Intake manifolds

[Lifeflight]

Quick and easy queston. Do the score rules on class 9 allow yet the cuting of the intake manifold to help it fit on the engine?

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[racer951]

The only mention of intake manifolds are to say "The intake manifolds must be stock VW." It does not mention modifications. I can give you a full writeup of the carb rules if you want.

[martininsocal]

Years ago, we had a close call with a DQ for using a cut manifold. Someone protested tha fact that it was cut and therefor, "modified". It just happened to be a left over manifold from a 1600 car we had. We were told next race it had to be stock. Just to piss people off, we slit the rubber boot and put it over a stock manifold at the next race to see who would fall for the trap. It got ugly after that and pointed out the fact that the engine rules along with the claimer rule don't work as they are set up. If there is going to be rules for a class, the promoter should enforce them before, during, and after a race, not do protest based on a 500 dollar fee for a specific item. If the motor is illegal, DQ the team. Or in the case of this class, when an engine is bought, for the 800 bucks, that si too bad for the person losing the engine and maybe costs will come down if claiming is done more, but it won't happen as no one wants death threats and damage done to vehicles on trailers.
You shouldn't have to cut your manifold if you are using the proper compression ratio.

[mike_hinson]

Martin,
I agree. At 7.5:1 compression, cylinder and combustion chamber dimensions should be pretty close to stock even if the heads have been fly-cut and the block decked because the engine builder would need barrel spacers to get the ratio right.

My question is this: Does cutting the heat riser tubes off constitute a modified manifold?

Mike Hinson

[Lifeflight]

You know, my intake seems to be off just a bit. I'm not sure what has happened to it. She's the same one we have run for years. So tomarrow i will be taking it off the car and comparing it to others to see if it somehow has become tweaked out of shap some. As we in over ten years of racing class 9 have never had the need to cut an intake.
Thanks,

[martininsocal]

Mike- I believe the issue for Savage at that time was that there was no need to cut the intake portion of the manifold unless you(possibly) had violated a rule somewhere else. The heat riser does not affect airflow through the intake, so removing it is more cosmetic than a performance enhancement. But then again, cars were DQ'd for cutting the corners off the head shroud tim to clear valve cover breather lines, so who's to say cosmetics couldn't be ruled illegal too.