvement just by looking at it in person.

Although not very scientific, my testing measure to see how my porting was coming along, was to place a golf ball inside one of the intake ports before, and then after cleaning it out.

You can see from the picture's just how much of an improvement you can make with a simple dremel and some spare time. Out-of-the-box, the gold ball wouldn't even fit. It would just sit there with 3/4 of it still sticking out. After porting, the golf ball literally drops right into each port. Yup. Big difference.

Anyhoo, thought I'd post a few pic's of my progess. I still have the other 4 intake ports on the other side to port out and then start on the exhaust ports afterwards, but I'm enjoying the experience.

Basically, I just wanted to let people know that you don't have to pay a couple hundred bucks to someone else to do port work for you. If you're willing to try it yourself, you can get really good results and save yourself some cash as well as learn something new.

Any comments, advice, or any kind of input in general, is more than welcome.

I'd particularly like to hear from the experienced porters on this forum, to find out what their opinion is on my work so far. (and take it easy on me guy's, this was my first time porting : )

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These are pretty self explainitory, but just for the record, the pic's on the left are "stock" while the pic's on the right are after my port work.

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One last thing, I do have a question to all those with experience porting. Is it better to smooth out the entire pathway of each port (from intake straight through to the exhaust port) or is cleaning up only the entrance's/exits sufficient enough?

Like I said, I managed to get about 2 3/4 inches in, but that's as far as my dremel can go. They sell a flexible extention which would allow me to get at least another 3-4" inwards, , but is it really worth it? Would I get much more air flow than what it does now? I'd like to hear some input from the pro's on this.

Thanks in advance.

 

The intake will only flow what the minimum cross sectional area is or the choke point. What you have done so far is very good. However the choke point for the Edelbrock TPI manifold is about an inch from where the manifold bolts to the head.

This is why induction systems using the Edelbrock TPI manifold make peak power around 5200rpm and not higher. This includes the Accel Superram. To do it correctly which may not be posible is to have the intake manifold with a larger cross sectional area than the minimum cross sectional area in your heads. That way the intake manifold will not be choking the head.

However anything you can do to open up the intake manifold will help. You should have a dial caliper and telescoping gages to measure the cross sectional area as you go along. It is best to open the port up in the manifold all the way through. Now, you want the manifold port exit at the head to be slightly smaller than the opening. Not the other way around.

 

Thanks for the input. I appreciate it.

I'll be borrowing a dial caliper and telescoping gauge from a buddy of mine later next week so that shouldn't be a problem.

I'm also going to be buying one of those "flexible extensions" for my dremel this weekend. It's the only way I'll be able to port out the entire length of each pathway. With the dremel on it's own, I can only get 2 3/4" inwards before I run out of space.

Most of the magazines I've seen testing after-market TPI intakes (using this Edelbrock base) usually peak in the area of 5000-5200rpm. That's with an out of the box Edelbrock base and that's pretty impressive for TPI. I have yet to see any tests using a ported Edelbrock base, so I'm curious to see whether or not the usable power-band will be increased (if at all). 5500rpm ? Should be interesting...

 

The more you can open it up the higher the power band will be. Some of the guys locally have got the minimum cross sectional area up to 1.9 square inches at the choke point.

You can easily open the round intake portion that meets the runners to 1.7" in diameter that works out to 2.27 square inches. That maybe where you are at now if not a little larger.

There are efforts here locally to add material to the Edelbrock manifold so that the cross sectional area can be increased. As you may have read I'm going another route. That is adapting the First Injection TPI manifold to accept my SLP runners and factory plenum.

 

It's been about 7 weeks since you started this thread. Your work looks very good. How has it turned out, have you installed the manifold, any gains? I would love to hear about your success. I plan to do the same manifold mod but it seems all of them Edelbrock, Accel, TPIS are in the same price range. I wonder if there is any difference.

 

I haven't yet put anything on the car, unfortunately.

My AS&M big tube TPI runners arrived not too long ago and I have yet to port out the used plenum I bought.

I'm almost done porting the intake though, I picked up an "extension" for my dremel which allowed me to clean/port out the intake path's all the way through and not just the first 2.5" like what is shown in the pic's.

Almost every thing's been cleaned up now. Just have 3 ports to go.

I've decided to replace my injectors while I'm at it since there's not much sense keeping the stock one's when they're already almost 20 years old. Now is the best time to do it. I'll just pick up a set of Ford 24# injectors and call it a day.

I haven't forgotten about this thread, don't worry.

I'll be sure to post again with updates and photo's as I progress. I'll even post the dyno results, before/after. when every thing's up and running.

Sorry it's taken so long but the whether is still cold outside and I'd like to wait until it's at least above zero outside before I start working on the car.

Stay tuned.

 

I thought about the HSR route or the LT1 mod. I have an unmodded LT1 intake on the bench. I believe I would be better off with the LTR set-up considering I still need EGR to pass emissions.

 

As 89TransAmGTA said, its not the runner-side portion of the TPI intake, its the head-side portion where the injectors are. THAT is the section that needs the most porting. See this thread:

http://www.thirdgen.org/techboard/tp...-manifold.html

I'm glad you havent put it on yet so you can work on that area. We've currently gotten the Edelbrock TPI intake to flow 290cfm with welding the roof and porting. It flowed 260cfm without welding.

 

That's a heck of a thread, Kevin. Thanks for sharing!

 

looks good looks good