What a terrible waste of effort and time.
I've lost count of how many uninterested people I've asked to fabricate my manifold design for me . . . . it's no wonder engineering in Britain is going down the pan when no one seems to give a $hit !!
Any way. A glimmer of hope . . .
From what I gather, one of the "big 3" (or only 3) in Cadillac performance parts in the U.S has sold-off his business to one of the others (apparently the other lot - the ones who didn't build my engine) and they've now started re-developing certain parts which they now have rights to.
One of these such parts is a massive-plenum intake manifold . . . . Typically used for forced induction.
Long story short, I've had my name down for the first one off the production line with the new, closed-up base and reduced-height (smaller) plenum.
The part has now been cast, checked, machined and is boxed up waiting to ship.
It'll still need work to make it flow n/a (and it'll need a lid making for it) but it gets round most of the issues I have with fabrication and production. It should also give me a few more millimetres clearance to play with later.
It's not the route I wanted to take at all, but the Caddy project is stalling before it's even started !!!
At least with the intake, I can move on to the next item(s) on the shopping list . . . . and that's one step closer to physically starting.
It's never easy, though . . . . .
