Its been a while since I last updated this thread--
This month I am swapping out the GSR two stage manifold for a single stage. The obvious replacement was a Skunk2 manifold. Its "top of the line" , But when it arrived in the mail I found it was some what lacking in some very obvious ways.
For one thing, they installed the coolant passage from a Type R set up, which has two coolant ports, instead of my factory GSR single port.
So I figured best approach is to cap one of my existing coolant ports, and use the port on the manifold in the same manor as the Type R does.
There is a coolant port under the VTEC solenoid that connects a hose all the way back to the throttle body on the GSR head. This port serves the fame function as the new port in the manifold, so its got to be plugged. I think its going to look a lot cleaner after the install with out the lengthy hose drooping around the head.
I also found some of the casting in the manifold needed cleaning. So I got busy porting and making the radius of the casting was smooth.
Upon 'mocking up' the manifold to the head- I noticed that Skunk2 doesn't machine the upper holes for the studs. They drill them out, but due to the casting, the nuts for the upper manifold studs don't sit flush with their mounting point.
Really Skunk2...where's the quality control?.... Anyways, so I took the manifold to my machinist to have the mounting points machined flush.
Now the nuts can properly be torqued.
There is still much to do before I can turn key again- This includes re-doing the coolant plumbing on the back side of the head, and making a new wiring harness. I'll post as things progress.