I just found that having a LT4 intake (for example) will help with the future mods i plan to do. But if the majority of you guys telling me it will add little to no increase in air flow, then i guess I will stick with the stock one.

So just to make sure, you guys are saying the stock LT1 intake manifold is good enough to handle most anything?



EDIT --- BUT WON'T A PORT AND POLISH JOB BE A BIG ASSEST HERE?

 

These aint no LS-1's the intake on the LT series don't do much. You can get it port and polished as a "peace of mind" mod... but honestly don't bother with it unless your port matching them to heads. Save your loot. Buy some fuzzy dice or somehting.

 

Well i am getting new Heads as well. So then i should probably just go with a better Throttle Body.

 

I think everyone is trying to tell you to do headers first. The general method of mods is CAI or catback first doesn't really matter, Then headers, then heads/intake/cam. By the way i talked to AI about getting my intake ported and they said there would be a little gain but its not really holding me back at all.

 

In my experience with lt1's, we've never had issues making 480-500hp NA with the stock manifold, which is a fair amount over the "400rwhp" everyone always wants with manual cars. Even trying to make more than 500hp, a simple well ported manifold is all I'd ever do in most cases. With some of the #'s I've seen race setups make with these manifolds, I'm not 100% convinced theyre a huge bottle neck. We'll know soon enough however, as we've got some higher hp packages going together now that should push it, and since we're doing them instead of customers we'll be able to monitor all of our test conditions & know for sure whats going on

Hope that helps a bit

-Phil

 

Let's look at this:

Port the intake manifold. Hog it out, get the best possible airflow. Increase the intake runner cross section. Then bolt it back up to a stock set of heads. Suddenly you get a decreasing step into the head runner, and a lot of turbulent airflow, costing you power.

Don't mess with the manifold.

 

 

1st, unless you get LT4 heads, the LT4 intake will hurt, cause the intake ports on the LT1 heads wont match up to the manifold without a lot of work.

As the man from AI said above, a stock or slightly worked over LT1 manifold will support 450-500 HP, so no way should it be your 1st step. This isn't a traditional small-block Chevy.

And since the manifold is dry (fuel added at the intake ports, see where your injectors are), a port and polish won't help much at all.

You came here for advice, so take it.