Disclaimer: The instructions below are what I did to my car and can be used as a "guide" for working on yours. But, I take no responsibility for what you decide to do to your car. Be sure to read through all of the instructions first before doing anything to your vehicle.

Purpose: The 90° neck of the manifold is the major problem of the whole manifold. It only has a 55mm x 45mm opening, which means if you're using a 55mm or larger throttle body it's really killing your airflow. Ideally you'd want to cut off the neck and weld the TB flange so the TB sits horizontally and completely eliminates the 90° bend. It would also be easier to do that than do what I did, but since I've gotta pass the visual test for Cali emissions, I have to keep the EGR bolted on just for looks.

Application: 1st Generation '95-'99 DOHC Dodge Neons

Time Required: 5 hrs

Scale of Difficulty: 5 (5 being the hardest)

Cost: $20

Tools Required:

• Spare DOHC Aluminum Intake Manifold (recommended ~$80)
• 1/4" Aluminum Plates
• Plenum Spacer ($115 @ Vitor's) -- recommended, but not necessary
• Throttle Body Spacer ($40 @ Vitor's) -- optional
• Jig Saw w/ metal blade
• Sawz-All w/ metal blade
• Dremel w/ flexible wand
• Cylinder High Speed cutter ($5 Wal-Mart)
• Cone High Speed cutter ($5 Wal-Mart)
• Drill & 1/8" up to 1/2" bits
• Goggles
• WD-40
• Cardboard
• TIG Welding

I opened up the 90° bend in two ways: (1) Making it more of a 45° bend by welding a new roof on and (2) Cutting out the side and welding a new one in to make the opening wider.

1. Take your cutter and cut out the roof of the 90° bend as shown in the pics. I also cut out the side of the 90° bend that faces the radiator when installed. (See pics)

The Red arrows show the turtle bumps filled with JB Weld. The Blue lines are where I cut the side off and the dotted blue lines show how far out I moved the wall.

2. Clean up all the cuts so you will have smooth surfaces when you go to weld the new sides and roof in. Get your pieces of cardboard or cardstock and trace out the shapes you'll need.

3. Trace your cardboard templates onto some scraps of aluminum plates and cut out the new shape, then TIG weld it in place. Do the roof first and then the sides. I re-used some of the pieces I cut off to fill some of the gaps.