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Chad Robinson wrote:
Are you happy with your composite manifold? I waffled on this for a long time before ditching the plan. I'm back to fabbing from aluminum, and I'm just starting to lay out the pieces for a welder. (I figure I'll have him fab the manifold + long runner tube assembly as one piece, fab the intake flange plus up+over tubes as another, then figure out the final cut/fit for him to do the final join.) A few years ago I sent a gallon of some sort of high-temp, high-strength epoxy to somebody on this list, I forgot who, and never heard back so I figured the idea was dead.
Happy with the manifold? Hmmm?
I'm happy with the composite construction. I used the higher-end MGS epoxy. It is really hard after it sets, but easy to work with. The West System stuff that I've been using for micro is soft in comparison. Lesson I learned from Steve Brooks: If you want to sand and shape a part after it is cured, use West Systems instead of MGS. Those fills and fairings made from MGS micro are as hard as granite.
Physically, the composite intake has performed well for the few test trials I've done. I have no flying hours on it, and only a couple hours of ground runs at most.
I'm not so happy with my design. But I wouldn't be happy with this design if it were made from aluminum either. It's performance sucks, though I have managed to modify it so that my EGTs fall much closer. They were 300* apart.
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