I'm new to the forum and don't know any of the member's personalities yet but my hat's off to Purpldodge. I didn't realize he was only 15. I have twin step-daughters who are 15 and learning to drive (legally that is, I've been letting drive for about three years). Their limit of experimentation is, for example, today, laying on the horn to see if it would still honk with the engine turned off . Help me!
If dodge would have hired engineers in the 90's who had as much initiative when they were 15 as Purpl does, they would have built a better truck. (Over the past 10 years, I can't tell you how many times I've wondered if Dodge even had engineers on the payroll during the 90s.) The real questions should be: how much would it have cost Dodge to make a one piece intake and skipped the whole plenum gasket issue or at a minium used an aluminum plate with shorter bolts. Back when I was 15, I knew you can't attach two dissimilar metals, heat them up, and exptect them to expand and contract equally. But even with an aluminum plate, that gasket will eventually fail.
I just replaced my plenum gasket (173K miles) and if I were to have taken it upon myself to make a new aluminum plate I would make sure to smooth the edges with sandpaper and polish the mating edge that contacts the gasket with some steel wool using a swirling motion. I would also use a thin layer of high temperature RTV on both sides of the gasket. Also clean the manifold threads with brake cleaner and use high temperature/oil resistant Loctite to make sure the bolts hold through the heating up and cooling down cycles. The Loctite will help lube the threads going on and protect them once it seals.
Purpl: never loose your enthusiasm and drive. Anybody can come up with 100s of reasons why something won't work. It takes someone and something special to say I can make this work and make it better, cheaper, faster. Most people fit in the "that will never work" group. Few people have what it takes to say I can do this better. Fewer still can stick with something through the negativism and set backs, learn from their mistakes, and accomplish their goals.

 

Purpl, did you get that thing drilled and sanded yet?

It's only 4 pages for me. You know you can go into the user CP and change the settings to show 40 posts per page right?

 

All the holes are drilled out. Just need to take it to my uncle's and give it a spin on the bench grinder.

 

be careful with that bench grinder so you don't dig a groove into the gasket surface. those things are powerful and it would be easy for that thing to get away from you.
wait a minute, bench grinder? your uncle is gonna whip your behind when he finds out you put aluminum on that thing. aluminum cakes into the stone on bench grinders, you need to use a belt sander.

 

Damn, thats how much I know!!! Dremel will work fine.

 

Yep, it will. I love my dremel, I use it quite a bit. just use the cylinder sanding bit with the removable sanding cylinders that is about 1/2" in diameter. I think that sanding bit comes standard with all dremels.

 

Here are some more pics:





Yeah...



Some 400 grit sandpaper and you would not be able to tell mine from a Hughes or APS plate.

 

Looks good , so now how much $$ do you have in everything to make the plenum....sheet of aluminum, blades, grinding discs or sanding ones, hardware for the plenum + gasket, and how many hr's you got logged in on making it? Did you get up to or over the $86 dollars for a hughes kit? Be truthful , not gonna say told you so , or you shoulda just got the hughes kit,( im sure you'll get that anyways) I'm all for you making it yourself , because its looks rather simple if you take your time.

 

Damn jr you're doin good so far, my only question is looking at the orginal plate, does the new one need to be recessed in the middle just as the orignal was ?

 

$12 for gasket
$9 for jigsaw blades
$5 for Dremel grinding wheel
+_____________________________
$26
Pretty amazing, huh? The aluminum was free.

I've got less than 2 hours in the plate.