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Centermount turbo setup on a k3500

I was a Maintenance Technician in a certified organic cereal plant here in Lincoln. Since it was food processing, everything was stainless steel. Got pretty good at gas shielded MIG welding. TIG, eh, so-so, my hands just aren't steady enough anymore. Just have here at home a cheap 95 Amp wire-feed welder running .035 flux core that handles just about anything pretty well, including welding the two halves of my old 72 Dodge pickup frame back together after I cut it just in front of the box, flipped the next section up to the transmission crossmember over, and rewelded it to then weld an A frame on with a coupler so that the box would sit level when I had it hitched to the back of my Suburban. The welder does have the capability to convert to gas shielded if I wanted to buy a roll of stainless steel wire ($$$) and a bottle of Argon/CO2 and tinker with, say, welding up a set of stainless steel 6.5 headers (not! or at least not at this time!).
 
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So this happened....

c4fa7ef7ef4d0be67a41e43544d7795e.jpg


I got this intake manifold off of a van. I knew the heads were different, but didn't realize it was THAT different. I'm wondering how bad it would be, or if it's possible, to machine it down to fit correctly. My idea was to use these backwards so the inlet was at the front so I can run my intercooler piping to them without clearance issues. I guess I'll find out tomorrow from my machinist what he thinks and what it might cost for the machine work. Might be better to just swap to van heads instead? Which would still suck bc I spent all the money machining and rebuilding these heads already.


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Consider, building custom a log intake or dual log intake to match those center mount turbo heads, this way you'll have much better options for fitment too.........
 
Couple things come to mind , leave them the way they are and weld bungs in place for the correct bolt angle , use a manifold , for those heads , cut the runners off and fab a plate to use the upper plenum from the van . Or do like FT suggested and make a new manifold . I like the manifold that Gale Banks did for the Dmax . I can't for the life of me understand what the reasoning is for putting a stock intake on a set of ported heads and wondering why it doesn't run as expected . Can't have heads flowing 230 - 240 CFM and stick an intake on that only flows 198 CFM and expect it to run well , even with a turbo . That's just leaving too much on the table for all the trouble to port 6.2/6.5 heads .
 
Ok, sheesh! Haha
I bought grade 8 all thread. Cut it into pieces with a thin wheel and using a oxygen acetylene torch heated and bent the pieces so once screwed they all faced straight up. None of the holes are to close with each other to interfere with another. One mistake I made was before tempering: I should have cut off all the excess length. You need enough height for a washer and nut, unless something is bolting on in that location. Retempered the studs by heating until a magnet no longer sticks, then used motor oil quench, reheat in oven to 500 for 1/2 hour, 400 for 1/2 hour, 300 for 1/2 hour, 150 for 1/2 hour then cool down in the oven. Salt to taste.

I put in all the studs with "the right stuff" on the threads and let it cure a few hours.

Go ahead and buy a second set of intake gaskets now. When you snug down the nuts to the new intake studs, you'll be amazed how e-z it is to force the gasket to slide at the angle and get squished out. Because of the low torque required I would suggest star external lock washers, no flats or split lock washers. Just make sure they contact the nut and the intake well to get a good bite.

Hit me with any other questions, I might have forgot details as I have slept since then. Oh yeah, and I now wish I had kept the truck lower intake because the height of the side pieces make it sucky to acess the ip now and limit coolant crossover choices.
 
Will. Im slow. I still can't see in my head what you did. In my head you could not get the angle needed and still seal manifold to head, so obviously Im not seeing what you did :)
Got pics or a Napkin drawing
 
I'll get pics today. It works, but isn't a great solution- more of a good jury rig than anything. If there is anyway to cut the FFM mounting ears off a truck lower and use it I think it would be better. That's the only difference of a truck lower and a hummer n/a intake btw is the little mounting ears. It's also an open design not like the egr one that you have to cut everything out of.
 
Leroy , basically Will is putting all the studs in the heads , pointing up , and sliding the intake down over the studs .
 
That might be a good solution. My thought was to mark and then cut and machine the bottom of the intake so that it sits at the same angle as the head. You would end up taking over 1 1/4" off of the inside edge of the head. Would work if you didn't need the gaps under the intake to run the injector lines... Thought I was back to square one, but I think I like your idea Will


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EWC said:
Leroy , basically Will is putting all the studs in the heads , pointing up , and sliding the intake down over the studs .
Click to expand...
Thats what I envisioned, so the stud is bent 45* ish right? Doesn't seem like the manifold would sit down though? Maybe have to clearance the bolt hole on the manifold too?
 
Like on the aftermarket (Edelbrock) Chevy Vortec manifolds that can be ran on Gen1 (pre-86) small block heads. Or is it the other way around, can run Edelbrock Performer or Performer RPM Q-Jet manifolds on TBI Vortec Gen2 heads? Anyhow, the intake manifold bolt holes are elongated to allow for the different face angles between heads.
 
Yes, I've done that several times with small blocks. Didn't take much to elongate those holes. No elongating these holes though. The angles are so far off you would be drilling through the center of the intake. Might have some issues with intake leaks then [emoji51]


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Will L. said:
Ok, I'm back. Yes to clearance the intake, but just barely 1/16" at most on the uphill side.View attachment 48093
View attachment 48094
Click to expand...
I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but you drew left-hand threads in your drawing. Please update so we can really fully understand what it is that you're trying to get across. :smuggrin:

On a serious note, talk about going the extra mile to help a guy out.....nice, Will!
 
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