I was referencing a higher power level as well. probably well north of 400 before its noticable

 

I agree.

 

How is the re-tooling effort going?
All under plan to acknowledge as applicable (only):



(good news)

 

Waiting for Jim to get back in town to discuss when we are going to CA to pick up the tooling. Once the inventory and inspection is complete, then we will have to make a decision on what is next, store it forever, put it for sale, or continue with a better product. Hope you enjoy your test ride and new found power. Did you by chance do a before and then going to do a after installation dyno pull?

 

@Buccaneer he might not see your message if you didn't tag or quote him.

 

@Buccaneer I know you're extremely busy, but it's been 10 days. Any update on the status of the Renegade?

 

Actually no, but I was at my machinists today discussing 84 4+3's issue with his manifold and just finished replying to him on what we talked about and our thoughts on what may have happened. I'm still waiting on Jim to make enough room in his schedule to take a road trip to CA and get our tooling. In the meantime though, EMS IS NOT making/machining anymore manifolds, but they have 5-6 left to sell. IF ANYONE IS GOING TO PURCHASE ONE, PLEASE GO THROUGH SUMMIT RACING. If you have any issues, Summit will help you out. More, when I have more info OR just go to my site and look in the Company BLOG where I put all important info. Thanks guys.

BTW: I have two manifolds here in AZ and one is spoken for already by another member here that came here to AZ on business and stopped in and I showed him the manifold and he wanted it on the spot. I'm trying to find him the cheapest shipping possible right now since it weighs approx. 21lbs. I do have another, but not sure if anything is wrong with it or not. I will check it out and if need be take it over to my machinist to have him check it over as well. If it's good, I will offer it up for sale at a discounted price of course.

On a side note, I did start my 82 up for him and he did have a nice on his face when it fired up. I guess he liked it so much that he came over the next day and asked if he could sit in my car and fired it up again...sure, why not. He said it doesn't sound like a CF motor. BTW, it was uncapped still when he fired it up and it does sound badass with the new cam. I should do a short vid and post it. Ahh, maybe someday.

 

Black Friday was very kind to me....

 

UPDATE: It appears that Dec 13th we are taking a road trip to EMS in CA unless something else changes. We shall see what happens then.

 

@Buccaneer Sounds great! Thanks for the update.

 

UPDATE: Well, something did change...We had a scheduling issue and now it will be the 16th.

 

Buc you don't need to explain how you do business to anyone. You have accomplished way to much building that intake to worry over details of business. We just want you to be successful keeping it alive. Good luck and make it fun and forget about any pressure to produce business details.

 

Times 2

 

Me third.

 

Yeah know, I was thinking the same thing, but I'm a up front kind of guy and thought it would be a good idea to keep people informed on what was gong on with me, the company or whatever just in case they were interested in what was going on in relation to the manifold. I guess they could always go to the website, but a lot of people don't even know it exists yet. So after the reschedule today, I started clearing out some old DCS stock boxes etc... and I came across a brand new manifold in the stapled shipping box and everything that I totaling forgot that I had it. I opened it up since curious and wasn't happy with what I was seeing and hadn't even pulled it out of the box. Ugh! Another reason I'm glad as hell we are pulling the tooling.

I called my machinist and told him I would stop by tomorrow for him to have a look and tell me what he thinks about it. The ports to tell you the truth were the best ones I have seen so far, but there are other possible issues. I will see if my guy will check it all out and give me a thumbs up even if it's only some minor issues that can be fixed. The top plate was one of them. Like my sig says when displayed..."It's always something"!

 

If it checks out reasonably well I want lol. Gotta fit that 1206 and I'm getting excited as my parts are starting to come in lol.

 

I am interested in one as well, if available and looking to sell. I did buy one from Summit, but took it back for reasons. If it checks out or you find another "surprise" and im lucky enough, PM me.
And, YES, thank you Buc, for all you have accomplished!!

 

I am interested in one as well, if available and looking to sell. I did buy one from Summit, but took it back for reasons. If it checks out or you find another "surprise" and im lucky enough, PM me.
And, YES, thank you Buc, for all you have accomplished!!

 

Well... After taking the manifold over to my machinist and having a good look at it and taking measurements, it was decided that it may not work out after all and I may revisit this manifold at a later date. My guy was appalled at what he saw on the machining, especially in regards to the holes ie... Dizzy and thermostat. It appears that the machine used was in poor condition in regards to machining. He said their X-axis has issues and looked like the bearing was going out in a big way and they continued to machine it anyway. The holes were NOT round and had several flat spots, 180* out to each other which is indicative of a bearing failure on the platform in the x-axis. All the perimeter holes were oblong in the same direction which I won't go into here along with chatter marks which means the manifold was not stable when machined and the bit chattered across the unit. Also, the thermostat housing was machined too low and they went into the text where it says "MADE IN USA". That should have never happened and they didn't get the recess for the stat right either which was upsetting. The top plate was checked for flatness and was off as well, but I din't checked to see how far out it was, but could have been corrected. The good thing is that the angle on the flanges are correct and it is centered correctly and the ports look OK. It's the rest that has me worried.

The conclusion from my guy was, WTF are these guys doing? That is a **** poor job of machining and NOT a quality piece or to spec by any stretch. This was a brand new, stapled box from EMS that had their catalog inside the box, the installation instructions inside and hardware. If I was buying this unit, I would be pissed and feel the pain of anyone that bought one that had machining issues even more now. This DID NOT look like the early pieces that we sent out that I hand stamped myself with serial numbers in anyway. I even put on the new gaskets for the manifold and three holes in a row were off which was again, upsetting. I'm glad as hell we are pulling the tooling from those guys and I plan on taking this unit with me when we go and show the owner what kind of crap they were putting out. I'm sure I will probably get pissed off with these guys and hope I don't go to jail before I leave there if they **** me off too much.

It's truly sad that I write this about a product that we put out, but I just wanted to be as transparent about this as possible and give others my honest opinion on this unit along with my machinist who machined these for us in the beginning. We both had a long conversation about this unit yesterday.

 

@Buccaneer Although I agree with cardo0 and don't expect you to explain how you do business, I really appreciate the updates you put out because if there's a chance this intake will be produced properly again, I'd love to buy it. It's the only viable option for CFI and I truly admire all the work that you've put into it. Thanks a lot.