My race program is leaning toward running a procharged & to keep things low, I'm looking for someone who can build a Max Wedge port B engine intake manifold with a throttle body flange on the front. Who do you suggest I ask that won't rape my wallet?

Marcella.

There is nothing cheap about sheet metal intakes. On top of that, I have seen a lot of carnage with Gen # Hemi's, turbo's and backfires. TRE, Hogan, Marcela are all excellent companies.

A member built a nice setup I dont know if he posts much but he may still have it for sale? It was on a procharged setup

thestigjr was his handle

Hemphill used to build a ton. Probably still does.

M&M in Indianapolis builds a nice piece at a fair price.

I went through a long process of selecting a builder for my sheet metal intake for my hemi. Spoke to many vendors and some very reputable and others not so much. What I learned was that if you want a custom intake find some one who has built exactly what you are looking for previously. Meaning they have the all the tooling and jigs to build a manifold that will fit perfectly. If not you are looking at sending block and heads to get it built correctly unless they happen to have the a block with same deck in house. In the end I selected Hogan to build my manifold. It was not cheap but in my opinion really good value.

My question: why is sheet metal better than fabricated from castings and structural shapes? Why is it aluminum instead of mild steel? Why metal at all?
Larry Widmer explained building a manifold from plastic and Super Glue 30 years ago... for Pro Stock.
Why not?
Vic Edelbrock didn't like it.

- mild steel, needs plating or painting unless moly is used
- castings - someone needs to offer castings in the shape needed.
- structural shapes? Same as a casting - needs to be close what what is needed.
Items 2 and 3 would require more porting/finishing than sheet material. Plus it would weigh more, the racers enemy.

Plastic offers less protection from bursting in case of backfire.

The better cast manifolds I've seen have far better internal shapes than fabricated.

TRE did a great job for our setup

Can’t speak for all classes of drag racing but in Super Stock you will never again see a cast manifold on any competitive race hemi or six barrel Mopar Drag car in Super Stock.

Cast cross rams, rat roasters, factory six barrel, STR’s - extinct.

Any shape that can be cast can be fabricated.

It’s just my guess but I think besides a straight runner - the plenum is what most guys spend time flogging.

Great pic Edge, are there any more pics like Edge's for us to look at & compare?

Marcella or HRE

A friend of mine used CFE for his W8 heads and EFI intake for a twin turbo build. Does Wilson make sheet metal intakes?

I would think carbon fiber would be the best - strong, can be made into almost any shape, any taper runner, lightest, etc. Most expensive to make more than likely. Those F1 types can afford all of that.


I've thought about making some paired runners in a casting that could be CNC machined to match any port size for a SB or BB Mopar. Only reason for this is NSS rules where they want a cast manifold.

HRE FTW. I had a $4500 Marcella Intake. Needless to say it is now gone and HRE is currently building a proper intake for mine.

What didn't you like about the Marcella intake?

I've made a few intakes. You definitely need heads and block to get it right if anything is not standard. Aluminum moves around a lot when welding. The intake needs to start off bigger than needed, then finished to fit.
I am not soliciting work here. this kind of stuff is a hobby for me. The intake in these pics cost less than $140 including the home built throttle bodies. It would have been more expensive to buy a cast intake, not to mention that the ports were raised beyond any standard offering.

I'm curious too. First I heard about a problem with his intake design (has to be design, the fab is incredible).

The intake was definitely very nice fit finish and workmanship. The design was 100% wrong for the application. Runners to long, plenum floor/port entry was wrong and plenum size was wrong. The intake had so much reversion on the dyno we gave up on it. When the top was removed it was fairly clear it was very unhappy there. Still made decent power but peaked well below where it should have. Those issues were noted by us and pointed out by others before we even ran it on the dyno, but we assumed it would work fairly well. In the end they were right and I am having a new one done that will be a completely different design.