best intake manifold for the money?

[jonnyman]

Nice. looks great gonna try to find a place near me that can do it

I do mostly go to car shows / cruze nights, sit around for hours BS'ing and to drink a few beers. I really wanted the FAST more for looks I guess. The HP increase was just an added bonus.

@ 98TransAm.....I got mine Powder coated from a company called "the powder pro" in Woodstock IL. They do great work....they did my rims, brake calipers and catch can.

[35th-ANV-SS]

I do mostly go to car shows / cruze nights, sit around for hours BS'ing and to drink a few beers. I really wanted the FAST more for looks I guess. The HP increase was just an added bonus.

Looks awesome. I plan on getting my rotors powder-coated before summer. This might be a company I look into being they are somewhat local.

[SMWS6TA]

I just check their gallery and holly crap do they do some nice work.

The Powder Pro - Custom Powdercoating and Polishing

[ls1camino]

Thanks kinda what I was hoping to hear. My car is an 02 WS6, so it has the LS6 intake already. It's really hard for me to rationalize spending about $1,000 for an intake manifold and then getting a throttle body about that for a street car. I could put that sort of money to help out the bottom end, a lighter K frame or something. Plus that intake screams "look at me", but doesn't really deliver all that much more it seems (especially dealing with the smog police).

If I can pass emissions without any cats and a giant cam, you can pass emissions.

[Mike0202]

There were dyno comparisons a couple years back when the 102's first hit the market. It was shown that the larger 102 stomped the previous smaller versions. Even Tony Mamo who was part of that session explained there is no reason to avoid the 102 even for a small 346 cubed LS1 engine, it doen't hurt performance because the intake is a dry intake, it only deals with incoming air and doesn't have to atomize fuel unlike a carbed application, so larger size has no bearing as far as hurting power. Fuel is all taken care of at the injector right above the cylinder head ports.

So don't shy away from the 102 just because. It'll work fine. If you are spending the money for a FAST, may as well get the latest design for your money.

Personally, for even a head/cam car that is primarily street driven, the LS6 does the job. Plenty of them I've seen run bottom 11's. Even cam only cars with the LS6 will dip into the 11's easily.
I only see the FAST setup a cost effective upgrade IF you are a serious track car that is class racing and you're looking for every last tenth. Just my opinion but I can't see spending $1500-$2000 on an intake setup for a street car. There are many other things that I could put that money to better use with.

It was my understanding that the main reason people avoid the 102 is because its a pain to tune. Anyway my car through down 414/383 on a loaded Mustang Dyno with an LS6 intake. Works for me.

[ls1camino]

It was my understanding that the main reason people avoid the 102 is because its a pain to tune. Anyway my car through down 414/383 on a loaded Mustang Dyno with an LS6 intake. Works for me.

First time I've heard that.

[Mike0202]

Yeah im not a tuner but thats what I hear.

[Whamhammer]

I have another question about the LS6 intake setup. I know it wont take a 90mm throttle body, but Summitt offers an 85mm throttle body: http://www.summitracing.com/parts/su...bird/year/2002

any thoughts on this for an LS1 with head/cam or an LS2/3 bottom end with an LS6 intake compatable head/cam?

[ls1camino]

If you run that TB, you'll have to sand down the intake to match the 85mm. It's not too bad, just takes some time.

[Whamhammer]

If you run that TB, you'll have to sand down the intake to match the 85mm. It's not too bad, just takes some time.

I dont really trust myself with something like that, is there someone that is good at working on these composite manifolds?

[Firebirdjones]

I did some math for you to give an idea.

The difference from the stock 78mm to the 85mm is obviously only 7mm.

Since I'm an old fart and hate the metric system lets convert this to inches

7mm is equivilant to 9/32". That's .28125"

Since we are talking about an entire circumference you can cut that number in half to give you the amount of material you need to remove all the way around the opening.

That comes to 9/64" or .140625". So we are talking about removing a very small amount of material. It would be very easy to do, and you could possibly use the 85mm throttle body as a template. I'm sure there is enough meat there to open the intake this far, again, we aren't talking about much.
You could even make a paper gasket off the back side of the 85mm throttle body and use that as a template as well. Probably very mild sanding rolls in a dremel would do the job, work slow and keep the heat down and you could probably do it in an afternoon.

[Whamhammer]

I know what you are saying, I just don't have the confidence to do it with fear of screwing up.

