Intake Manifold..Hone or Port and Polish?

Hey guys this is my first post, so if this is a n00bish post that people have asked a thousand times I apologize. I drive a 1997 Mitsubishi Eclipse GS. DSM reliability jokes aside. I am looking for a shop to either hone my intake manifold, or port and polish it. My main question is…Which is more effective? Any reputable shops that can do it? What kind of price range am I looking at? With my past cars I’ve always done the whole stereo and exterior looks thing…but now I’d like to do a little bit of performance work, so I’m not too informed on the quality shops that are around. Thanks in advance for any information!

For the gains that a port and polished intake manifold would net you on a 2nd gen non-turbo its not really worth the trouble. Save up for a turbo or nitrous kit.

If your starting with a stock GS engine, it might be more beneficial to start somewhere else with mods. To offer an answer to your question though:

I would extrude hone. Its money, but can clean up the flow through the intake greatly. I’ve only delt with one personally and it actually acted like a lightened flywheel, helping quicken the rpm range, but only very slightly.

You might get more benefit from port matching the intake to the head. These though, are more complimenting mods…mods you do to compliment other mods… like TURBO!!!

I don’t know about the eclipses or their manifold, but the neon motor generally likes a ported manifold. I picked up 2mph at PRP with my do-it-yourself job.

That said, I don’t think you can open up the eclipse manifold without cutting it, which would make it difficult to hand port. The extrude hone works pretty well, but it’s pretty expensive for what you get on a 140hp engine.

Well Turbo is out of the question. Of course that’d be awesome, but it’s not a realistic option for me at the moment. That being said, I’m not looking for any huge gains. I’m not sure what other mods you would suggest I start with. Maybe I should have clarified better. I do already have a cold air intake and a full exhuast header back. The other things I’ve been contemplating investing in are camshafts, cam gears, and a pulley kit. Only problem is I never know the potential gains for things, and what is most effective for what I’m trying to accomplish.

Nitrous is hard to beat as far as bang for the buck.

Why’s it out of the question? You’re talking about throwing down some big cash on camshafts and porting work.

true… u could piece together a nice little 60-70hp adder turbo kit for under 1500.

Well then…very good point. I hate DSM boards but it looks like I may have to go over to dsmtuners and start figuring out what I’ll need, and where to begin. If i could honestly piece together a 60-70 hp adding turbo for under 1500…then that sounds like a damn good plan.

You should easily be able to make an extra 100 whp safely on your 420a motor with a t3/t4 turbine. Rusty240det had one on his old GS and it made 240 at the wheels at like 9 psi.

t3/t4- used $500
FMIC - hybridynamics can get you a decent size generic brand one for like $300

Fuel pump - $100
1st gen DSM blow off valve - $50
Vortech FMU - $125 max
boost gauge - $40

Im sure you can find a turbo manifold for about $350 - $400 max.

That just leaves you to figure out your IC piping, a downpipe, some misc vacuum hoses and fittings and the oil lines.

This all puts you somewhere around $1500, if you shop around im sure you can do it for much less.

You should probably upgrade your clutch at the same time if you havent yet done so.

Are the guys at hybrid dynamics cool guys? Cuz I’d like to go talk to them about all of this. A friend of mine had a shop pretty much do everything you guys are talking about…they pieced it together for him and everything…Thats a damn good list, and doesn’t sound too bad. You have all effectively changed my mind completely…that’s not a bad thing.

Edit- No intercooler on that list…they are expensive. I’m really sounding like someone who shouldn’t be doing this kind of project…I’m not as stupid as I am coming off as… :hs:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=7981499609&category=33615

keep an eye on this…

Thanks man, but that will get snatched up before I get a chance. I’m waiting on an insurance check from when a girl hit me and totalled my Bravada… Good look though!

Edit- It’s a $1,000 check for the deductible I had to pay. I was payed the other $8,000 for my car, but had to wait on the other 1,000 until they decided who’s faul it was. They determined she was 100% at fault, so I figure that money is obviously worthy of going into the car, b/c it’s money I should have had in the first place to buy a car…back on topic now that you all know my life history.

Yes, give them a call. Ask for Jason, he is the one that had a GS with a star stage 2 turbo kit on it. And would be able to give you his advice.

Yes, i mentioned the FMIC. Which is short for Front Mounted Intercooler. And dont worry about sounding dumb, we all had to start somewhere.

LoL, I re read the list about 5 seconds after I posted that and realized what FMIC was short for…damn. I appreciate the help, and the understanding with my n00b-ness in the turbo department.

What’s a ballpark range on cost of labor I’d be looking to for a cutom turbo install?

Labor on a project like this isnt going to be cheap. Any time there is custom fabrication and welding involved the price is going to be pretty high. I was under the impression you were going to do it yourself. Like i said, if you can come up with the list of stuff needed for the turbo kit, call jay at hybrid and ask him for a quote on how much it would be to fabricate your Intercooler pipes, downpipe and then labor for putting the kit on.

I wish I could do it myself! I would def. do it. That’s sort of why turbo was out of the question in the first place and I was thinking N/A because I will never have enough money at once to do a turbo job, but I can do things a little at a time. Yes, I could save and save…but I’m a teenager I’m bad at that lol.

Eh, look at it this way, you can toss a bunch of money at the eclipse on n/a stuff so that maybe you could run with my neon when it was stock, or you can save up for the turbo stuff and have a car that is actually pretty quick.

Credit Card… just be careful!