Mike S

I just finished polishing the intake manifold and I wanted to post a "how-to" for those that are interested. I used the kit from Bright Works that attaches to your drill.

<a href="http://www.bright-works.com/store/html/kits2.html" target="_blank">http://www.bright-works.com/store/html/kits2.html</a>

It includes everything you need including instructions and tips. After doing this I would definitely recommend using a kit designed for a bench grinder with 6" wheels...it makes life a lot easier. The drill just don't go fast enough and are kind of hard to use without nicking the manifold.

Anyways, take the first wheel and coat with 80 grit greaselss...grind away. This takes away the large casting roughness. You'll really wish that you had a 40 grit because it takes forever...and i mean forever. Figure about 4-6 hours here. Then go to 180 grit, and then 240 grit. After you're done with that break out the little sanding rolls and get the small hard to reach places. They give you lots of grits but its really tough to get in between the runners. Do your best and be patient. Figure another couple of hours here. Then i went on to the 320 greaseless on yet another wheel. Hit everything really well. One more hour down. Next is the rouge compound which is then followed by the white compound(tripoli?). Each compound gets its own wheel. The last two go really quickly. The white stuff will make your manifold shine like no other. Overall time to completion was aroun 14 hours for me. I'm sure it can be done quicker, but with a drill it takes forever. I liked the kit, everything was there...i would just recommend getting a bench grinder first.



and

icat

Well done Mike. Looks nice!

David Floyd

Looks great Mike, I also did mine with a drill and a polish kit from Eastwood, after about 40 hours of sanding and polishing, it had a nice shine.

Time takes a toll on the shine, after about 6 months it's not so shiny anymore, so I sent my intake to Jet Hot for the Sterling coating.

IMHO it is a LOT of work with short lived pleasure.

I hope your intake stays nice and shiny.

Mike S

Yeah, i agree....its a ton of work. I was really debating sending it in to be coated at one point. I should make it clear that I only did the top side that you see. The bottom still has the casting finish. After 14+ hours of polishing I was in no mood to do the bottom.

David Floyd

Yep, top side only for me too.

User 462021

How much was that kit? I couldn't find a price on that site. It had a lot of errors on it.

tt9714

I would highly recommend having the intake manifold (and intercooler pipes on turbo cars) powder coated. I went to a company called Lo-Ko located in south suburban Chicago.

<a href="http://www.lo-ko.com/superkote.html" target="_blank">LO-KO Superkote</a>

Price was about $200 total but that included the intake manifold, two intercooler pipes, turbo downpipe, and crossover pipe. The finish is a bright shiny metallic and seems very durable (sorry no digital pics yet). It is also supposed to have some thermal barrier properties to keep under hood temps lower.

ribs

Looks very nice! I ended up going over my intake manifold with a wirewheel for a couple of hours to make it shiny, but still with the rough texture, and then I powder coated it. Unfortunately, a virus ate my local copies of the pictures and JohnD deleted all of the pictures that were more than a couple months old so they aren't stored here any more either, but once I get it all back together and clean the engine bay again I will snap some more pictures.

I ended up buying a powder coating kit from some place I don't remember for $110 with a pound or two of powder and an oven from salvation army for $20 and powdercoated everything myself...it all came out very nice. I did the intake manifold and intercooler pipes charcoal grey/blackish, and was very pleased with the fact that I was able to powdercoat them perfectly on my first try.

I also zapped my cam tower with a wirewheel, and it came out looking like this:








for a couple of months but now has a lot of corrosion. I am going to powdercoat this, too, when I change my cam cover gasket in the near future (it is leaking just a little bit). I think if you sprayed your intake manifold with some high temp engine paint clear coat it may maintain its luster without corroding...I kind of wish I did this to my cam tower when it was nice and shiny. I highly recommend powdercoating though.

red9four4

mike looks great

did you get your car repainted, the engine bay looks burgandy and fenders look guards red?

Mike S

Umm yeah, that's a feature of having your car repainted. It was burgundy originally and it looked horrible. The paint was faded badly where some crappy paint shop attempted to blend a repair. I had it repainted guards red. Hence the difference in the engine bay.

PCinDC

Mike,
I like the intake - nice job!
Also, the block in your car is guards red (or a very close proximation of Guards Red). Is this powder coated or is it High-temp engine enamel? If it's enamel do you know where you got it? I would consider doing this myself.
Any info is appreciated.
TIA
Paul

Mike S

The cam cover is just engine enamel, hi-temp variety. It's *cringe now* Ford Red. It actually does match really well. It's not perfect, but its fairly close.