Project "Endless Challenge" 4l80E, dry sumped 500 wedge

[IMNCARN82]

      

[Tubbed440]

Did a little more work today.  Took me a while to get my tungsten balled correctly to get a good burn.



Made the plenum parts today too.





Took a while to get it dialed in.  I'm not exactly there yet, but getting there.

[conv340]

Just caught up on your project. You sure know how to make a lot of work for yourself  I like it! Love to see this kinda stuff.

[Tubbed440]

Just caught up on your project. You sure know how to make a lot of work for yourself  I like it! Love to see this kinda stuff.

Yea, well, better than shelling out money that I don't have. 

Made a little more progress tonight after work.  This thing is coming together really well.  Better than I expected, that's for sure.

I think I'm starting to get a hang of this aluminum TIG stuff.


Here's one side fitted to it's plate.




Twins!!!



Top and bottom are now fitted.






Now we're getting somewhere. 



I actually installed the top portions on the intake runners up-side down.  You can see the lower portion of the plenum looks a little wide because of that.  I'll take it apart and change that tomorrow.



All in all, I think it's going to look like one sexy beast!!!

[Kapteenikosmos]

Great work with the intake! 

Does the GM tranny fit the Challenger without modifying the front crossmember?

[Tubbed440]

Great work with the intake! 

Does the GM tranny fit the Challenger without modifying the front crossmember?

Well, to tell you the truth, I have not gotten that far yet.  I've got my engine at work right now along with the trans, and I'm using the engine as a fixture to weld the intake up.  After I finish the intake, I'll take all this stuff home and try and fit it in the Challenger.  I would imagine to get my driveline angle right that I will have to cut the trans tunnel out and modify the rear crossmember kinda like Nstgl did on his challenger to get that trans of his to fit.

[Oldschool]

Lookin' Good!       

[Tubbed440]

Got some more done this afternoon.  I'm not so sure I like this, hence the reason I have not welded it all the way up yet.

Here's some red-neck fixturing to hold the throttle body mount while it gets tacked in.



Here it is all tacked up.

[The Cuda Guy]

That is awesome work. You got some tallant bro!

Don

[Tubbed440]

I'm definitely not a pro at this, but I did some reading and changed a couple things (the tungsten and some of my method) and got a little better results.  I have now finished welding the bottom part and plenum of the intake.  Now I need to make the frame for the top and weld that in - then weld the injector bungs in.  After that, mount the fuel rails, the top and let it ride.   Oh, and I need to go inside the manifold and grind down the runner welds and epoxy all the seams.  This will make it easier to smooth out on the inside. 

Here's a couple shots of the finished welding (well, for today at least). 






















Again, not the best in the world, but the next one will be a lot better. :nod:

[ntstlgl1970]

Damn that looks great! I like it

[Tubbed440]

Started blending everything in today.  I need to go by and get some more material before I make the top, so I did this to help get me a little closer to being done.   You can see in this pic there are some low spots in the runner that I will have to use Dev-con epoxy on to bring them up.



Some of them are perfect though.



It's tough to weld the thin to the thick and not get heat distortion or pits - you can see that here.





Here's the inside where I welded the runners to the plenum.  Knowing what I know now, I would have just left them un-welded and used the epoxy to seal them in.  I'm not sure what I'm going to do about that just yet, but I may just grind them flush with the plenum face - or take the easy way out and epoxy them to smooth them out.







All of the inner seams in the plenum are getting epoxy to help smooth them out also.

[Tubbed440]

Welded and machined the seal rail for the top of the plenum today.  Hopefully, I'll get a whole lot further tomorrow.

[Tubbed440]

Got the holes drilled and tapped in the plenum seal.  Crap part is, I need to re-weld it because I got over-zealous making everything flat and cut my weld down to nothing.  It cracked in a few places when I started drilling and tapping.  No biggie.  Nothing a little heat can't solve.



Here it is with it's new lid.  This one is going to hit the scrap pile.  I should have looked at it better before I cut it out.  It's got a TON of scratches on it that will not buff out.







Tomorrow, I'll cut the injector bung holes and weld those in.  There's a couple more things to do it, but none that need the engine as a jig anymore.

[Tubbed440]

Fuel rail bungs......