DIY writeup: How to polish your manifold.

[shiroitenshi]

Hmm.. I put this off for a long time already, but this is the second set of manifold that I was asked to polish, and here goes the writeup. I did this maybe like last month.. or was it two months ago, but didn't upload it to my comp, but rather it stayed in my camera phone.

All images are clickable for full view.. photobucket is crap nowdays.. guess too many people are using them.

Things you will need..

a wire brush,
a powered wire brush, either with an air dremel, or a rotary grinder with the appropriate wire brush.
Sand papers, from 340 grit or so for the stubborn stains. 500 for the more minor ones, and 800 and 1000 grit for the final mirror finishing.
Autosol is to get the minor stains out, and give it that really nice finish like you saw on mine. Remember to wash off the autosol, it may give you different tones when the exhaust is heated, sometimes not to the desired effect.

Caution:
Wear protection.. goggles, thick pants (I actually got one of the wire brush strands embedded in my leg, since I forgot to change into jeans and did the work with shorts. Lesson learnt.. :P) wire brushes are sharp, and wire strands flings off when you work with them esp on a rotary grinder or an air dremel. Be very careful.. losing an eye is not a laughing matter.

You start off like this, usually.. A nightmarish load of work stands before you. Hahaha. :P
http://imajr.com/before_61607
Start off with the nooks and crannies.. I begin with the welds, but the exact order of the process really depends on you.
http://imajr.com/difficultplaces1st_61609
Use the wire brush the on the area, and viola! clean welds!
http://imajr.com/cleanwelds_61610
Then proceed to the tubes.. be careful not to apply too much pressure if you're using a grinder or an air dremel, as you can remove to much material from one area.. it may be tempting, but go slow.. you're not going to be removing much of the dirty stuff if you go too fast, but rather remove good metal out, so don't worry about leaving some spots.. those will be handled by the sandpapers later, if they're not too thick.
http://imajr.com/wirebrushed_61611
As you can see, I went over the stubborn spots with the roughest sandpaper, and you can see the scratches that I made while doing so.. doesn't matter, as I will go with a finer grit for the finishing later.
http://imajr.com/finergrit_needed_61636
Flat surfaces are the easiest, and I usually leave them for last, but in this case, I just went over it with a wire brush, sandpaper and a little autosol... probably finished it pretty quickly.
http://imajr.com/flatsurfacesgolast_61635
This is the near final result.. some spots left to clean, but no wire brushes at this point.. only good old sandpaper.. notice that I have done one to two tubes to the near final mirror finish at this point.
http://imajr.com/nearfinal_61612
When finished, you have an extractor that is the envy of your peers.. hahahhaa.. :P
And leave the guy looking at the thing wondering.. "you're serious this is second hand?"
http://imajr.com/final1_61637
http://imajr.com/final2_61638

P.S. My new toy.. :P
http://imajr.com/DSC00850_61652
So many features and sensor inputs.. it'll take weeks/months to fully play with it.. :P

 

[evoX2]

nice writeup. "thumbs up*

can u show me the wire brush? i only have a rotary grinder, what u recommend to go with it? regarding the sand paper, u use hand work?

btw, what is the new toy? o2 wideband??

 

[shiroitenshi]

nice writeup. "thumbs up*

can u show me the wire brush? i only have a rotary grinder, what u recommend to go with it? regarding the sand paper, u use hand work?

btw, what is the new toy? o2 wideband??

The wire brush is available at hardware stores.. it mounts on the grinder like a normal grinding disc, but has wires instead of the solid disc..

I can't show you mine, cause I did this one with an air dremel with a small diameter wire brush.. Thanks to my cousin that borrowed me his industrial sized compressor the size of a perodua kancil at his tyre shop.. :P

I did another one previously with a grinder, and that wire brush worn out long time ago.

Sandpaper is handwork.. a sandpaper holder makes things easier..

Haha.. thinking of polishing yours? :P

Done properly, it lasts for quite a long time.. this is a pic from just now.

They're blue now, but still shiny as ever.. :P
http://imajr.com/DSC00851_61692

Yes, the new toy is the LM-1 wideband.. this time I bought the whole shebang, except the window mount kit.. which is priced beyond belief.

 

[evoX2]

wow, ready for ur hondata? if next time i need a tuner i'll get u a ticket to fly over cos here no dyno machine, hard to believe right? :P

 

[type_one]

Nice job, Shiro.. Its amazing what ppl can do if they had patience.. THAT, i don't have.. hehe..
*Jealous*..somebody got wideband... =(

 

[shiroitenshi]

wow, ready for ur hondata? if next time i need a tuner i'll get u a ticket to fly over cos here no dyno machine, hard to believe right? :P

Yup.. prepping for a standalone, possibly hondata, but one guy here wants it as well, so customer firstle..

