If you're going to redo something, redo it right.

I've risen from the space between phlegm and fever to share a holiday recipe and a wish.  First, the wish:

There's a certain Swedish goat that has been standing unburnt for too long this year.  My wish is that the Gävle Goat hurries up and burns down.  The longer it remains uncharred, the more nervous I become.

Now, the recipe:

Milled and Brazed Intake
Serves: 6 cylinders

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 OEM 242 intake manifold, years '99-04
• 1 carburetor base or adapter plate (for our purposes, we are using the adapter plate for a Weber 38 DGES to a 258 intake manifold.  Use a plate that suits your dietary preference)
• 6 1/2" dia. aluminum plugs
• 1 bigass mill (incl. preferred double-fluted endmill)
• 1 badass die grinder (incl. mandrel and cutoff wheels)
• Several bottles degreaser (we used LA's Totally Awesome, but feel free to use your preferred, aluminum-safe, cleaning sauce)
• 1 can oven cleaner (for color, optional)
• Aluminum brazing rods
• Stainless steel brush
• MAPP torch

PREPARATION:

Douse the manifold in degreaser, scrub-a-dub, rinse clean, and dry.

Spend as much time as necessary figuring out how to barely clamp the intake into your bigass mill.

Maintain control of your waste elimination ports as the endmill grabs the manifold, causing it to jump out of the clamps and becomes well-shaken.

Check for unexpected cracks, noting any that are found so that they may be brazed shut later.

Once the manifold is confirmed to be well-secured and no longer moving, mill away the throttle body mounting base and any other material that would obstruct a centered placement of your adapter plate.

Set up your badass grinder with cutoff wheels to remove any remaining material used for the threaded holes originally placed for mounting the throttle body.

When using your grinder, make sure to follow all manufacturer-provided safety directions, such as the following which accompanied the cutoff wheels:

These glyphs clearly instruct the viewer to wear x-ray specs while listening to boss tunes (image 1), and to manually-operate the tool while catching up on your reading (image 2).

Tear it up with your grinder.  You should be left with something that looks like this.

Dress the manifold with adapter plate and injector port plugs, like so:

Place the manifold in your oven and begin heating to 500°F.  It's important to begin heating the oven with the manifold already inside, as this will ensure all material comes up to temp uniformly.

Fan smoke out of the kitchen through whichever door or window is closest while oven works to reach set temperature.

Vent smoke from oven once appropriate temperature has been reached, silence smoke alarms as needed (removing them from their mounting fixtures and storing them in the freezer is a great method, though remember to put them back later if safety is of any concern), then brush seams to be brazed with the clean stainless steel brush before using the MAPP torch to heat surfaces for brazing rods.

Braze to taste.

Continue fanning out smoke.