I remember reading about this rudementary flowbench that costs around 6 or 7 hundred dollars.
It runs off a shop vac, and has adapters for the heads.
You need to get your own stand, micrometer, check springs, etc.

Anybody got something similar, or have you heard of something like this??

 

Ken73 built one to flow test the crossfire manifold, xram, offy, different sized tbi's, etc. He posted alot of pictures on the crossfire board. :blueangel:

 

Thanx Larry82!
I'll try to track down Ken73.

I wonder about this because if I'm gonna port my own heads, I'd want to have them flow tested to get the performance to balance out between cylinders.

 

You're probably thinking of the Audie Flow Quik.
http://www.audietech.com/fq.htm

I have one and it seems pretty good. I have AFR 195 heads and Lingenfelter ported L98 heads. The Flow Quik results came out close to what I expected - a little less than AFR advertises.

 

YES!! That's the flowbench I had read about!
Very many thanks for the link.
It save me a lot of time going through the 3 milkcrates full of magazines to find more info on it.

 

Now...how would you know about that ;) :crazy:

thad's really really strange:D

Marck

 

Where is this at?

 

http://www.crossfire.webhop.net

or https://www.crossfire.homeip.net (secure connection) if the above doesn't work for you (it uses a different than default port)

 

Aaah! After thinking about it for a while, I remember you thought Thad was me. Think I remember you telling Ken that or something or other

No, just have to acquire a password. Some of my "contacts" use to work for, what shall I say, clandestine government operations - along with me.
:)


[Modified by Larry82, 7:31 PM 6/21/2002]

 

Thad? now where did you get that idea? ;) :D :smash:

...ain't life fun?


Marck

 

You do realize this is illegal?

 

:cheers:


[Modified by Larry82, 9:23 AM 6/22/2002]

 

When you get a price on this thing let me know. My plans for a flow bench are a tad different. I have an old ECM, the MAP, MAF and Temperature that I am going to use to get a mass flow reading. I have access to some high end flow devices to check my calibrations.

 

MAP isn't sensitive enough, MAF might be, and a good temp/barometer/hygrometer setup is the best bet. I have the calcs for using a pitot tube setup. I just plug the numbers into an Excel spreadsheet off of my manometers, and it gives a fairly accurate reading.

I made a pretty fancy setup for around $100-$150, not including the price of the blowers.

 

Thanks Ken73. I probably would have found out the hard way with the MAP. I'm not opposed to a pitot tube but seeing how this is also a DP device, the low range flows maynot be as accurate as I would like. I was looking at using the ECM for the calcs but got to thinking today, why not just by a few analog cards for the PLC and see what I could do there. This way I can do the calc in there and export the reading to Excel. The heated wire flows can be taylored or curved to match what I need and MAFs are every where. I'll be out of town for the next few weeks, but I'll acquire what I need to get it started. This could be fun, with enough input from everyone we could just come up with a low cost flow bench that is very accurate. The key is how to get the readings into the PC without having to type them in.

 

:confused: The pitot tube or orifice-plate style bench can be very accurate, and with water manometers, it's not hard to read them. The calcs have already been done, so it's merely the building of the bench that's difficult at this point. I've researched this for several years now, hopefully I can save everyone else the pains I had to go through.

Still again, not accurate enough. The ECM is only going to be 8 bits - 255 values. You'll need two measurements to accurately get CFM values - both a depression and the differential depression. It only takes two home-made manometers (cost; $5) to read these things.

Sure, you could do that - but the real question is, are you going to use your bench that much that you need to get this fancy? I have a PC in the garage with Excel on it and that spreadsheet. I just write down the numbers as I'm flowing a part, then type them into Excel and it gives me the numbers.

True, but still, a MAF isn't exactly cheap. Manometers can be made in 10 minutes with a router, a 1"x2", a level and a measuring tape. 3/16" tubing is $2 for 20 feet, and water is.. free.

I wanted to go this route, too. But, once I started actually flowing things, I raelized that (A) I didn't flow enough items to truly warrant such a fancy system and (B) it would quickly get out of the range of "cheap" which was the primary goal of the flowbench in the first place. You really have to ask yourself how cheap and how often are you going to use the bench.

It's already been done.. I'll gladly help anyone interested in making one! I actually created a Homebuilt Flowbenches and Dynos forum to discuss this on. IM me if you're interested and I'll send you the link.

Also take into consideration it really only takes about 10 minutes to flow a single level part (i.e. an intake, muffler, or exhaust tube) and it takes about 20-30 minutes to flow a cylinder head (because you flow it at multiple lifts.) You will need to make adapters (MDF works great for this) for each part. I made a nice cylinder head adapter out of a 4"x4" and some 3/4" MDF. I used pegs with holes drilled to properly center and hold the cylinder head in place.


[Modified by Ken73, 6:34 PM 6/22/2002]

 

I understand your desire to keep the cost within reason, and I tend to dive into things. I've been in the instrumentation business for about 27 years and know the plus and minus of most flow devices. I'm shooting for some good readings at a low cost. I have several sets of heads here at the house that I'm about to start working on and more on the way. Theres not much to making a manometer, true, and pitot tubes are easy to fab but are sensitive to placement. The reason I want the ability to read low flow with good accuracy is for the low lift low cylinder vacuum points. I play with mainly street engines and this is the area for improvement.

As for the Dyno info, I'd love to have that. Been trying to figure out a way to build one at home, just got to figure out what to do with all that energy, pump it or dissipate it.

 

Ken73,

I'm very interested in your link on your flowbench research. I'm currently in the process of designing one for HeaderDesign.com. I need it to be accurate over a wide range of flows, to flow both directions, and to have redundant measurement capabilties. The data interpretation and analysis is no problem for me, I just don't want to run into problems others have already solved in building and calibrating my prototype.

Thanks,
my E-mail: rodney.davis@headerdesign.com

 

Well, there's a multitude of designs. I like my bench, but I think there are better ways to do it. It works well for what I test (mostly intakes, TB's, carbs, exhaust, occasionally cylinder heads.)

I will IM you both the link to my forum that I just started when I finish it; I have some bugs to work out on it. There will be other people on there pretty quickly as I've learned a ton of information over the past 3 years I've been working on this stuff.

 

If anyone is interested in joining, I created the "Homebuilt Flowbenches and Dynos" forum. It's located at:
http://www.flowdyno.webhop.net

I've already posted a portion of how my flowbench "came to be" and I'll be posting more, as well as some pictures and pages of other's people stuff, including home-made dynos.