SMIM V.S. Cast Aluminum Intake Manifold

[RoasT BeeF]

For what it's worth, buschur did a back to back dyno test on a bunch of different intake manifolds for the Evo. He gave break downs and dyno charts on each manifold. Only one of the manifolds was cast, and it performed the best. AMS no longer offeres the sheet metal style intake manifold for the Evo and have since switched to cast saying it out performs the old style. Though I cant say why, but it does seem cast is better.

 

[HighPSI TSi Guy]

Though I thought it was common sense It seems a misconception and someone is going to have to clarify:

Sheet metal vs cast - material is irrelevent - It's the design that matters!

 

[1gDSM4g63]

Well I don't know how Hawver compares to JM Fab or Magnus performance wise. Hawver isn't really a big thing on forums so I assumed that it wasn't a big thing so I never look deeply into them while JM Fab and Magnus SMIMs are. Thus I decided to go for a JM Fab with a Q45 throttle body because I heard that Magnus have cracked and are more liable to crack from stories.

 

[Cassera]

Yeah I think Im leaning towards a SMIM for the simple fact that I cant seem to get any personal experiences of the CAIM.

Im not a BOLD man

 

[RipperXX]

Might be due to the fact that the plenum on the cast doesn't have all the hard edges and corners, creating dead zones in the manifold. But thats just my theory.

 

[dsm-onster]

Most manifolds like the jmf drag smim (beyond redline, dv/dt jmf drag) have little to no "flat spots" and "corners"

 

[Boosted98gsx]

Might be due to the fact that the plenum on the cast doesn't have all the hard edges and corners, creating dead zones in the manifold. But thats just my theory.

It's much worse than just dead zones that corners produce in a plenum. Square joints are subjected to maximum shear stress from the pressure differentials inside a manifold. Especially when you have heat affected zones from welds at those points.

 

[daren_p]

Just saw the Magnus cast mani, where have you been for the last year or so Yes, its evo only & don't expect a DSM version anytime soon as I don't think Magnus has any plans to include us. Basically boils down to DSMers being to cheap & not enough market for them. I do know Marco now runs one on his Talon drag car, he's chopped off the cast runners, flipped the mani & welded on sheet metal runners. I'm sure they'd be willing to do this for anyone thats willing to pay for it.

 

[Flash]

Though I thought it was common sense It seems a misconception and someone is going to have to clarify:

Sheet metal vs cast - material is irrelevent - It's the design that matters!

I would say that the material is relevant because the material can allow for freedom in design. You can design a mold to be any shape and the molten aluminum will form to that shape. With sheet metal, you are fairly limited to the complexities in the design.
What I see is not the materials properties themselves but how the raw materials are used.

 

[Cassera]

Just saw the Magnus cast mani, where have you been for the last year or so Yes, its evo only & don't expect a DSM version anytime soon as I don't think Magnus has any plans to include us.

Yeah, DSM-ONSTER stated that already....It does seem to expensive to customize it VS getting a SMIM. For that money I could use it towards a tranny or clutch to support "all this power I plan on making".

Oh and I dont plan on making 500whp or more for a while. Or for the next few years for that matter . More like 400whp (if im lucky)