Some pics to help you all out as I did not find many pics when I was comparing manifolds.

Pics are how it came out of the box.

Just not a lot of info out there, here is a reply to a couple questions.

Yes, Carson it will fit under the hood we have quite a few out there on the 84 and newer corvettes. However, if for some reason it does not work out for you we will take it back and give you a full refund. The reason there is not a lot of info out there on the first intake, is that the first intake has only been back out for 5 yrs now. The first intake was actually developed in 1989 and there were many mag articles out there in the early 90's. We purchased the tooling in 2002 and began producing it again. The other intakes you refer to have had the luxury of being around for a long time, the companies are much larger than we are and have a lot of connections in the media, not to mention a way bigger advertising budget. The first is 100% American made and we back our intake up with a life time warranty and a satisfaction guarantee, which is in writing on our web site. We do accept credit cards from the link on our web site through paypal, which is how they take them. We will have a pic of the fuel rail set up on the web site this week. If you have any other questions, please feel free to ask.

Thanks Ken

 

I can't see the pictures.

 

I posted the pics on Third Gen if you can't see them here. http://www.thirdgen.org/techboard/tp...=1#post3597030

The inside of the ports are as cast, and the port narrows as it reached the head, so it would not take much material out to take to a larger gasket.

 

Hate to say I'm going to have to wait to put it on, as the buy came at a bad time of year. Wait for the refund, gather more parts and hopefully someone would have gotten thiers on and shared thier experience. Another Thank You to all you Gear Heads out there!

It's tough to be on the bleeding edge, kind of nice to learn from others experience. Hopes this helps some, Carson

http://forums.corvetteforum.com/show....php?t=1871126
http://forums.corvetteforum.com/show....php?t=1904601

 

Thanks for the photos, looks good!

 

Bleeding edge?
How many band aids did you use?!

 

[QUOTE=carson;1563590216]I posted the pics on Third Gen if you can't see them here. http://www.thirdgen.org/techboard/tp...=1#post3597030

TGO picts don't come up, cuz I'm not a member

 

I got my FIRST today. I have to say that pictures do not do this thing justice in the slightest. The fit and casting quality of the parts is very, very good and the flow passages are HUGE! This manifold should have no problem at all feeding a hungry 383, especially after some porting work. There is a ton of meat to work with so I would expect it could be hogged out to work with big cube motors fairly easily.

I won't have a chance for a week or so, but I will take some pictures of the FIRST prior to porting side by side with my ACCEL/AS&M/plenum/52mm combo and post them up.

 

Looking at the pix of that set up it looks like my original Lingenfelter TPI with big bore accel runners.The runner length is going to cause the same pulse problems that led them to develop the superam.Tons of low down torque but you will run out of steam above 4750rpm.If you want to increase the HP you have to shorten those runners and let the thing breathe properly.Use the search function and see what others have to say about this.Don't want to knock these guy's but as they admit they are selling twenty year old technology.

 

Same here.

 

Not to argue; "But", when I look at the dyno pages done on the FIRST site, it appears their TPI looses steam at about 5200rpm, and I believe that is w/o being ported. Admittedly, this is not a high HP intake, and IS 20 year old technology. I do think this intake will perform on par with a superram (which is also 15 year old technology)and is more useful as a true "street" intake than some others. I think alot of people are assuming this is nothing more than large tube runners and a marginally better flowing manifold. It may look like a GM TPI, but if u look into it, it's much more. One thing we do agree on is "use the search function and see what other people "who have hands on experience" with this intake have to say. Just one opinion out of I'm sure, many.

 

I broke down and joined ThirdGen so I could see the pics. To save others the trouble, here they are.

 

 

The FIRST looks like a TPI, sure, but there is quite a bit of difference when you start to compare them closely. The FIRST is still a long runner intake, and as such it is never going to make big power numbers at high RPM, but the runner length is only part of the equation regarding flow dynamics. The flow area, passage shape, and the radius of the bends have just as much effect. The flow area in the FIRST is much larger than an ACCEL piece plus the intake base passages are raised for a much straighter shot into the intake port. Compared to traditional TPI parts, the differences in the FIRST combine to make the runners "act" shorter than what they really are. My goal with the intake was to get peak power in the 5000-5500 range with a 383 but maximize the area under the torque curve in the 2000-5000 RPM range. That is the range where I use the car the most.

After asking a bunch of questions of people who have experience with the intake, I feel comfortable that I can achieve my goals.

 

Do it then! For my motor it would heavily choke it up, but for a 383 it should work. Or you could go with the other 3 proven intakes.

 

I just don't get it brother...

-- Joe

 

Infact I cant wait to see the results from the 383 with those AFR heads. Keep us updated!! If 5000-5500 is your goal, then possible the FIRST is the intake for you.

 

from the FIRST website, 383 w ProCOMP heads and cam

 

this whole system sure looks better than anything i've seen before but as they say you don't win money betting on the best looking horse in the race. I'm going to quote from Lingenfelters book;
"During the TPI development process I began experimenting with shorter runners in an attempt to improve top end power.Even with the larger runner diameters the length of the runners prevented even a healthy small block from making power above 5000rpm especially on larger small blocks like the 383.Shortening the runners by roughly 25% allowed the resonant pressure wave(which produces the ram effect that increase power at certain engine speeds) to occur at higher rpm.Our dyno testing compared a 383 fitted with a superam base and high flow TPI runners to the same base with the superam runner and plenum kit.Torque from 1600 to 3000 remained the same,at 3500 it increased and from 4000 up torque increased dramatically.At 5800 the superam was up by 65HP."
I'm not going to argue with the guru RIP.
Buy the damn book-modifying small block chevy engines-for $15 and read all about it.

 

I just looked at that and to me it seems the enormous torque figures start to drop off around 4000 and The HP at 4700.Higher figures but identical to a bog standard L98 in the rev band.I own an original '87 factory Lingenfelter which had the TPI/accel/Lingenfelter ported polished big bore system and it was a very quick car.After my first trip to the strip and not getting under mid twelves and crossing the line at 5000 in third with nothing left I decided to go for the superam.Now I run low elevens at 6200.The proof is in the pudding as we used to say.