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If not ridiculously valuable, I'd like to buy one off somebody. I'm prepping my S4 parts for powder coating, I like the way they look when also painted.
85-86 and early 87's had them. Look great, but without the inline oil check valve they leave a lot of oil in the manifold. Greg Brown has a lot to say about this.
I admit I am a hoarder of these - I have a couple here. I also have the check valve that I would really like to see reproduced.
last week I found one on craiglist for 20.!! just finished paint this AM. the check valve often gets thrown out
with it corresponding hose. the valve just drops in the rear breather tube.
I like the way a powder coated/painted water bridge ties the appearance all together, but after seeing what happens after the hoses are connected I'm not sure it's such a great idea. I noticed when I was fixing my water bridge leak that under the hoses my powder coat had the appearance of melting on the surface. No doubt if I had to do it again I would either leave the water bridge alone or have the shop leave 1 1/2 - 2 inches uncoated on the main water fittings.
I think the metal oil neck will probably have to be modified depending on the MY of the car. On my GTS I capped the two ports at the base of the neck and mounted a 1/2" breather hose on the passenger side.
Powder coating aside, aesthetically, the bigger challenge to a top-end refresh is the fasteners, hose clamps, pulleys, air pump, brackets, cable quadrant, FPRs, fuel rails, etc. To me that's the real eye candy. E.g., William and Rob's Minerva project. The re-zincing and plating is what made it "pop".
No doubt if I had to do it again I would either leave the water bridge alone or have the shop leave 1 1/2 - 2 inches uncoated on the main water fittings.
+1
Plan B is what I'm going to do, mask off the area where the hose will sit, and the innards of the thermostat housing and any other mating surface.
Originally Posted by NoVector
The re-zincing and plating is what made it "pop".
I'm lucky, I live 45 minutes away from a world renown coating company. They recently zic plated four sets of fuel rails for me, $40 - which is their minimum. I could have done a couple dozen and not filled my "shelf".
I think the metal oil neck will probably have to be modified depending on the MY of the car. On my GTS I capped the two ports at the base of the neck and mounted a 1/2" breather hose on the passenger side.
You ARE lucky. I need to do some research to find out what is available locally. My freshly powder-coated intake bits look great, but even though I cleaned up clamps, etc...it doesn't look very good. It's more obvious, next to shiny new parts.
Originally Posted by Hacker-Pschorr
+1
Plan B is what I'm going to do, mask off the area where the hose will sit, and the innards of the thermostat housing and any other mating surface.
I'm lucky, I live 45 minutes away from a world renown coating company. They recently zic plated four sets of fuel rails for me, $40 - which is their minimum. I could have done a couple dozen and not filled my "shelf".
Hi Kevin - The stock GTS neck has ports on both sides of the upper neck but none at the base. So, rather than get crazy with new plumbing I just capped the two ports at the bottom with JB Weld and some caps I found at a German hardware store (Toom) and then drilled, threaded and JB Welded the 1/2" port on the passenger side. The only drag of doing this is I now have to reach in with my finger and cover that hole when I pour fresh oil in. Otherwise it would go in the breather hose and get sucked into the intake. IMHO metal neck is the way to go; no warping, cracking, etc.