I've got a few Solid Works models that I would like to have turned into useable pieces. Does anybody on here have the ability, time and interest to do this?

I am looking to have a head flange and plenum base machined for an intake manifold for a 4G63 Eclipse motor. The Base and plenums would both likely be two sided machining operations, although the flange could easily be made into a one sided machining process. I don't know much about designing models that are economical to machine, but if I could get some pointers on how to design the models to make it easier for the machinist, I would be very interested in learning.

Of course, I would be paying for the machining and for the time, but if I can find somebody with knowledge that would be willing to help me a little, I would be greatly appreciative. Below is a couple views of the plenum I am interested in making. I would be interested in the base, as the rest will be from tubing stock and a hand formed portion near the throttle body.

http://www.utdsm.org/gallery/v...bum84

Thanks
Michael Giraud


Modified by 99_GS-T at 11:20 AM 10/6/2005


Modified by 99_GS-T at 11:20 AM 10/6/2005

 

how large is the part?

just by looking at it, the taper to the flange on the end would be rather difficult to machine. The general contour of it would also take quite awhile to machine. The main flange looks quite simple, though. Depending on how critical things like the fillet around the entire part are, you could square it off a bit more and have a much more practical part, imo.

 

It is about 16" x 6" x 1.5" on the base.

The part near the throttle body where there is a lot of curvature will just be made from a hand formed piece of sheet metal. No biggy there.

For the base flange, on the internal side, it is obviously important to keep the smooth curvature. The back part of the flange though I just basically did it that way for weight. I could easily make the back side a lot simpler while still keeping weight down.

It's kind of hard to see, but I tried to make most of the joints lap joints for strength.

I'll make up another model of the base flange with less cut out in the back and host up the head flange later tonight.


Thanks for the suggestion, keep them coming.

 

Everything on the sides and top of the plenum can be contructed by cutting sheets, tubing and mandrel bends into the correct shape, and welding.

The neck can either be hand formed, cast, or redesigned to utilize the outside radius of a bend and a tube piercing it.

The hard part is the complex sunken bottom. You would be much better off designing it as a flush plate with 4 holes, with velocity stacks inside the holes, then a transition from round to square on the runners. Otherwise this part with require complex tooling.

 

Beepy, do you mean I should use a standard round velocity stack and then taper the runner from round on the plenum side to a rounded-over rectangular shape on the head flange?

Also, is it better to have an inside radius from the raised runner inlet to the plenum floor, like I have designed into this manifold. Or a sharp corner like can be seen in the drawing below? The drawing is a weak attempt at a cross-sectional look at the middle of the runner area. I have found quite a bit on raising and adding a radius to the runner inlets working better, but nothing on the topic of how you deal with the plenum floor edge.


http://www.utdsm.org/gallery/v...ision

 

Oh, sorry. I didn't elaborate.

Basically, if you look at airstream analysis of a part like this, the floor of the plenum isn't important to what goes on inside the bell or velocity stack. You might have disqusting flow separation on the floor of the plenum, but you will have clean flow at the neck of the stack, where it is important.

So, in effect, it doesn't really matter if there is a nice radius going up to the stack, or if the stack starts in the floor, or if it just sticks up inside the plenum.... The job of the bell is to smooth flow into the runner. For the sake of making this part buildable, I would simplify this part.

So, just imagine drawing a plane across the lowest point of the plenum, deleting everything inside, then piercing the bottom with 4 simple velocity stacks. This would be easier and would do the same thing as your design. Round velocity stacks that then transition into the shape you want in the runner would be better than square velocity stacks, which will cause turbulence.

Also, if you look at pictures of many custom manifolds, they are made this way.

 

I have seen dyno proven results though that showed getting the runners up off the floor of the plenum made for considerable gains. Both manifolds used the same radius and shape on the inlet of the port, but one had the runners about 20mm up off the floor of the plenum. The other had a radius from the floor directly into the runner. The raised runner manifold made more torque across the board and made about 20 more HP on the top end on a mid 500 HP turbocharged 2.0L.

 

THATS SOME DAMN GOOD KNOWLEDGE THERE!

THE EZIER WAY ROXX!!!

 

So... Get the stacks off the bottom of the plenum. Don't just raise the bottom of the plenum like in your design.

 

The top of the stacks are off the bottom of the plenum. The floor of the plenum is like 20mm lower then the face of the stacks.

Or are you suggesting only individual stacks that sit above the floor?

 

http://www.emachineshop.com/

I've not ordered from them, but I thought it might be useful. Good luck.

--Niles

 

eMachineshop =

They make you download the software and design parts, then after you spend all of that time remaking your model in their software, you click the "price" button and it is usually INSANE. They wanted $285 to make a damned flange that BMC racing later charged me $32 for.