bd0nalds0n

I recently had thicker lower plates machined for my Keel-type twin screw manifold.

I have the early 2-piece version which consists of an upper casting (with sides) and a lower casting that had a cove for the intercooler. My intercooler has in/outlets in the front and rear, and the cove has cutouts in the front/rear to accommodate the in/outlets.

I believe Andy eventually moved to a three piece version, consisting of a top plate, the "sides", and a bottom plate. Other versions seem to handle the intercooler in/outlets differently.

I had a flat plate made, as well as a plate that contains the intercooler cove.

Since this was an expensive and time consuming project, I thought I would offer to have additional pieces made, if anyone needs them.

If anyone's interested, I can upload some pictures later.

OBehave

I have the 3 piece design with a thick top plate,a thin lower plate with intercooler cove welded in and a welded together frame all held together with some sticky crap.I would be interested in your solution,let's see some pics and a $ figure if you have any.I'm sure the more the better on price.Either way I'm not too keen on the present setup.Ed

Bill Ball

Brian: Yes, please upload some pictures. I did a bunch of internal bracing to "stabilize" the bottom plate, but I would be interested in another solution with the intercooler cove. I had the later 3-piece manifold, but I believe the bottom plate dimensions are the same.

all4woody

Brian,
This would be great, I was just about to pull everything out for a refresh. I have a strange setup, don't know if anyone else has it, but I would like to change. Between the SC and the top plate of the IC there is an additional half inch plate. I don't know if the original opening to the IC was too large and this was added to correct, or added to remove the SC but leave the IC in place, but it raises my SC snout enough so the strut brace cannot go on. Please provide pictures and maybe some pricing so we can get the ball rolling.

thanks,
Woody

bd0nalds0n

Not sure what kind of detail you were looking for. I have a call into the machinist to find out pricing for the flat plate (pix later) or the plate with the cove. I think it turned out nicely.

You can see the areas where they cut out spots for the cutout on the early 32V models. 87+ don't need the boxes in the intercooler cove, so I had them re-weld the pieces back in.

The old plate was ~1/8" thick. This is ~5/16. I had the upper casting milled down by an equivalent amount to keep the top of the SC at the same height--my SC snout has worn a groove in my hood pad, so I didn't want everything to be higher than it had been in the past--although I did install a smaller pulley to be safe...

The pics sort of make it look like the left hand port is angled, or that the cove isn't square. Everything is really straight.

heinrich

VERY nice Brian ... how about hte contoured piece that Bill had issues with falling apart ?

OBehave

Nice! That plate looks Hefty compared to the one I have.I was going to ask about the height issue but I see you machined the top plate.I would like to see it all complete and with a $ figure when all is said and done.Thanks for posting!Ed

P.S. Are you still going to use the internal spacers welded inside the plenum or little tubes around the bolts?

all4woody

Nice. I currently have the IC outlet at the top front, beside the snout. Is there any issue in relocating and where does it come out? I am interested in the top plate, if you have them made, since mine is a one-off.
Thanks,
Woody

bd0nalds0n

I don't have any sort of internal spacers. I'm running the original gaskets with 15 ft/lbs of torque, so I don't think the bottom plate is in any danger of warping.

I'll try to shoot some pictures of the car back together--along with pics of the toasted injector harness.

bd0nalds0n

Is yours two piece or 3 piece? I have a blank upper casting (which has the top plate and the sides) that I got from DR. I hadn't planned on having anything further done since my lower plate was really the only source of grief...although the upper casting is pretty soft--I've stripped a few holes and needed to tap with helicoils...but for now everything seems to hold together okay.

To your point about relocating--I would just have your cove made with an outlet at the back, center, and not have anything cut from the front.

all4woody

Brian,
I have the 3 piece setup. The blank upper may work for me, since I want to eliminate the extra plate, making it a 4 piece setup. Send me a price.

Thanks

Warren928

Nice work on the welding of that piece!

bd0nalds0n

Okay, I spoke with the machinst and I have some preliminary pricing.

A flat plate will run $300.

A plate with an intercooler hole cut out, and cove built and plumbed like mine (or with no plumbing for the IC out/inlet) will run $1100. They use 5/16" thick plate and are milled flat (to ~1/4") after welding.

A plate with a intercooler cove with cutout to accommodate the 85/86 block will be more, based on the labor necessary to add it. Labor is $90/hour, so figure a couple hundred extra, at least.

Some important things to note:

This fits on my car.
I'm not a vendor or machinist.
Significant variations have been noted in the past (there was a debaucle at a DEVEK mass Twinscrew install and I believe there were significant fitment issues on at least one car).
I cannot guarantee that this will fit on your kit without modification.
I can't guarantee that it will fit, even with modification.
You may need to have your upper casting(s) milled to keep your SC snout from rubbing on the hood.
I can inspect every piece before it ships to make sure what I'm sending is what I believe someone was asking for, but I will not be able to accept returns.
I don't have the financial wherewithal to front the cost to have these made in advance. Forget "just in time" inventory; each and any will be made only after complete payment has been received.

What this should get you, however, is far closer to a usable, workable solution to the too-thin lower casting supplied by Andy while only having to go through some of the trial and error you would face if embarking on a project like this on your own. And let's face it, part of the appeal of the Keel kits was the versatility with respect to the ability to truly personalize them...in the same way the 928 is a great canvas for personal expression.

For what it's worth, I first started out at a place in OC that's got a pretty good reputation for knowing 928s and creating customized parts, and they didn't think they'd be able to reproduce the lower manifold piece for less than $2k, so this represents a sizable savings from other bids I received at the outset of my odyssey.

If there was a lot of demand (say, more than 10 pieces), which I do not expect, pricing might be adjusted down somewhat, but I don't think the market is all that big.

That said, I've been the beneficiary of a lot of other peoples' R&D and efforts and would look forward to the ability to pay that back in kind. I'm also nervous, because the 928 community is demanding and I don't want to let anyone down or have their outcome not square with expectation.

OBehave

Thanks for all the effort Brian.I totally understand your feelings on this and I wouldn't think it reasonable to hold you responsible for the outcome of something that isn't in your total control.What you've had done there is a good amount of reverse engineering,set up,welding and machining and knowing all the kits that were made all had differences will make this even harder to make fool proof.Probably the best way is to have a known set up that fits the car it is going on,take installed height measurements and send the 3 pieces to you or your guy so that when they are done they should match each other dimensionally. Ed

all4woody

Brian,
Are you having any top plates made? This would fix my hight issue...I modified my bottom half a few years ago.

Woody