Stage II sheet metal valve covers, efi intake conversion and plenum

M

Mike E

Mr. Badwrench
Joined
Oct 9, 2006
I've got a friends mustang in my shop right now, so I can't do much work to my buick. In the mean time, I'm going to tackle a few smaller projects.

I've been wanting to make some sheetmetal valve covers for a while now and my aluminum welding is getting decent enough that I don't mind showing it off. To this point I've drawn everything up in cad and made prints of my patterns. The material showed up Monday so this weekend it's time to start cutting.

I wanted to do something different with the plenum/ elbow. The sheetmetal portion will be made from 5 seperate bent sections of aluminum. Not the usual rolled sheetmetal version that I normally make. This one will be a bit more time consuming, but it is going on my car afterall.

cad drawings
stagesheetmetalparts-1.png

stagesheetmetalpartslayout.png


A rolled sheetmetal plenum I just finished for someone else here.
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The efi conversion has already been underway.

I made fuel rails first. Then I found the center of the ports. The bore spacing on a buick v6 is 4.24" so that's the spacing between the ports also.

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Then I installed the bungs and machined them to size.
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Next up is making the fuel rail mounts.
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Valve cover flanges are done. I won't cut these on a manual mill again, what a pain. If I make another set, they will be water jet cut.

IMG_0332.jpg
 
MeanMike said:
Valve cover flanges are done. I won't cut these on a manual mill again, what a pain. If I make another set, they will be water jet cut.
Click to expand...

Mike, any news on the valve covers? I am sure you are busy with lots of projects, was curious to see how these were coming along. I am sure they are going to be amazing, just like the plenum!
 
No progress lately. I've had a friends mustang in my shop for a couple months and it just left yesterday. The buick is back in the shop now so I can get back on it. I've got all the material here. Most everything is cut to shape. I need to use a friends sheetmetal brake to bend everything and then weld it all up.
 
I took a break from all my other shop projects for the night and decided to do all the sheetmetal work on my valve covers and plenum. Everything is bent on the valve covers and most of the plenum. Just some more touch up work on the valve covers and a couple strips to bend up for the plenum, then everything is ready to weld. I completely understand why sheetmetal valvecovers cost what they do, these are a lot of work to get everything to fit right and I still have a couple hours of welding for each one.

The aluminum is actually covered in a protective cover of clear pvc, so the marks you see are in the pvc, the aluminum is scratch free.
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Wow, wow, wow!!! Simply amazing! You have some mad skills for sure Mike! They look great!
 
Put me in line for a set of the V. covers..... (next year) I know u have a ton of work to do..
Great work Mike!
 
Those look amazing brother!!! Care to share how many hours you have into the pair? I am curious mainly how many hours on the welding. I know you said cutting the flanges was a pain, and you'd waterjet next time. They look really top notch man!
 
About 2 1/2 hours of welding. 4 hours for cutting, bending and fitting the sheetmetal. 3 hours to machine the flanges and bolt standoffs. ~$80 in material, cutting tools and overhead (my home shop has very little overhead). If I was mass producing them, I could cut that time down a little, but I don't do mass production.

From memory. Billet Fabrication gets about $350-$400 for a set of sbc or sbf valve covers. My welding isn't near as nice as theirs is though.
 
MeanMike said:
About 2 1/2 hours of welding. 4 hours for cutting, bending and fitting the sheetmetal. 3 hours to machine the flanges and bolt standoffs. ~$80 in material, cutting tools and overhead (my home shop has very little overhead). If I was mass producing them, I could cut that time down a little, but I don't do mass production.

From memory. Billet Fabrication gets about $350-$400 for a set of sbc or sbf valve covers. My welding isn't near as nice as theirs is though.
Click to expand...

That is not too bad. I expected a lot more hours expended because they look really great! You did an outstanding job. I am jealous of those fab skills, and your welding looks great too!

Very nice!
 
I finished up the fuel rail mounts on the intake and welded up the elbow last night. I'm not sure I like the elbow as much as I thought I would. The weld really takes away from the sharper corners of the bends. But the inside is much smoother than the typical fabbed piece.

CIMG0906.jpg
 
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