Bill Ball

I have my Supermodel SC off and am trying to install the IC Andy sent me a long time ago. Anyone familiar with the arrangement inside the manifold, please advise.

It seems obvious I have to remove the 6 large spacers visible in the photo on the underside of the lid for the manifold. Do I then use short bolts to secure the Jag/Eaton to the lid? Do I toss the spacers? Andy had them there to stabilize the Jag/Eaton, so I am concerned it needs some support, but with the IC in the way, I'm not sure how this would work.

Holes drilled in the lip of the IC line up with the 6mm studs Andy used as spacers. Does the intercooler flange get bolted on these studs flush with the underside of the lid? I assume the studs are still used as spacers against the inside of the new bottom plate.

Anything else I am missing? I have the new bottom, inlet and outlet seals, not shown.

Interestingly, there is oily grime inside the manifold. Since there are no breather lines going to the intake anymore, I do wonder from where this oily grime is originating. Valve stem seals? I burn no oil, and the grime is not like fresh oil but more of a sticky coating. There is some grit in it - I need to get rid of the K&N.

Tony

these are pics i dug up of mine.

the flange of the IC sits flat with the bottom of the top half of the maniofld. I made a gasket between the two and used a very fine bead of RightStuff to help seal. I would also blue loctite or safety wire the bolts that are used so they dont wiggle out.


As for the "spacers". Your orignal manifold was flat on the bottom right? The bottom of the spacers basically touched the lower maniofld section lending support...like a pillar of sorts? IF so i dont think you will be able to use them again?

Hard to judge with out it in my hands to look at.


As for the residue its probably tar from all the smoking your back tires do

HTH

Bill Ball

Tony:

Ah, so you used Allens to fasten the IC to the lid. So, there are no spacers left any more between the top and the bottom plates?

I gather the SC is just bolted to the lid with short bolts in place of the spacers and long bolts that went through from the bottom plate. The top plate is rather thick, but I am concerned that the SC might need more rigid support.

Thanks!

Tony

nope..i have no spacers in mine. Also the allen bolts are special ones that allowed safety wire to be passed through. My pics above dont show it but the bolts in mine are safety wired to one another.

Be WARNED...watch the threads in the manifold when putting the bolts in...the workman ship in tapping the manifold had A LOT left to be desired
Make sure they dont cross thread and make sure you dont over tigthen them...i have no idea what TQ needs to be used or if one was specified...i just went until it felt comfortable.
HTH

Bill Ball

I haven't mated up the bottom to see if the 6mm spacer studs would touch anymore, but I think they will in that area as it is over the intake track. Since the manifold bolts pass through there, I would think maintaining the dimensions with spacers would be necessary.

If I just slip the IC over the existing studs, I can retain the spacer function. There is no problem with tapping quality and crossthreading as these pass through the top, a different manifold design than you have. Sealing is the only issue then.

I gather the SC is just bolted through the lid.

PorKen

Residue is gasoline overspray?

Those spacer bolts are dorky.

Bill Ball

Ah, yes. Thanks, Ken.

Dorky, but they seem to have worked OK for 2 years and 20k miles.

Tony

oK..I just noticed the lower maniofld in your picture. It is flat.
Instead of the spacers, perhaps get some wider washers to help distribute the force/load over a greater surface are when securing the SC to the manifold?

SharkSkin

Bill, if you want to reinforce the lid and give the SC more rigid support, maybe you can position a couple of pieces of angle iron on the bottom side of the lid and bolt through them. You might be able to get the vertical legs of the angle pieces out far enough that they don't impede flow.

Bill Ball

Thanks for the ideas, Tony. I should have things bolted back together well enough this weekend.

Bill Ball

Dave:

I can't quite visualize the angle iron arrangement. You can see the 6 solid spacers. They locked the top and bottom together. The IC will preclude them at their current location, but I could move them out a bit and use perhaps 4 of them. They would not be bolted to the SC, but they would add a lot of support and rigidity.

I'm not worried about airflow. With the IC in there and no runners, airflow is whatever it is. It seems to work fine despite some individual incredulity that a pizza box manifold could work OK.

mspiegle

Ok, for most kits, there are 2 parts to the manifold. The top part and the bottom part. Some people have a center-section (which makes up the sides), but that isn't important for our purposes.

The top part is generally the same on all kits. You either have a casted piece, or a water-jetted piece w/ a separate center-section.

The part of concern is the lower part of the manifold. If you didn't have an intercooler originally, you most likely got a flat plate. The flat plate is bolted to the top-section with a couple bolts, and sealed with right-stuff (or whatever you happen to be using). Initially, we found out that running in this configuration caused a problem with sealing. Since the top part of the manifold only presses against the outside edges of the flat-plate, the plate was allowed to flex slightly and cause improper sealing against the intake ports. That's where the spacers come in. The spacers help distribute the load across the entire flat-plate so that it will seal against the intake ports properly.

Then we have the bottom-piece of the manifold designed for people WITH an intercooler. Due to the design of this piece, it actually "braces" itself and distributes some load in such a way that spacers are no longer necessary. From what I understand (I was never able to get an intercooled setup up and running), the intercooler should bolt to the top-part of the manifold and not interfere with the supercharger bolts.

So, in conclusion, the spacers' duty was to actually push DOWN on the bottom-part of the manifold and prevent it from flexing upwards. With the lower manifold piece designed to accept an intercooler, i don't believe the spacers are necessary.

SharkSkin

Bill, here is a quick sketch of my suggestion -- looking from the front, the SC bolts would come up from underneath, first through the angle, then through the lid, and into the SC.

Tony

Dave..im pertty sure the intercooler will be an issue .....clearance

SharkSkin

OK, you guys have the benefit of having eyeballed the pieces directly... from Bill's first pic it appears there would be plenty of room. I defer to the experts...