Siamesed Plenums

[davemgb]

If anyone is thinking of doing their own layup I would recommend two books which both appear to still be obtainable through amazon.

Successful Composite Techniques by Keith Noakes
Automotive Fibreglass by Dennis Foy

If after reading those you decide to have a go there are guys here who can point you to sensible sources of materials.

Dave

[seight]

You're a brave man Adam.

I bought my ACT setup off ebay (it turned out to be from Richard Smith at Westfield) for £300. If I remember correctly it's the 65mm version with an adapted hotwire throttle. They cut the throttle part off a std plenum and bond it to a square plate so it can be bolted to the carbon plenum flange.

You could get a throttle body off a gems range rover which would work a treat they are around 70mm. I bought one off ebay for about £50 (as a possible upgrade), it was either that or try and find something from a US V8.

If you make a plenum yourself then you'll need to wait till your engine is in and your body is fitted otherwise you won't be able to gauge the clearance to your bonnet.

You know Barry in the WSCC - his old rover engined car needed 10mm taking off the bottom of the trumpet base before the ACT plenum would fit whereas mine fits no problem (I have about 3mm clearance). Having said that I've got a ported trumpet base + manifold from V8D which may have been machined at some point.

Mike

[adamnreeves]

Brave, no just niave. I was actual thinking that I should do this once engine is in but I think it will take me a long time to learn fibre glassing techniques and expecting to have to produce a number of versions I could probably sell the 3rd generation onwards on Ebay .

One of my post SVA future upgrades will be full throttle bodies I think anyway, but prior to SVA keeping it simple even if it does steal some power!

To be honest I just do not want to spend £500 plus for a plenum chamber.

Thanks for sharing the knowlege on the throttle for Gems, I shall source one of those.

You're a brave man Adam.

I bought my ACT setup off ebay (it turned out to be from Richard Smith at Westfield) for £300. If I remember correctly it's the 65mm version with an adapted hotwire throttle. They cut the throttle part off a std plenum and bond it to a square plate so it can be bolted to the carbon plenum flange.

You could get a throttle body off a gems range rover which would work a treat they are around 70mm. I bought one off ebay for about £50 (as a possible upgrade), it was either that or try and find something from a US V8.

If you make a plenum yourself then you'll need to wait till your engine is in and your body is fitted otherwise you won't be able to gauge the clearance to your bonnet.

You know Barry in the WSCC - his old rover engined car needed 10mm taking off the bottom of the trumpet base before the ACT plenum would fit whereas mine fits no problem (I have about 3mm clearance). Having said that I've got a ported trumpet base + manifold from V8D which may have been machined at some point.

Mike

[seight]

This image from Spagweb shows the throttle on the right. You just need the body itself, the part with the yellow sticker on which is held on by 4 screws.

Mike

[pitsnow]

If you are likely to change in the future anyway, why don't you buy or fabricate one of the Westfield aluminium plenums? You could do all your SVA and MOT with this set-up.
If you use a controller like Megasquirt, VEMS, Emerald, Omex..... it would help you as you could loose the air flow meter = less space required on the back of the plenum.
Changing over to throttle bodies would be no issue with those controllers.
And it would give you a change in getting used to the power.
Once you are ready (or if you want more power) you install the ITB's.

[adamnreeves]

This is actually the approach I wanted to take but someone said it would not fit under the bonnet. I know you said the siamese one wouldn't. Do I need to move the thorttle body to one end of the plenum then?

I am going megasquirt/jolt route anyway.

Like you say give me chance to get used to power and give me some later upgrade options.

If you are likely to change in the future anyway, why don't you buy or fabricate one of the Westfield aluminium plenums? You could do all your SVA and MOT with this set-up.
If you use a controller like Megasquirt, VEMS, Emerald, Omex..... it would help you as you could loose the air flow meter = less space required on the back of the plenum.
Changing over to throttle bodies would be no issue with those controllers.
And it would give you a change in getting used to the power.
Once you are ready (or if you want more power) you install the ITB's.

[seight]

Yep, definitely got to move the throttle. You can always use sufficient air hose to get your filter under the nearside vent at the back of the bonnet. This is what most people do but is depends on what scuttle you have with your bodywork. If it has a plain flat front in the engine compartment then you are ok and you can put your air filter under the vent. If you've got the one with all the mouldings (usually for a factory built car or fully modular build) then there's a big moulding in the way and people usually have the air filter in the middle (like the photos of Grahams old orange car on his site below).

Have a look at Graham Smith's site for a bit more info:
(follow the links at the top to view the different setups)
http://www.seight.net/induction.htm

And don't forget Eliot's too for useful photos of the Westfield factory version including how it's made:
http://www.mez.co.uk/westfield/index.html

Mike

[adamnreeves]

Cheers for the URLs looks very intersting. I shall read those at length from Home later. Regarding the mouldings, I have an air vent on the nose cone, an air vent on the bonnet and the scuttle internal bit that goes in the bay is level but inclined about 40degrees or so.

- Adam

Yep, definitely got to move the throttle. You can always use sufficient air hose to get your filter under the nearside vent at the back of the bonnet. This is what most people do but is depends on what scuttle you have with your bodywork. If it has a plain flat front in the engine compartment then you are ok and you can put your air filter under the vent. If you've got the one with all the mouldings (usually for a factory built car or fully modular build) then there's a big moulding in the way and people usually have the air filter in the middle (like the photos of Grahams old orange car on his site below).

Have a look at Graham Smith's site for a bit more info:
(follow the links at the top to view the different setups)
http://www.seight.net/induction.htm

And don't forget Eliot's too for useful photos of the Westfield factory version including how it's made:
http://www.mez.co.uk/westfield/index.html

Mike