Since I have more hood clearnace on my car than the typical F & Y bodies I have room for a taller intake manifold. I would like to construct a mini-tunnel ram manifold using a 80MM TB instead of the ported OEM unit I have now. I would really like to know how to optimize the runner length/taper and plenum size since I have already put together what I feel is an optimum exhaust system consisting of stepped headers and "X" pipe.

Based on my motor configuration I would like max power from ~4500 to ~6500 RPM. I really don't care about torque below 4500 RPM because right now I can boil the tires at will in either 1st or 2nd gear with the LS6 intake so if I have to sacrafice a bit, no problem but I want to make more power than my restrictive LS6 intake. Please advise and thanks in advance for the help.

 

John,

Sent you an e-mail on this.

Look me up on AOL IM if you can @ SpenserCassius.

Bret

 

What's up with that Bret?
Are we afraid of posting technical information in this forum now?? Looks like a fear of potential debate to me. I've noticed that when a few guys (I won't mention any names) are known to be lurking around this forum that alot of the more "knowledgable members" don't want to comment on anything.... or am I just missing something here?
I mean, one of our most knowledgable members doesn't hold any highly technical info from us and I don't think he really ever has. At least, not sense I started frequenting this forum.

Sorry... this is nothing personal... it is however a little irritating.

-Mindgame

 

Mindgame.....calm down a little bit. I dont think Bret or anyone means to hold back info from the forum. Were all here to learn, and HAVE FUN! Relax.

 

Mindgame,


Good Flame.

This is something I am working on right now and I talked with John on the phone about it already.

I like intake manifolds and giving away the specs to what I feel will make the most power, like cross sectional area, length, pleanum design, tapper angle, materials, construction etc, is not really what I want to make public knowledge when I plan on building it and selling it later on.

What I do know is that he can easliy go from 500hp to 550hp with a good intake swap.

Finally people have caught up to what I knew about 8 months ago about the LS1/6 you need a custom built manifold for it to work. We have 300+cfm heads and only 500hp, there is something wrong with that!

I'll give you that it's not like cam specs. Cam Specs when they get out are easy to copy and make, even if I tell people what I feel will work well it's not easy to make.

Bret

 

Bret,

That was not a flame.

Here's the problem as I see it.... not targeting of anyone.... just my observations.
The purpose of a forum like this is the exchange of ideas, healthy debate and cold hard information. What I've seen happen in the past in other message boards like this one is rather sad.
You have a few guys come in.... they're pros (they get paid to build engines and stuff), they answer a few questions and get to be familiar with the board's members, who come to trust and rely on them for accurate information. Then they start going to e-mail to share their ideas rather then air them openly. Either that, or they start peddling work through the members. Why, because they view everything as a competition and after a few small debates with the other knowledgable members.... along with a few disagreements.... they feel that they need to go secret mission, top-secret. The forum becomes F1-world where nobody wants to share ideas openly for fear of the competition getting-a-leg-up. Everyone loses in that situation... the builders, because they might actually LEARN something if they would keep an open frequency for information.... and most importantly, the members lose, because the information is not discussed openly.

Bret, I doubt you are the only one working with the LS1/LT1 intake manifold... who's to say that one of our other members doesn't have a few ideas that might help you in developing an even better manifold? Who's to say they wouldn't share a little information? Who's to say that I wouldn't mind seeing what you've done with that intake manifold... or better yet... hear about the theory that went into it's design. I guarantee I could learn something from that type of discussion and you'd never need to get into the specifics of your design. That is my point here. Nothing personal, just my observations.

-Mindgame

 

Mindgame,

I got ya.

A engine is a total design anyways, and I'm always on the out edge of this stuff anyways trying to find stuff to make more power.

One thing I will never talk about on here is a Engine Masters Design in progress. that competiton has too many good minds in it anyways, and there are only a select few people I can talk with on that privately about ideas. Most of them being ones who get my bussiness so confidentiality is what I am paying for.

On the intake I plan on doing a fiberglass/epoxy pleanum and runners mated to alumuinum mounting flanges for the heads and TB. Runner sizes will be shorter than the LS1/LS6 intake, but not as short as most sheetmetal designs. The tapper angle is something that not normally discussed and I would love to hear what other people have to say. The pleanum design is more about packaging in a f-body or y-body. So getting the size on that, and more importantly in the right place is what I am thinking about.

On the manufacturing end, I only know one way to attach the composite runners to the aluminum flanges, any ideas on that?

Bret

 

Oh come on. Last time I tried to help the masses no one wanted to try. Now some one sells my ideas under there name.

I do not mind Sharing at all but I hate that people are paying for what I gave away to them for free.

Oh well

 

What happened?

 

Sorry to hear that Ellis.

Don't misunderstand what I'm saying though. I think you have to practice some discretion, that's for sure. There are people out there who have nothing better to do than steal ideas and turn them into profit. Just look at what's happened to so many 'fix-it' guides you see.... guys selling other people's stuff on e-bay and making a small fortune doing it. Sad.

Bret,
Can't help you on the manuf. end of that deal. I've always been a cast or sheet metal intake guy. Chuck Riddeck offered to build an intake for the 15 deg heads I'll be using on this LT1 buildup here in a few months. He uses carbon fiber and aluminum for all of his stuff and the price he quoted me was rather.... lofty.
He'd be the guy to talk to on the manufacturing end of things since he does that sort of thing. I know there are some pretty amazing epoxies out there these days. My thought would be to find a forum on composites and manufacturing.... or perhaps just a website. Best of luck.

-Mindgame

 

One other thought Bret... Jim McFarland does a tech discussion forum on a website (can't remember the name of that site though). He spent a lot of time developing intakes at Edelbrock... built the Tork-link and was preety big in the Vic Jr development program from what I understand.
He'd be a great guy to get information from on the subject of taper, radius and all that stuff that goes into a good intake design.

-Mindgame

 

Mindgame,

McFarland is always a good source of info.


What are you using on your 15 Deg heads? I would use a single plane race manifold and adapt that to work with a throttle body thru the use of a pleanum. Jason Short and I are working on this on his LT1.

Bret

 

Try http://www.n2performance.com/

Jim's a very good guy. It's been about 7 years since I've done anything with him though.