Intake manifold question
Thread Starter
Le Mans Master
Joined: Jan 2004
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St. Jude Donor '14
Intake manifold question
Did all l82 motors come with an aluminum intake? I was thinking this may be an easier alternative to add a little bit of oomph on a budget for my 75 l48. This way, I do not have to fool around with a different air cleaner base or any other problems. I see cast iron intakes like mine for around 75 bucks but that seems kind of high. How much should an original style aluminum intake cost and is it a direct bolt on?
Race Director
Joined: Sep 2004
Posts: 11,874
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From: Arlington Va Current ride 04 vert, previous vettes: 69 vert, 77 resto mod
Originally Posted by 7t5
Did all l82 motors come with an aluminum intake? I was thinking this may be an easier alternative to add a little bit of oomph on a budget for my 75 l48. This way, I do not have to fool around with a different air cleaner base or any other problems. I see cast iron intakes like mine for around 75 bucks but that seems kind of high. How much should an original style aluminum intake cost and is it a direct bolt on?
Le Mans Master
Joined: Jun 2004
Posts: 9,289
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From: Skippack PA
St Jude Donor '13
Originally Posted by bobs77vet
i don't know if l82 came with aluminum intakes...there are alot of aftermarket aluminum intakes out there in the 100-150 range... i would think that if you kept your original carb you would not have any clearance issues....however make sure you have figured out all of your vacuum accesories first...sometimes the new intakes don't have all the vaccum ports you need....it would be adirect bolt on after you removed a whole lot of stuff....
Race Director
Joined: Sep 2004
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From: Arlington Va Current ride 04 vert, previous vettes: 69 vert, 77 resto mod
Originally Posted by ruby76
Would the simple addition of an Edelbrock Performer intake make any power gains on it's own over the stock iron intake?
probably not.....it seems like the cast iron intakes although pretty heavy were pretty well designed....look at this as a whole system carb,intake,heads, headers and then exhaust.....as a system this is where power is made....individually picking just one does not have the same impact as a designed system....get a comprehensive plan then implement it piecemeal if necessary
Team Owner
Joined: Aug 1999
Posts: 30,995
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From: Ontario
This is a 1979 L-82 aluminum intake. But aside from some weight savings, I doubt that you see any difference in performance simply by changing intakes. They run $50-75 on EBay. Watch for corrosion in the thermostat area.
Race Director
Joined: Apr 1999
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From: CORVETTE 77 385 C.I. TEXAS
You can change to the Weiand Action+ or Performer 2101 & maybe gain about 10-12. The Al. L-82 intake is an EGR intake & ok if you want egr.
No need to change the Al. L-82 intake for another egr intake.
If you want to get serious about more HP, you might want to see what many refer to as my Exhaust topic.
http://www.corvettefaq.com/c3/ganeyexhaust.htm
Then L-48 badly needs more cam! Intake can be done at the same time. These would put it over 300 HP, a good start.
No need to change the Al. L-82 intake for another egr intake.
If you want to get serious about more HP, you might want to see what many refer to as my Exhaust topic.
http://www.corvettefaq.com/c3/ganeyexhaust.htm
Then L-48 badly needs more cam! Intake can be done at the same time. These would put it over 300 HP, a good start.
Le Mans Master
Joined: Sep 2003
Posts: 8,812
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From: eastern NC
L82's had cast iron manifolds until 1978. When the 78 came out with the aluminum lots of folks retrofitted their earlier Corvettes so it's possible to find one and think it original.
The early L82 (as well as the L48) had a different EGR valve and requires a pad for the choke coil to sit on. The 78 and later aluminum manifold used a different choke arangement so the pad is missing. (Similar to the one above.)
There are lots of GM aluminum manifolds out there that can be adapted to your engine with nothing more than having a small pad of aluminum welded on the top of the runner that carries exhaust from one head to the other in the center of the manifold. (These came on SB's with electric chokes so there is nothing there for the original choke coil to bolt to.)
But GM didn't put an aluminum manifold on the SB Corvette from '72 until the '78 L82. By the way the only real advantage in these GM aluminum manifolds is there's a nice weight savings... and they can be made to look stock...
GUSTO
The early L82 (as well as the L48) had a different EGR valve and requires a pad for the choke coil to sit on. The 78 and later aluminum manifold used a different choke arangement so the pad is missing. (Similar to the one above.)
There are lots of GM aluminum manifolds out there that can be adapted to your engine with nothing more than having a small pad of aluminum welded on the top of the runner that carries exhaust from one head to the other in the center of the manifold. (These came on SB's with electric chokes so there is nothing there for the original choke coil to bolt to.)
But GM didn't put an aluminum manifold on the SB Corvette from '72 until the '78 L82. By the way the only real advantage in these GM aluminum manifolds is there's a nice weight savings... and they can be made to look stock...
GUSTO
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Le Mans Master
Joined: Oct 2002
Posts: 7,098
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From: Las Vegas - Just stop perpetuating myths please.
Try a salvage yard?
I saw plenty of alum sb intakes at the pick-ur-own boneyards recently. Most late '70s and early 80's Chevy sb cars and Firebirds too. Most of them have a matching casting # to corvette if that matters to u. I stopped dragging them home from the swapmeets a couple of yrs ago and won't spend more than $10 for one. So for $50 buy a stack of them to practise grinding performance holes in them. 
For performance i'll guess the alum is just as good as cast iron but not much improvement. Weiand and Edel Performer can make more power but doubtfull u could feel it while driving - maybe just see lower 1/4 mi times. I would rather have that GM casting snowflake emblem on the intake for bragg'n rights.
Happy hunting. cardo0
For performance i'll guess the alum is just as good as cast iron but not much improvement. Weiand and Edel Performer can make more power but doubtfull u could feel it while driving - maybe just see lower 1/4 mi times. I would rather have that GM casting snowflake emblem on the intake for bragg'n rights.
Happy hunting. cardo0