For that matter, is there enough "meat" to enlarge it 90mm? How much of a difference will the 85mm be over stock and vs the 90mm in regards for an LS1 with head/cam or an LS2/3 bottom end with an LS6 intake compatible head/cam?

[Firebirdjones]

All this has been tried before and I'm pretty sure porting to a 90mm is a no go. I don't have an LS6 intake sitting in front of me but if you do, it wouldn't take much time to check the amount of material around the throat. 85mm isn't removing that much, but going up to 90mm is probably pushing it and would likely get into the 0-ring sealing area, and I think that's where the limitation is.

I'm thinking I've read people sending the intake off to have the inlet cut off and a 90mm inlet bonded to it, and then porting the intake. Sounds like alot of trouble and money to me for another 5mm.

[Whamhammer]

Thank you for following up with me. So at what point is it best to move up to a FAST intake and a 90mm TB? I am trying to figure out what I want to do engine-wise in the next year or so. I want an aluminum block/heads to keep the weight down and distribution favorable (I also am looking at the lighter weight crossmembers, K frames etc.), but I don't want to waste money on building an engine that will be bottlenecked by too small of a throttle body or the rest of the intake tract or waste it buy spending a lot of money on a $1,000 intake that I my not really need.

[Firebirdjones]

It sounds to me that you are making a big effort to build a quick car with lightweight parts. If this is a full tilt effort (I get the impression it is) then I would spring for the FAST intake no question, they are worth power even on a small 346 engine.

On the other hand, if this is just a fun street car with modest power levels in mind, the LS6 intake does a fine job.

That's where I'm at with this issue. Currently our 4th gens are daily drivers with mild cams and bolt ons, so the LS6 intakes work perfectly fine for us. If at some point my wife decides she wants something else and I retire the car from daily duty, it might become more of a fun street/strip car for me, at which point I'd probably give the FAST intake a serious look.

I guess it depends on what you want in the end.

[98TransAmWs-6]

Regardless of what you do you are going to have a bottle neck at the MAF. If you get an SD tune and replace it with about a 4" tube that goes from the lid to the tb or get a MAF about the same size as the throttle body, this would solve the issue. If you want a tb that is 90mm, you are going to have to buy a new intake for that to work. I would buy the fast 102 in that instance since you you are going to have to buy a new intake, you might as well get the most power out of it with the bigger opening.

[Whamhammer]

It sounds to me that you are making a big effort to build a quick car with lightweight parts. If this is a full tilt effort (I get the impression it is) then I would spring for the FAST intake no question, they are worth power even on a small 346 engine.

On the other hand, if this is just a fun street car with modest power levels in mind, the LS6 intake does a fine job.

That's where I'm at with this issue. Currently our 4th gens are daily drivers with mild cams and bolt ons, so the LS6 intakes work perfectly fine for us. If at some point my wife decides she wants something else and I retire the car from daily duty, it might become more of a fun street/strip car for me, at which point I'd probably give the FAST intake a serious look.

I guess it depends on what you want in the end.

My goal is a really fun street car that can give a wallop to the new muscle out there and I can occasionally take to the strip or autocross now and then. Im think about 400 hp and a bit more torque at the rear wheels while cutting weight down for all of the obvious reasons that reduced weight gives (better power to weight, better fuel consumption, better handling/weigh distribution, etc.)

[Firebirdjones]

My goal is a really fun street car that can give a wallop to the new muscle out there and I can occasionally take to the strip or autocross now and then. Im think about 400 hp and a bit more torque at the rear wheels while cutting weight down for all of the obvious reasons that reduced weight gives (better power to weight, better fuel consumption, better handling/weigh distribution, etc.)

400hp at the rear wheels is pretty easy to obtain with the LS6 intake and a stock sized ported throttle body. If it were me looking for 400rwhp, I'd keep the LS6 intake and spend my money on a good set of heads, a custom camshaft, and a stout rearend with gear. With a good set of headers and exhaust, it would probably top the 400 rwhp mark without getting into the shortblock and spending too much money.
Top that off with weight reduction that you mentioned and it would be a very quick and fun to drive street car.

You could also look at it this way,,,,after you have had fun for a while with the combo listed above, and if you have money to spend later down the road, you could easily add the FAST intake setup later when funds allow and bump the power up some more when you get the bug.