Anyway, I'm still constructing the jumper harness at the moment so can mount the auxbox permanently without chopping the factory wire harnesses. I'm just particular that way.. I don't like messing with the factory harness because you can introduce a lot of electrical gremlins when you mess with the factory harness.. if jumper harness has improper connection, simple to trouble shoot by checking continuity at both ends.. not so easy on a factory harness.

Alamak.. OT already... this supposed to be about DIY manifold polishing.. :P

 

[shiroitenshi]

Nice job, Shiro.. Its amazing what ppl can do if they had patience.. THAT, i don't have.. hehe..
*Jealous*..somebody got wideband... =(

Patience? The above took about two weeks.. about 1-2hrs a day. I get bored pretty quickly doing it as well.. :P

Haha.. nothing special with owning a wideband.. just trying experiment with the various features of it and understand my engine better. It has some serious amount of capability.. almost make me want to run out and get another auxbox and wire them in parallel so I can datalog 10 channels.. :P

Hehe.. after all, I'm an engine tech enthusiast, aren't I? (points to sig)

 

[type_one]

Patience? The above took about two weeks.. about 1-2hrs a day. I get bored pretty quickly doing it as well.. :P

Haha.. nothing special with owning a wideband.. just trying experiment with the various features of it and understand my engine better. It has some serious amount of capability.. almost make me want to run out and get another auxbox and wire them in parallel so I can datalog 10 channels.. :P

Hehe.. after all, I'm an engine tech enthusiast, aren't I? (points to sig)

2 weeks? i probably wouldn't last 2 days.. How much did the LM1 cost??

 

[shiroitenshi]

2 weeks? i probably wouldn't last 2 days.. How much did the LM1 cost??

Seriously, you should try it once.. just make sure you can get bored enough to do it.. hahahaha. :P

Price?
Let's see..

2399 (LM-1 + Auxbox)
The bag = 380
The exhaust clamp.. 250 (or was it 300? I forget) I bought this before with the first LM-1 unit that was sold off. Somehow the clamp was never sold, and become personal item loh.. :P
Induction clamp for RPM reading.. forgot the price.. somewhere past the RM250mark, I think.
Two serial to USB convertor (one I bought in KL, factory defect unit, tossed in the bin, bought second one locally, works) = RM120.

Total would be somewhere over 3K.
Only for those that are into engine tech, I think..

All sensor inputs are not Plug and Play, and there will be no harnesses.. you need to understand the ECU outputs and only then can you understand how to wire the Auxbox.

Also you need to be very handy with the multimeter.. ground offsets gives bad readings.

Hmm.. maybe I should start a review thread on the LM-1 and Auxbox.. once I finish sorting out it's features.. and there's a ton.. :P

The LC-1 one is a better option.. and you can replace your narrowband with it for permanent mounting.

Wideband sensors don't like water, nor rapid changes in temp when it's cold.

Installing a wideband in your car means you need to turn ignition on, wait for the sensor to heat up, then, and only then start your car.

Heating up phase probably takes about 1 minute at most.

Spoiling your 02 sensor by misuse is a costly expense. The LSU-4 isn't cheap..... (O_o)

Hmm.. nobody noticed the original moo-gen lip.. :P

 

[evoX2]

oh ya moogen lips :)

wow the wideband set really cost a bomb. btw, usually how much a used o2 sensor cost? i got a spare one, almost threw away.

 

[shiroitenshi]

oh ya moogen lips :)

wow the wideband set really cost a bomb. btw, usually how much a used o2 sensor cost? i got a spare one, almost threw away.

You actually only need the LM1 and the Auxbox.. the bag and other stuff is just my own choices. Having a clamp means I can use it to measure AFR on other cars/bikes (yes, I did try it on a motorbike.. :P)

The narrowband 02 that is in the stock manifold? not sure.. I can't see who needs it though... it hardly spoils, and there's a tonne of them available. It's different from an wideband sensor.

If the Bosch LSU-4, prolly about 400-500 now, locally.. I think.

It has been quoted at RM300 before.. but that was such a long time ago, I'm not sure if prices are the same now.

Time to sleep.. don't bother about the online icon.. this computer is usually never turned off.

 

[J101]

shiroi,
hows the calibration? everything ok now?
i saw your posts on the other forum.

 

[shiroitenshi]

Yes.. everything worked out fine.. actually tested most of the features last night. Just have to sort out the grounding.. those 0.xxxV differences are important to get accurate readings.

