removing valley tray on cast intakes

Might be a dumb question, but has anyone removed the center of the valley tray on the cast single planes and replaced it with thinner sheet aluminum? Just looking at weight reduction off the nose for the new truck and wondered if the work was worth the reward to do. Figure it would save a couple pounds in doing this.

kjett wrote:Might be a dumb question, but has anyone removed the center of the valley tray on the cast single planes and replaced it with thinner sheet aluminum? Just looking at weight reduction off the nose for the new truck and wondered if the work was worth the reward to do. Figure it would save a couple pounds in doing this.

I've seen that done on quite a few cast intakes. Lot of work for a couple pounds, but in some cases a couple pounds can be worth it.

kjett wrote:Might be a dumb question, but has anyone removed the center of the valley tray on the cast single planes and replaced it with thinner sheet aluminum? Just looking at weight reduction off the nose for the new truck and wondered if the work was worth the reward to do. Figure it would save a couple pounds in doing this.

Sprint Car people even rifle drill titanium bolts to save a few ounces adding-up to a few pounds ... depends upon how your mind works.

Might be something to do while it's all apart for this winter when it's too cold outside and I need to occupy my time. Thanks for the replies. Will post pics if I end up doing it.

That's a big effort for a negligible amount of weight removal, but should you decide to do it then there are pre-fabbed intake valley pans available for the 385 Series (Felpro).

Not worth the effort on a heavyweight mud truck IMO