Well the time has come where I am getting bored so I need to start modifying engine parts. I have ported a few manifolds back in the day with great results modified oem H22 intake manifold - Honda-Tech but now its time for the TSX to get a little treatment.
My idea is to keep this manifold as simple as possible and improve on the casting and shape imperfections that I see. I would love to build a custom intake manifold but tuning options are slim (thanx for nothing Hondata). I have been waiting for years for a nice Flash Pro system for our cars, so until then a custom intake manifold will stay in the back burner.
I have beaten the intake manifold theory and design discussion over the head in other forums, so I wont be going too deep on that matter. This thread will be a procedure on how to gain a few extra HP with a little elbow grease and time. I will be posting the step by step porting of my 07 TSX manifold and share a few tips and tricks over the process.
Here's a pic to get started til I get my digital camera lens to work
Good on you for cutting a stock intake in half to port it out!
You made the right choice with starting with a 2006 & up intake manifold.
The slightly larger 64mm 2006 & up throttle will bolt right up & is plug & play on the 2004 & 05 TSX's with a 2006+ IM.
The 2004-05 TB is 60mm & of a different design.
My preference would be to extrude hone the stock intake manifold but it's really pricey for perhaps modest gains.
Easiest & cheapest it to bolt a Euro R or Civic short runner OEM intake but those really compromise low end torque.
o you fancy huh!? but really people told me to get a pro to do this with professional equipment but i guess if you've done it before all props to you and do you have a link of the thread you mentioned? o btw you rock haha
I have all the tools and knowledge I need, prob more than the pros do lol. So on with the thread...
OK I will make this quick.....The long intake runners allow this manifold to achieve the great torque numbers at lower rpm. As air rushes towards the intake valve its builds up speed and its static pressure lowers as the result. Once the intake valve closes this rushing air hits the back of the valve, slows down and in turn its static pressure rises. This rise in pressure causes a higher static pressure than the rest of the manifold where air is moving around to the other cylinders. This pressure change causes shock waves that travel up and down the intake runners. Helmholtz frequency waves can in turn be used to push air down in the cylinder. As the valve gets ready to open up again, frequency waves can help push more air down the cylinder from it traveling from the plenum and back. The optimum frequency wave is usually known by looking at torque curves as the torque curve of an engine is tied directly to its volumetric efficiency.
What does this mean about our cars. The intake side is greatly influenced by the exhaust side and the cam overlap between the intake and exhaust side. The 04-05 years have smaller intake runners and smaller exhaust tubes. The 06-08 have bigger intake tubes and exhaust tubes, but Honda fixed the tourque peak problem by giving these years different camshafts that change the overlap between the intake and exhaust side. This way the low end torque didnt suffer and the engine gained more top end. What will I see on my 04 by changing to a bigger manifold and TB. Well, an increase in the top end for sure but also a shift on the torque peak RPM. It will take a few more RPM to make the same torque, but it the torque difference will be so minimal that I will only notice the top gains.
Things I noticed about the TSX intake manifold...... This manifold suffers from a few things and will never be a performer manifold, but it does its job ok for torque purposes.
1) Small plenum (the smaller the more throttle response and better part throttle engagement, also good for MPG's)
2) Thin casting ( makes shaping it tricky and blowing through is easy)
3) #4 and #1 runner openings are very oddly shaped ( totally different from the middle two runners, not good for high RPM)
4) Plenum ends short on #1 runner ( It almost hits the alternator so I can understand why they made it this way, but again not great for high RPM).
5) Runner openings are squarish ( not good for high RPM gains).
6) Casting imperfections ( although better then usual Honda manifolds)
Things to improve.....
1) The intake runner opening need to be reshaped. This is where most gains will be achieved.
2) Clean up casting imperfections (plenum and runners)
3) Match the two halfs. Where the manifold bolts together with the injector base I noticed that they didnt match 100%. This is due to cooling effects as parts will vary with shrinkage.
4) Match the manifold to the head
5) Make my own heat shield IM gasket. The Hondata one leaves way too much of an opening around the intake runners. This causes little pockets where vortexes can occur.
The intake runner opening and their squarish meet up. Hard to tell from this pic. I will take some more later on.
On with the tools to use for this project...
Since I will not be bolting up a bigger TB or greatly porting the plenum no CNC's will be used. Just great old hand work. My choice are carbide porting tools and flap wheels.
Flap wheels are great. They last long, they are cheap, come in almost every imaginable size and grit. My favorite thing about them is using them to reshape the runner openings. Also with the extension they can go up and down the intake runners to clean up casting imperfections. They also allow for even porting.
No flow benching done before. I was too excited to cut into it. Runner 4 and 1 are different than the other two that the numbers would of been different, plus flow benching is not the best tool to use to determine intake manifold flow. It only represents a steady state in the intake manifold. In the real world things like reverse flow from each runner, shock waves from valve openings, manifold shape, etc is what will determine the flow to each cylinder. Im down to let the dyno show the results .
As you can see here these are the problems with stock manifold that can be fixed.
Now it is starting to take shape. The corners are getting rounder and the edge of the bellmouth is getting a bigger radius and and rounder edge.
More rounding in between the runners and around the edge of the bellmouth leads to the picture below. Great detail to hand paths is paid here. A long time is taken to reproduce the same shape and hand movement for each runner. The more time spent here the better the results, because if you take too much off you cant just put it back.
As you can see the shape looks great. Nice even round edges and nice round radii. This should definitely increase flow into each cylinder.
Looking good bro; can't wait to see dyno results when they come together. might just earn you a PT job if the results are promising. I watched numerous members on LS1tech turn into overnight PT intake track porters when they could prove positive dyno numbers and were willing offer their service for reasonable price.
Well the top half of the manifold is completely finished. Everything looks great and I'm very happy with my porting. Here's a pic of the top half.
Last weekend I had some time and worked on the bottom half. First I want to say how disappointed I am at Honda for mating the two halfs together. None of the runners merged right at all. The lower and top half had holes that had as much as 1/8" off course.
To smooth them out I bolted the two half together and sprayed red paint inside the ID. The red paint showed me how much I was off. From here I ported and flapped to the direction of the port until all the ports matched. Another long port session but the results are great. Now all the runners meet perfectly with each other.
The only thing left to do is the cut off part of the top half. The castings on the part are horrible some of the roughest I have seen. Here is a sneak pic.
Excellent work! Even a noob like me can see the differences between the stock intake and the ported intake. That looks so much more conducive to airflow.
I'm excited to see the results. Also, I wish I had a little of that talent! :lol:
I had some time to tackle the top piece that was cut off. It is now smoothed out, and the bumps for the bolt holes will be welded in. This is how everything looks so far.
I also had some time to blend in the throttle body to the manifold. Again like everything so far it was not matched. I went to town with the carbide tool then went back in with 3 different grit wheels to blend everything in smooth like it should of been from the factory.
There was a nasty step from the front and back of the throttle body. This was caused when the throttle was bored to accept the brass plate. The boring left an undesired step from the rest of the cast, so I went in and smoothed everything out, giving it the TB a nice transition. Sorry no before pics.
First off, shout out to @tr3flip for coming up with this method. He saved me a load of work.
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TSX Club is the perfect forum for Acura TSX fans and Owners, where you can discuss concerns about reliability or how to upgrade your TSX with mods and accessories.
