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.
| REMOVAL / INSTALLATION | POLISHING INSIDE | OPENING 90° BEND | SEPERATING COOLANT SECTION | POLISHING OUTSIDE |
Purpose: Opening up the ports will give you some nice performance gains since you're able to pull more air through the runners.
Application: 1st Generation '95-'99 DOHC Dodge Neons
Time Required: 5-10 hrs. Depends on how in depth you wanna get.
Scale of Difficulty: 5 (5 being the hardest) It's more time consuming than anything.
Cost: $20
Tools Required:
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1. Remove the injector dips. Right below each fuel injector is a recessed dip that blocks a good portion of the air right before it enters the head. Either fill in the dip with JB weld or have it TIG welded. Now you can grind away the dip so it's smooth with the rest of the roof. However, an easier way would be to drill a few holes and then cut the dip out with a jig saw or sawz all. Then, lay some tape down and make a new roof with JB weld or have it TIG welded.
2. With the injector dips gone, you want to open up the ports so they are just slightly smaller than the gasket. That way you can gasket match the ports on the head to get maximum airflow. If, you don't want to mess with porting the head, then just leave the ports on the manifold the size they are so you don't have a lip that will distrupt airflow. In the pic below you can see an obstruction on the side of the wall that sticks out and hinders airflow.
3. Take your "manifold-to-head" gasket and line it up on the manifold. Put the bolts through it to keep it from sliding around. Take a pencil or thin pen and outline the ports of the gasket so you'll know how big you can safely make the ports. Then use an awl to go over them.
4. Now we can concentrate on the entire length of the runner. You want the plenum side of the runner as large as you can safely get and have it gradually taper down as it gets to the head. This will increase velocity which is a good thing. The walls of the runners are relatively thick so you can remove a lot of material. Just don't make it too thin or it will crack and if you go through the walls, patch it up with some JB weld.
5. I tried to point out the problem areas you'll need to grind away in the pics, but you'll know it when you see it. I also knife edged the divider between #2 & #3 since the gasket doesn't seal that area.
6. Take your "plenum-to-runner" gasket and trim it to fit. This will be used as a template for porting the plenum.
1. Open up the throttle body (TB) opening to the size of your TB. If you think you might get a 60mm TB in the future, then now is the time to open up that hole to 60mm.
2. Fill the EGR hole with JB weld and remove the hump next to it. If you cut into one of the screw holes for the EGR, JB to the rescue. Open up the diameter of the neck and the 90° bend as much as you possibly can since that is the weakest link of the entire manifold.
3. If you are eliminating the 90° bend or doing my mod below, then fill the bottom side of the turtles bumps with JB and then completely remove the bumps. I poured a bunch of JB in, covered the opening with some packing tape and then turned the plenum over and let the JB dry overnight. Next, I drilled various 1/2" holes in the turtle humps so there would be less grinding to do, in order to speed up the process. Drilling holes to remove aluminum is 100 times easier than grinding it away.
If you're keeping the 90° somewhat the same stock size then I'd leave the turtles, but make the first one a little shorter and remove the back halves of them. Then polish them really well.
4. For the area that starts to shape into the runners, make sure you open them up to the same size or a little smaller than your runners. Use the gasket as a guide. I also widened the angle from the runner to the plenum when air is being sucked in. Cyl #2 & #4 have the hardest angle to suck in air, so I cut the divider between #2 & #3 in half and thinned it out some. (See pic below)
Purpose: After you've ported your manifold (or even if you didn't) the last step is to polish the inside to a smooth, glass like finish.
Time Required: 5-10 hrs.
Scale of Difficulty: 4 (5 being the hardest) It's more time consuming than anything.
Cost: $20
Tools Required:
1. Start off with the 60 grit and work your way up until you get a nice smooth, glass like surface. I used the 1/2" drum for the larger flat surfaces, the 1/4" drum for narrow edges and the cone cutter for the corners.
Purpose: This is only for appearance reasons. I figured why not, since I had nothing better to do.
Time Required: 5-10 hrs.
Scale of Difficulty: 5 (5 being the hardest) It's more time consuming than anything.
Cost: $20
Tools Required:
1. Start off by cutting/grinding off anything you don't want on there. (i.e. molded numbers, symbols, seams, etc.) Also, if you wanna remove the chunk of metal that holds the stock plastic intake snorkel, remove the metal stud with some pliers or vice grips first. Then carefully drill out the center of it with a 1/2" bit (it'll be easier to cut off now).
2. Use the 60 grit on the larger, flat surfaces to take off the casting flash and the cone cutter in the corners. Then work your way up to the higher grits of sandpaper 'til you get a nice smooth finish. Then finish by wetsanding the entire manifold.
3. Use some aluminum polish to shine it up and seal it with a clear coat.
| REMOVAL/INSTALLATION | PORTING | POLISHING INSIDE | OPENING 90° BEND | SEPERATING COOLANT SECTION |
