building a flow bench?

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How expensive are those?

You can build a simple "manometer" at home. (manometer is a gauge to sense pressure drop).


Just get some clear plastic tube and put it in a u-shape. Partially fill it with a fluid (water will do), and then when a pressure drop is applied, the fluid on one side will raise higher than the other. You then measure the difference in height between the two fluid columns. The viscosity of the fluid will determine the sensitivity of your "gauge". It's crude, but it will work.

But if you want a plug-and-play system, that may be worth looking into.
 
a few years ago one of the car magazines showed how to make one using a shop vac and some tubing. I can't remember which one but when they tested it against a super flow it was damned close. If you locate the article or another DIY let me know
 
If you buy a kit, you're doing it wrong.
 
The flow bench setup there will set me back about $1,000. Comes with the hardware, flow meter, sensors, and computer software.
 
I'm just wanting a accurate tool to use for porting my heads and intakes. By accurate I mean by being able to show accurate flow tare numbers. Showing the small improvements. I don't care if it puts the same numbers down as a SF600 . I do my own valve jobs also and would like to test different angles and margin widths for flow improvements
 
Use the manometer as described by DDodger. You don't give two damns about comparable numbers to every other system out there and you don't need computer anything.

All you care about is raw flow improvement and uniformity. If you're not doing this for a living, you can buy way more head than you can make for $1000. How many hot rod motors do you plan on building?

In all reality, you can download a bootleg copy of Labview and rob a bunch of MAP sensors from the salvage yards if you want to get high tech. If you want functional:
Flow_bench_schematic.GIF


EZ%20Flow%20Big%20Tube.jpg


Buying a kit is doing little more than making someone else money on the above. Buying a flowbench is cost prohibitive unless you're starting a business, and an inclined tube manometer is all you need to get started on learning the ropes if you did want to start a business.
 
How many hot rods do I plan to do? Well I hope a lot. I hope to have another good 30 yrs of building left. I have and do build engines for people on the side and would like to have this or something to use to help gain in the process. Also I haven't not had a engine that I was building since high school. Its my hobby, Passion, and been my profession... Not saying I'm any master engine builder or anything , but I do plan to be lol. Take it how ya want. Anyhow I am in the works of starting another shop in Florida in probably 2 years. It will be a full repair shop, but it will also cater to high performance needs also. And eventually years down the road will have a in house machine shop. So not only do I want this for myself but I want this for a tool to work with and make money with later on. $1000 is really not much for a tool. Not saying to flash but to state the fact I've prob spent over $20,000 in tools already in the years I've been doing this. Can't make money without tools. And to get, say a stage 2 port job that most company's offer is around $750 and full port $1,000+ . yes they are experienced in porting , but they did learn and do go by flow numbers on a bench. So if I take a set of junk 915 J's I have and test and learn on them with the flow bench then I can apply that knowledge to my good set and have a nice set of heads. And the cost of paying someone to do it for me that I didn't spend just paid for the flow bench and the next set of J's I do will be free beside my time put in. Not another $750-$1000. So I think its worth it. And also I will be able to see how different valve jobs I grind effect the flow to know what works and what don't. Even if I only do 3 sets of heads ever again and I was able to get them to flow good by using this as a guide, well I think it would be worth the cash.
Anyhow I am interested in looking into this manometer also. And I'm glad you mentioned it. Thank you.
 
moparmatt19 said:
How many hot rods do I plan to do? Well I hope a lot. I hope to have another good 30 yrs of building left. I have and do build engines for people on the side and would like to have this or something to use to help gain in the process. Also I haven't not had a engine that I was building since high school. Its my hobby, Passion, and been my profession... Not saying I'm any master engine builder or anything , but I do plan to be lol. Take it how ya want. Anyhow I am in the works of starting another shop in Florida in probably 2 years. It will be a full repair shop, but it will also cater to high performance needs also. And eventually years down the road will have a in house machine shop. So not only do I want this for myself but I want this for a tool to work with and make money with later on. $1000 is really not much for a tool. Not saying to flash but to state the fact I've prob spent over $20,000 in tools already in the years I've been doing this. Can't make money without tools. And to get, say a stage 2 port job that most company's offer is around $750 and full port $1,000+ . yes they are experienced in porting , but they did learn and do go by flow numbers on a bench. So if I take a set of junk 915 J's I have and test and learn on them with the flow bench then I can apply that knowledge to my good set and have a nice set of heads. And the cost of paying someone to do it for me that I didn't spend just paid for the flow bench and the next set of J's I do will be free beside my time put in. Not another $750-$1000. So I think its worth it. And also I will be able to see how different valve jobs I grind effect the flow to know what works and what don't. Even if I only do 3 sets of heads ever again and I was able to get them to flow good by using this as a guide, well I think it would be worth the cash.
Anyhow I am interested in looking into this manometer also. And I'm glad you mentioned it. Thank you.
Click to expand...
I`ve been thinking along these lines , just to equalize intake port flow.
 
I just figured someone had bought one before or had made one and was just curious on where they bought it or how they built there's.
 
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