that's sexy! BTW, i've heard the old "keep it rough" story a hundred times. i've heard it robs torque at low RPM but helps in the highs. question: if this is soo bad, why does every F1 car utilize this technique? hmm...
as far as heat dissipation being reduced due to a smoother surface i disagree. the less mass, the less heat soak you get, which aids dissipation.

 

I'm not really thinking heat will ever be an issue. I was able to hand sand the intake tubes about fifteen minutes after driving the car home from work (68 miles one way mostly highway speeds) As far as the inside surfaces go, I think the Honda engineers probably knew what they were doing when they designed it, so I'll leave it alone. I do love the look of the tubes polished up though, and in looking through the engine covers thread, it would appear that I am unique for now

 

i have my aluminum section painted black to match the rest of the engine. it looks like im the first for that.

 

I would love to see some pics of that^^ I bet that looks pretty good, how hard a time did you have getting the paint to stick to the rough surface?

 

it looks nice but would probably look better if the whole thing was polished.

the back half throws it off. why not just have it chrome dipped?

 

i will post some pics of it later. i just used a high heat flat black paint and put on 4 or 5 coats. definately makes it look 100x better because i always thought the aluminum looked awkward under the hood.

if you electroplate or chrome dip this piece you will see the roughness of the aluminum. you need to get it smooth first then plate it.

 

325624988_1112792127_01.jpg?t=1225054848
hope you can see this.

 

kyler that looks pretty good .kinda look factory done

 

thanks. its bored out and polished it too. it looks even better in person. crappy cell phone pics.
im not a fan of the manifold cover either so it really all flows together nicely.

 

correct. but it would still look better

 

Chrome would be a little too bling-tastic for my tastes. I was going for the OEM Plus look. Kyler, yours looks fantastic, the only thing I would suggest is flipping the two mounting brackets over. Put the big one with the mounting pads for the manifold cover on the bottom and use the smaller one on top, that way neither one would really mess up the nice flow you have with the aluminum painted. Redrumm, I'll probably end up polishing the whole thing inside and out, but for now I'm happy.

 

if it was fully done front and back it would look great!

 

thanks. i cant flip it over because the manifold has three holes on the top and two on the bottom. im just going to get some bolts to replace it and make a cleaner look.

 

Do-oh! I forgot about that, oh well. It would look really good if you used Allen heads or Torx bolts instead of more pedestrian fittings. And as long as I'm spending your money instead of mine, get titanium nitrided bolts, that would be just plain silly (but cool)

 

titanium nitride bolts strip easy because it is just a coating on mild steel bolts. i have some 316l stainless bolts laying around that i will use instead. maybe i will paint them blue.

 

That look sick, you think this could be mirror polish??