firebirdStud

Anyone know why some intakes have a bolt hole slotted on the drivers side, kind of in the middle? I have a 95 and it doesn't have it, but I am lookin at gettin a 96, and I noticed in the pics it was slotted... why is this? Its only one bolt hole, so I can't figure out why it would have this... I beleive its off a 96 camaro LT1..
Thanks
Cody

thesoundandthefury

This question is sort've along the same lines as a question I asked a couple of weeks ago about why all LT1 intakes have holes drilled into the sides of each injector boss and also those two mysterious holes drilled at the front driver's side corner next to the throttle body linkage. The best I can guess is that they were utilized for production purposes somehow. I could see the slotted bolt hole being a means for making it easier on the person installing manifolds to locate and line up the first bolt hole, thus speeding up the whole process of bolting the manifold on. (Maybe an engineer at GM decided that the infamous intake manifold leak that LT1's became known for was caused by the guy on the assembly line not installing the bolts in the right order so they came up with a way of reminding that person which hole to start with?)

I've thought about what the holes in between the injector bosses might've been used for: something to bolt a hoist to so they could move the engines around maybe? I'm still at a total loss about what those two front corner holes are for though...

Like I said, it's just a guess. Don't take it as gospel.

firebirdStud

hmm, that is a good guess for that slot... anyone else? I just want to make sure it wasn't ported or something, and that was the only way they could get the bolt to go in. But, it is only on one hole, so probably unlikely..

firebirdStud

no one else can tell me anything more??

IllusionalTA

It's just a slot.. has no adverse effect on the perf. of the intake manifold... As long as it line's upto your head's correctly.. this shouldn't be a issue.. It also could have been due to misalignement of the one bolt hole... not necessarily factory...

thesoundandthefury

The slot is definitely there from the factory. I've got a 97 intake and it has it too.

GMRL

My 97 has the slot too, I was wondering about that last sunday when I fixed my intake leak. Maybe its used on other cars, B bodys or Vettes. I think, not sure though, that the holes by the injector bosses are there to hold the injector covers on the vettes on, I could be wrong though.

thesoundandthefury

Injector covers...do you mean fuel rail covers? If so then the holes that hold those on are in the fuel rails themselves.

GMRL

Injector covers, fuel rail covers, Ive heard people call them both. Im not sure where the bolts are though, Ive never realy looked at an LT1 Vette that close, you may be right.

Z95m6

There are 2 sets of holes for the fuel rail covers. The 2 in the rails are just for plastic inserts on the covers themselves. The ones in the intake are for the studs that also hold the covers on.

thesoundandthefury

Fuel rail covers pic:


Intake pic:


How do they mount? I don't see any holes down at the bottom of the FRC's that line up with those holes in between the injector bosses on the intake. Do the stud holes not go all the way through the cover or what?

TQdrivenws6

My guess is that the slot is there to make putting the bolt in easier as it may be a difficult location to access?

Z95m6

yes the stud doesn't go through the cover. If you flip the cover over you'll see that there are little clips that the mount on top of the studs.

thesoundandthefury

Ahh cool, thanks for the heads up. I can cross that one off my list of "what the hell is it for?" now.

Injuneer

My old 94 LT1 manifold has no slot. My LT4 manifold does.