280Zen Posted December 10, 2003 Share Posted December 10, 2003 I got the latest copy of Turbo mag last night, one of the ads is for a Carbon Fiber intake manifold. Looked interesting, but Im trying to figure out how they molded it? http://www.advancedinductionresearch.com Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
280Zen Posted December 10, 2003 Author Share Posted December 10, 2003 Found my answer, they use a "lost core molding process" hmmm, anybody up for building a carbon fiber intake? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TomoHawk Posted December 10, 2003 Share Posted December 10, 2003 I'm not sure a CF intake is a good thing. They don't react well to heat. Otherwise, DON'T TELL THE RICERS! They'll start making CF everything! yeesh. happy holi-daze. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SpeedRacer Posted December 10, 2003 Share Posted December 10, 2003 A Carbon Fiber intake can easily handle the heat. Quite a few race cars have been using them for years. If you have a late model Vette you can even buy a plastic one http://shop.store.yahoo.com/corvetteforum/zip-pm-393-gp.html Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TomoHawk Posted December 10, 2003 Share Posted December 10, 2003 All the CF resins I know of don't like heat. They must be using some special resins & stuff. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Nic-Rebel450CA Posted December 10, 2003 Share Posted December 10, 2003 hmmm, anybody up for building a carbon fiber intake? Hmm, sounds like fun. Using CF you could make all kinds of intricate curves that would be hard with metal. You could make the whole plenum like a spiral vortex. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TomoHawk Posted December 11, 2003 Share Posted December 11, 2003 You could make the whole plenum like a spiral vortex. It looks like you'vew been watching that Tornado air swirler infomercial on TV..... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moridin Posted December 11, 2003 Share Posted December 11, 2003 Getting a good vortex actually helps atomize fuel for better combustion. That's exaclty why they don't fully polish the intake section of the head. I was at a shop called Meiar's Racing (getting their huge subframes installed on the new Cobra) and they specialize in fiberglass and carbon fiber (they did the body kit for "Eleanor" in the movie "Gone in 60 seconds"). They had some heat resistant resins along with some self-extinguishing resins. He showed me a set of carbon fiber Chevy big-block heads that some drag racers used (designed to pull vacuum for roughly 10 more horsies). I'm sure those things could handle heat and pressure pretty well. I wonder if you could do an intake like that for our turbo motors. Do a sandwhich construction over a thin sheet of aluminum. If I ever manage to get out of school I may have to start doing more than just fooling around with fiberglass and carbon fiber Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TomoHawk Posted December 11, 2003 Share Posted December 11, 2003 If swirling is so good, how come Detroit doesn't do it on all the cars? All those aftermarket intakes all have the runners with nice smooth curves and such. Even Corvette/Mustang intakes are nice and curvy, but smooth. Swirling is not to be confused with disturbed air cause by sharp corners. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blueovalz Posted December 11, 2003 Share Posted December 11, 2003 F1 uses CF brake rotors that get red hot. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Nic-Rebel450CA Posted December 11, 2003 Share Posted December 11, 2003 F1 uses CF brake rotors that get red hot. That's some hot shh-tuff! I wonder... CF engine block? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Drax240z Posted December 11, 2003 Share Posted December 11, 2003 Getting a good vortex actually helps atomize fuel for better combustion. That's exaclty why they don't fully polish the intake section of the head. Just going to jump in a sec to clarify. The above statement is only partially true. If we are talking carb's, then it is important to have turbulance in the intake in order to keep the fuel suspended in the air/fuel mixture. As soon as laminar flow develops, the fuel tends to coagulate and forms puddles. So very often manufacturers leave a rough casting on the inside of an intake to promote turbulant flow... but only when it is designed for a "carb" or something like TPI where the fuel is travelling through the intake. However, in a direct injection, or multi-port injection model, the fuel spends zero time travelling through the intake, it is injected into the engine or directly at the valve back. In this case, it is desireable to have a smooth/polished intake in order to achieve a maximum air velocity. EFI engines still 'swirl' air entering the combustion chamber, but this is done with the valve placement in the cylinder, as well as the piston dome design, and/or head shape. Swirl and turbulance aren't the same, but they are often confused. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
280Zen Posted December 11, 2003 Author Share Posted December 11, 2003 The other part I have been pondering is how did they machine the aluminum parts to fit over the ends of the carbon fiber, the larger pic shows what looks like a lip where the throttle body would bolt up to. if so, what they do? Form the runners and ends then slip the aluminum parts on then create the lip with the carbon fiber? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest turbo-max Posted December 11, 2003 Share Posted December 11, 2003 A Carbon Fiber intake can easily handle the heat. Quite a few race cars have been using them for years. If you have a late model Vette you can even buy a plastic one [url']http://shop.store.yahoo.com/corvetteforum/zip-pm-393-gp.html[/url] GM has been using plastic intake manifolds for a few years now on alot of differant modles/engines FYI Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest 3ftyZ Posted December 12, 2003 Share Posted December 12, 2003 Im sure that the aluminum is used to make sure that the manifold is properly clamped to the head. Also, I doubt that the bolt head pressure can be handled by a thin sheet of CF. Although, they could make the mounting points with CF if they just compacted many layers of fiber where that head meets the intake and the throttle body mating surfaces. On the note about curvy/swoopy intake runners and swirl, is that air flow is best around a smooth radius curve, increasing flow and velocity. The swoopiness has nothing to do with the surface smoothness. Swirling of the air will increase the atomization of any fuel inlet type, FI or Carb, due to the fact that it will suspend the fuel and enhance any predetermined swirl charactoristics that the valve angle/combustion chamber/piston shape has designed into it. Unfortunatly, many engines are designed with a tumble affect, where the air enters the combustion chamber and rolls/tumbles down the cylinder, similar to how a glass of water fills from a faucet. These engines are torquey. Of course, as most systems are (an engine being a very complex system) the previous is an oversimplifaction, disregarding runner length, plenum volume, injector(s) positioning, cylinder volume, and of course boost! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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