Thermocouple works perfectly, but a bit too short to use to read EGTs. Looks like I might have to find aftermarket units, since chopped thermocouple wires means the thermocouple becomes useless.

http://imajr.com/21052007095_62486

 

[J101]

hey shiroi,
since ure using LMA3..have you pull a wire to set the throttle% digital gauge? if yes, which wire did you tap on the ecu?

ps. to be honest it would be good to get the power direct from the battery. the cigarette plug is not enough and showing 11.XXX even i have a volt gauge that shows mid 13.XX volts

 

[shiroitenshi]

hey shiroi,
since ure using LMA3..have you pull a wire to set the throttle% digital gauge? if yes, which wire did you tap on the ecu?

ps. to be honest it would be good to get the power direct from the battery. the cigarette plug is not enough and showing 11.XXX

The TPS sensor wires la.. where else? 0-5V, set logworks dials to voltage output.. 0% throttle, write down voltage, 100% throttle, write down voltage, then enter the numbers into logworks, and set it up as a percentage.

now you have TPS sensor output to the digital dial.. :P

Pretty easy when you're dealing with linear analogue outputs

The temperature sensors are a different story.
The IAT and Water temps is not so straightforward... Need to use the thermistorcalc and measure at 3 different temps to work.

They are not not linear outputs.

You have a unit too?

 

[J101]

the instruction on the cds arent very friendly. hehe

anyways, thx for the input. no i dun have one but my mech does
and i just want to fill up the whole auxbox to see whats going on
besides rpm, afr and map.

if i had more time to fool around with it prolly i would give more feedback.

cheers

 

[shiroitenshi]

the instruction on the cds arent very friendly. hehe

anyways, thx for the input. no i dun have one but my mech does
and i just want to fill up the whole auxbox to see whats going on
besides rpm, afr and map.

if i had more time to fool around with it prolly i would give more feedback.

cheers

The instructions are technical, but well.. I didn't expect it to be easy anyway.. if it was, more people would be using the auxbox, but let's count how many actually use it for something 'other than' rpm.

Best if you have background in electrical knowledge, as those voltage, current and resistance and various terms are used throughout the manual.

The map? Using a T fitting on the vac lines, right?

Well, you can tap into the honda MAP sensor as well, the voltage is given at the website as well.. as with any linear voltage output sensors.. easy...

Now I'm trying to get my head around to non linear output sensors.. peningz..

I'm also planning to wire injector duty cycle on the auxbox.. now we will see if what hondata says is true, that is that the duty cycle hits 100% at WOT.. One thing to hear about it, quite another to experience it yourself.. :P

Amazingly, the auxbox costs way less than a SANWA full function multimeter, if you want to measure duty cycle.. with better resolution too.

Hehe.. fun toy.

 

[type_one]

Seriously, you should try it once.. just make sure you can get bored enough to do it.. hahahaha. :P

Price?
Let's see..

2399 (LM-1 + Auxbox)
The bag = 380
The exhaust clamp.. 250 (or was it 300? I forget) I bought this before with the first LM-1 unit that was sold off. Somehow the clamp was never sold, and become personal item loh.. :P
Induction clamp for RPM reading.. forgot the price.. somewhere past the RM250mark, I think.
Two serial to USB convertor (one I bought in KL, factory defect unit, tossed in the bin, bought second one locally, works) = RM120.

Total would be somewhere over 3K.
Only for those that are into engine tech, I think..

All sensor inputs are not Plug and Play, and there will be no harnesses.. you need to understand the ECU outputs and only then can you understand how to wire the Auxbox.

Also you need to be very handy with the multimeter.. ground offsets gives bad readings.

Hmm.. maybe I should start a review thread on the LM-1 and Auxbox.. once I finish sorting out it's features.. and there's a ton.. :P

The LC-1 one is a better option.. and you can replace your narrowband with it for permanent mounting.

Wideband sensors don't like water, nor rapid changes in temp when it's cold.

Installing a wideband in your car means you need to turn ignition on, wait for the sensor to heat up, then, and only then start your car.

Heating up phase probably takes about 1 minute at most.

Spoiling your 02 sensor by misuse is a costly expense. The LSU-4 isn't cheap..... (O_o)

Hmm.. nobody noticed the original moo-gen lip.. :P

:shocked: Wow. i guess it'll take me a few years to get that. Engine tech? Very much interested..but somehow cannot absorb.. damn, i feel like a used sponge..

 

[chris2000]

wow... diy to afr. hehe...

anyway, great job there... Look almost new and like the new J's extractor i have in my showroom. spanking clean man your extractor.

 

[shiroitenshi]

wow... diy to afr. hehe...

anyway, great job there... Look almost new and like the new J's extractor i have in my showroom. spanking clean man your extractor.

Haha.. thanks.... the J's are more expensive though (and a lot more nicer to me... hehehehe :) ) , the one in the pic is only a used Mugen B16 header :P

Hehe.. the AFR part got out of hand..

Seriously, the Auxbox has so many features, the 5 channel input don't do it justice..

Currently busy with work to work on the jumper harness, so it's still in the bag in my car.. dunno what to do with it :P