#TBSS INTAKE MANIFOLD FULL#
#TBSS INTAKE MANIFOLD FREE#

“Truthfully, the stock LS3 manifold is a fairly decent piece right from the factory, but the LSXr picks up power across the board compared to the stock intake.”Ī lot of time was spent optimizing runner length to improve upon the stock intake across the entire operating range of the engine. “The LSXr has been the best manifold that we’ve tested for street applications,” says Chris Potter of FAST. Like all FAST manifolds, the LSXr features a modular multi-piece design for easy internal access and a special polymer construction that’s designed to dissipate heat more effectively than aluminum. The first up from our aftermarket options was LSXr from Fuel Air Spark Technology. But despite its admirable showing on the dyno, we can’t help but wonder if there’s more power waiting to be unlocked with an aftermarket design. Of course, this piece has the inherent virtue of fitting like an OEM component because it is one. That can often be accomplished by either port-matching the stock intake or simply swapping it out for a different intake which already has a port size that matches the aftermarket throttle body. While using a larger throttle body on a stock manifold can result in power gains in some situations, ideally you’d want the intake port size to match the size of the throttle body (as we did with the other intakes tested) to prevent a potential bottleneck in airflow. By the aftermarket’s own admission it’s a well-designed piece, delivering a solid balance between low-end grunt and top-end peak output.Īlthough all the tests were done with a Nick Williams 102 mm throttle body (PN SD102MMEL), the stock intake is the only one among them with a port size that’s designed for the stock 92 mm unit.

#TBSS INTAKE MANIFOLD FREE#

It wasn’t that long ago that the stock intake manifold was one of the first things a builder would swap out to free up a substantial chunk of power, even for mild street builds. OEMs formerly struggled to manufacture these kinds of components in a way that struck a balance between cost, reliability, and performance, and that provided a lot of room for improvement by turning to the aftermarket for a higher quality piece. But those days are in the past, as evidenced by this stock LS3 manifold.

#TBSS INTAKE MANIFOLD FULL#

It’s important to note that since this engine wasn’t built with a specific intake manifold in mind, it isn’t optimized to take full advantage of manifold designs that differ substantially from the stock piece. Regardless, the dyno tests did allow us to glean some interesting data about how different intake designs can affect the LS3’s power delivery. Emissions laws can sometimes put the kibosh on these, making shorty headers the most viable alternative in those instances. Depending on where you live and whether or not you’re using the car on the street, these may or may not be an option for you. We used a set of longtube headers for the dyno pulls. We laid out a set of ground rules for the shootout, which included stock or near-stock displacement, natural aspiration, near 11:1 compression, street-friendly hydraulic roller camshafts, factory PCMs, and a budget of $10,000 for parts. The test subject we’re using is the LS3 we built for the LS3 Versus Coyote Budget Engine Shootout. Ryne Cunningham from Cunningham Motorsports took up the tuning role to make sure that our stock-style Howell EFI system was adjusted to provide the best possible power output for each of the manifolds we tested. We took a recently-built LS3 to Westech Performance and put the mill on the dyno to get baseline numbers with the stock LS3 intake manifold provided by GM Performance, then bolted on three different aftermarket options to see how they stacked up against GM’s own design. So even though the components selected aren’t geared toward maximum gains for a specific type of intake manifold, it does give us an indication of how a typical warmed-over LS3 would respond to these different options.Ĭhoosing a combination of performance parts for a build is rarely an exact science, but having a clear idea of where you want to find gains in the power band can help to point you in the right direction, and keeping that in mind when choosing an intake manifold for your motor can have a significant effect on the end result. While this LS3 was built for a shootout with a Coyote 5.0 using an identical budget, the strategy was to build a streetable engine that could still be capable of making well over 800hp with a power adder.

Tbss intake manifold