I just took my intake off, and i plan on powdercoating it. I was wondering what i have to take off to do it. I took off all the fittings, egr, map sensor and all that stuff.. I also took off the oil baffle underneith, but is there anything else i need to take off? I noticed on the bottom after taking off the oil baffle there is 5 large plugs. Do i need to take these out? I cant imagine there being anything on the inside that wouldnt be safe for the heat. Thanks a lot -Jeff

 

I just had one of my intakes powder coated, simply put you have to take off EVERYTHING

 

You can leave those plugs in. They just fill access holes which were used for internal machining.

Mask off everything that is a machined surface or hole. For example, at the injector holes, you don't have to mask off the chamfer or angle that leads into the hole, just the hole. Many folks use hi-temp silicone rubber plugs to mask the holes.

FWIW, the production LT4 manifolds were powder coated before machining was started, so every machined surface is powderless.

If you want the ribs on the top uncoated or polished, coat over them then sand off.

My $.02

 

Dont forget to have your intake cleaned and degreased thoroughly! In fact, it would be better if you had it oven baked to drive out all of the oil. I've done two LT1 intakes in powdercoating, and each of them needed a few hours of baking at 400 degrees to get rid of the stinky oil, even after cleaning. It's up inside where you cannot get at it with the pressure washer.

If you don't do this, your powdercoat will have a haze in the finish.

LT1 intake

Miniram

Tuned Port

custom plenum

miniramII

 

I removed every fitting from the top side of the intake. The only thing I removed underneath was that sheet metal pan thats for the PCV system I think. I cleaned it very well with engine degreaser, inside and out. I went over it with a wire wheel brush on a drill to polish it up real well and the tight areas with a dremel metal brush attachment. If you have a sandblaster that would work very well too. A guy I know does powder coating on the side, it cost me $50. I went back over the ribs on the top afterwards with one of those mouse sanders and 100 grit then polished them up, it came out pretty nice I thought.

 

Yeah i have tons of these.. FWIW, instead of buying these which are kinda pricey, you can easily make them by rolling up some wax paper into cone shapes and squeezing some high temp RTV into them and letting them dry for a while. They turned out pretty good and they work great!

Thanks for all the info guys... I got another question though.. mainly about color. I am going to do the intake like the LT4, red with the polished ribs. I have also polished most underhood items(alt, throttle body, all A/C lines, MAF ends, all clamps). I went far enough as to take off the accy bracket and was wondering what i should do with it. here are my 3 choices:

1 - Clean it up real good and polish the visible part (alt conenction)
2 - Powdercoat it black
3 - powdercoat it the same red and the intake?

What do you think would look good? Thanks again -Jeff