Thanks again to Mattie for sorting the welding out. They actually made a heavy steel brace to bolt the flange to before welding it, to hold it all in place and try and limit distortion. They did well, they didn't even re-machine the flange as it hardly went out of shape and any deviation that it does have certainly pulls true when its bolted down. We'll see how it goes, I can still get it machined if need be.
Then after stripping all the other Plenum off, I tried the new one on for size!! I had been shitting it about the Throttle body fouling the Brake Servo. Seems I was right, so had to have a rethink. :?: :?: :?:
So, once I knew in my mind where I was heading, I set about cutting the Plenum around further and had a piece made to mount the Throttle body onto. Here it is all welded into place. I just need to drill the mounting holes for the TB now and tidy it all up. Then, as I said above, get the other few odds and ends done. One of piece of good news from the test fit is that it looks like I can make the connection to the current Intercooler with bits that I already have, I just need one 60mm Silicone hose, which is no great drama. I didn't want to hack my cooler around as the plan is to get another one, so mine will be sold. I am going to add a couple more Vacuum take-offs next to the others on there, then I can get rid of the Vacuum Manifold seen in the top pic. That little thing has been handy, but now I have the scope to add as many take-offs as needed, I might aswell keep it as tidy as possible. They are underneath too, out of the way!!
Oh, need to finish the porting of it too. I want it all to match nicely, which it almost does with the work I have done already.
What do you think?
I need to find out about Throttle Cable lengths too. Ideally, I need a Throttle Cable the same as the RST one, but slightly longer. The RST one does reach, but not as comfortably as I would like. I wonder what the XR3i one is like?