Cam and I built one of these David Vizard budget flow benches

[Harlard]

Just for what it's worth, your power ceiling without a turbo will be about 160 whp.

I'm assuming this is NA for some reason.

[redblockpowered]

There are a few project cars this here flowbench research applies to, one of which is NA.

My 940 - this is just my normal car that I use to get places
Racecar - for lemons racing
Dad's friend's 244 - fast weekend car

Different solutions make sense for each.

[culberro]

Originally Posted by redblockpowered

Intake manifold swap seems outside of the scope of this (my) project. I like the cast KL one, the work and expense required is probably not worthwhile at this power level.

Depends on how in the weeds a ported B230F manifold still is, I suppose.

Either way you still have a Volvo 8V head.

So klr142s General Leif makes like 155whp (so assuming about 180 crank) with a modified k-jet intake (bigger tb, and some smoothing I believe).

That same engine, head, and camshaft combo will usually make 220 crank hp with ITBs or DCOEs. So that's a significant amount of power on the table with just the induction side.

A well warmed over 8v head can still do 260+ crank hp...

[shoestring]

Originally Posted by culberro

I'm not sure what you have for a welder, but you can do decent work with a spool gun and a mig with aluminum. It definitely takes practice, but it's a much lower barrier to enter with.

We've got a Miller 211, so that's not the bottleneck.

[culberro]

Originally Posted by shoestring

We've got a Miller 211, so that's not the bottleneck.

Zap zap

[redblockpowered]

My project = my car. Oops. Highly doubt I'll be touching 160 whp suction engine power (as they say) in the 940. In addition, welded up modded B230 intake is much less objectionable on a race car.

[Harlard]

Do as you wish, but bothering with that intake manifold is an abject waste of time and consumables.

[Swedbrick]

Originally Posted by shoestring

Dude I wish I could tell you that we have the means to do that. Unfortunately we would have to send the head out to have that done. It's now extremely clear to me that it's the intake side, not the exhaust, that needs all the help it can get, because of the manifold.

I'd think you'd be able to spend some time there with a dremel continously checking as you go to get it done. The big problem would be the new pistons you need to get it to work.

As for the intake barring finding a suitable 2.0-2.5L stock manifold from another brand, the b21f setup appears to be the way to go.

[crogthomas]

Interesting stuff. Nice job.
I built my own flow bench a few years ago too. What surprised me is that it was really simple to do and it can be really accurate too. You've done the hard work. All you would need to do to measure actual flow rates is add a orifice of a known size between the head and the vacuum source with another manometer across it. You can either calculate the flow rate of the orifice, or get it measured on a known bench, then every pressure drop you measure across your head can be related to that orifice using a simple equation.
An AMM is a nice idea, but really difficult to calibrate. Manometers are very accurate. They are what would be used in a lab to calibrate flow devices anyway, so they only lose out in terms of user friendliness.

I think you did the right thing to reposition the manometer to the bore adaptor. The spark plug hole will be experiencing air flow across it, but you really need the manometer to be in relatively still air, to measure the pressure drop across the head as a whole. The larger you can make the chamber immediately under the bore adaptor the better. I used a 1m length of 4" soil pipe which seemed work well, but a large diameter drum of some sort would be better.

I can back up your findings about inlet manifolds. On a B230 530 head at 12mm valve lift I got about 138 CFM@28"H2O with a plasticine flow smoother on the inlet to give the best case scenario for that type of head. With the standard B230 inlet manifold added on that dropped to 120 CFM@28"H2O.