Work is a little slow this week so I managed to sort out the intake manifold. Its not finished but with only the TB flange, underbracing brakets and a mounting plate its very close.
After doing the work, if someone gave me the option of an off the shelf unit or make your own,I think I would still make my own unless it was from Cosworth, HKS,Tomie or the likes. The USA units are nice but still do not completely get my attention for one reason or another but they do have my attention with some of their exhaust manifolds which I may explore at a leter stage.
I did a little bit of study, looks at other units then basically rip,tear, bust in the shed for a few hours to come up with the unit that will be fitted to my car. The welding was done by a 77yr old, Korean ship builder. Its not pretty like a lot of others out there, but it wont leak, wont break and its my own design which keeps me interested in the project.
As expected I had to make a hole in the boot to fit the manifold. I didnt pussy around, just had a look started up the angle grinder and started cutting. The hole is bigger than required but I now have improved cooling...
So it will be fitted by early next week with all the wiring completed by the following weekend.
Here are the pic's

mmmm pretty

lovely jubblies :)

I hit the manifold with a wire brush today to clean it up a little along with a few other jobs. The TB flange is now in place along with the brace mounting points under the manifold. Just need to locate the throttle cable brace and it can be fitted. All in all it was a pretty quick conversion. Very interesting to see the difference with this unit and the standard unit. Only a few weeks then back on track.

So, the manifold is now 100% complete, fitted and ready to go. It runs two support brackets which were left over rose jointed adjustable sway bar links. Fit well, work well.. 
The Gorilla industries 800cc injectors have also been fitted in addition 90% of the ECU loom completed.
New coils will be fitted tomorrow.
 
 

Just an update. Almost ready to start the car again. After dropping the sump we found a pretty fresh engine in the car.
Wiring is complete, individual coils fitted, Apexi boost controller is sorted, ECU is ready to boot up, oil cooler has been relocated with a new shroud to improve cooling issues, intercooler is now located on the passenger side to improve rear view, new digital gauges are far better than the other units in the car.
I have a new wing for the car. A big one, a really BIG one. It covers the entire rear of the car but will need new mounting points which will be done once the car is running.
Hopefully it will produce more downforce than drag..
Also fitted the new front CroMo lower control arm links but will need a suspension tune before the track.
Here a some pic's


 
 

The car went in for its first dyno tune with all the updates/mods fitted over the last three months. There were some teething issues as it really needed a few more hours work before the dyno tune to eliminate the issues experienced.
I pick the car up tomorrow with a assessment over the tune along with some paperwork. I happy to say all the mod's have been a success including the home made plenum as it now has 300hp/235kw at the wheels.
More detailed info will be available tomorrow. Needless to say Im very very happy with the results.
1000kg/235rwkw. This will be a lot of fun.
Also securing a second driver for a assault on the Winton 300 in October/November, so all going to plan. The car will be running slicks for this event. Anyone interested in being part of this event can PM or make not on the thread.
 
Big thanks to Alister at Powerplay, Dylan, 2Hardtop, Robk, Surok for their help.   

very nice. Any chance of getting the plot up sometime? would be great to see

I will have it up tomorrow night.

winton hey? thats not far from here:)