I've had 2. I love to hate them when installing it and it was great on my 500hp 408 . But there is no way I'm spending over 1K for that box with no intake included, You are pissing your money away without the intake and many hours porting a stock intake to make some airflow. There is a sucker born every minute..Mini-ram is the way to go for the money and install ease...

 

Super ram gets my vote, you lose nothing down low and gain 1000-1500rpm of power up top, ya its a pain to intall but once its done its done. A proper super ram should come with a high flow base, accel or edelbrock, no need to port the stock one. Also Super ram looks best in my book.

 

Quiet interesting information there... Thanks all

The mods I’m going for is for street fun and if a chance came might track it (unofficially) just because I always wanted to... not for competing.

I know from all the posts I read before here that the main restrictions in the L98’s is the breathing, that’s why I’m going also for headers (hookers I guess) and exhaust system (Borla)...
and the intake is a must.

I know I might not stop there as this is addictive And I enjoy working on my Vette and pamper it.

so I guess it will be between the FIRST and the MR.

but from your experience guys which mod to start with: intake, headers or exhaust? (I wish I can have them all at one shot but can’t)

TIA

 

I'd say a cam makes the most difference, followed by intake then headers.

 

NO, I've never drag-raced my C4 once. Not ever. If that's what I did, I'd have a very different cam and gearing in it. It's set up to have a great combination of street, autocross, and road course capabilities. And it does. The one thing all those uses have in common is that they benefit cars with very wide powerbands. And that's what a TPI-style intake is bad at. This is based on facts, not bias.

PS - The Superram is probably great, I just have no experience with it and they aren't that easy to find since they are no longer made. And the install is problematic. I don't think all intakes should necessarily have 3" runners. I'm just saying the ~24" runners of TPI types are too long due to resonance (doesn't matter how much you open up the runners, there is still an anti-phase resonance around 4500-5000rpm that shuts things down).

 

My fun street car goal would be.......

-Headers, and true duel exhaust.
-3.54 Gears
-Stall converter 2600-2800
-"Hot cam" or "503" cam kit, 1.6 roller rockers, Mini Ram, and tune. (Same time if possible)
-Port heads (option)

 

Over 1K used for just the plenum and runners! And for the base I see people asking $6-700. $1,600 + is absurd .I have had 2 .

They are great. But not worth the price people are asking when there are better performing options.

And a royal pain to install.

 

i was just asking dmittz about mods that can be done to the SR to make it much easier to come on and off. We will see where I get with it.

 

I've had the SR and the miniram. Both good pieces. For all around driving, the SR is terrific. I had mine on and off dozens of times (head and motor freshenups over the years). With practice and a few shortcuts, it doesn't take too long to remove and replace the unit. The miniram is better for the strip. Good for .15 in the quarter.

 

It's not difficult just annoying .Probably a thread somewhere. Notching some fasteners and such. As stated after you have done it a few times it gets easier. They were $600 everything included even the manifold back in the day.. They are not worth the money when there are better options I don't care how rare they are. Edelbrock runners and such for $600 is nutz....

 

I can certainly understand if its not worth it to you to buy a super ram or LTR intake. However, in the car world rarity, emissions compliance, neat factor and being period correct do effect value of parts.

If your just looking for the parts that can do the best job, skip sbc stuff altogether and go LS swap or build a FI engine.

If you are focused on a N.A sbc The issue with the stealth ram is it doesn't fit under the hood without mods and the mini ram is great but to take advantage of its rpm potential really requires building the whole engine. So in that aspect an intake that just bolts ontop of an existing engine maybe worth it to lots of people (and is emssions compliant). The one promising new intake is the edelbrock pro-flow XT, might be a good option for you. I think forum member MikeP84 did that swap and likes it a lot.

If you watch ebay though you will likely find some deals, I didn't pay all that much for my super ram, it was in rough shape but i enjoyed fixing it up.

 

so miniram is good for very high rpm. in order to take advantage of that what else needs to be done vs the rpm top end of superram?

my superam, all ported, lingingelter base, runners, plenum was $600 usd.

 

To take advantage of the mini-ram proabbly need forged bottom end and better heads, and maybe more cubes to make up for the lower end torque loss. Certainly a 7000+rpm 383 mini ram engine is awesome, but it also isn't cheap.

 

To me the choice of intake dictates any other mods to the engine and drivetrain to follow, so you should have an overall plan. It also depends greatly on what you want out of the car. I can spec out a build that makes basically the same power numbers with any intake, they'll just make them at different RPM.

If its a street car with an automatic, with no changes to the block or rotating assembly, then something like the FIRST or SuperRam is going to be the better choice. Both will make torque. SR will make it in a broader band than the long TPI-style runners of the FIRST, and probably max out at about 6000-6500 rpm, whereas the FIRST will start to drop off earlier. That's really all you need in a street car. Both will do well with a better TC, say 2000-2400rpm and you can keep the stock differential gearing that came in 91. The 91's TC lockup is pretty low and should be changed no matter what really.

If you want to build the engine to pull a lot of RPM and really wind it out, MR is probably the better choice. This basically puts you into the mod strategy for any LT1 car. I think reworking the valvetrain is more of a must here, though you'll do it for the above intakes if you changed the cam anyway. I'd also lean more towards rebuilding the engine in such a way to handle more RPM. However its not as conducive to the automatic transmission, and then I'd recommend changing the rear gear to 3.54 or 3.73 and I think the TC change to 2400rpm is also basically a must-have.

HSR and the edlebrock intakes are somewhere in between, though HSR needs to be cut down to fit under the hood.

Headers, 1.6RR, are both things you should do irrespective of the choice. And finally a custom tune is going to be required if you went to MR or the other intakes, it may not be required for the FIRST or SR to make the car run well but it certainly would help.

So it really depends on the characteristics you want out of it at the end, because the intake choice points you towards the camshaft, the right head port size, the rear gearing, the rotating assembly, etc that you'll need to optimize the combination at the end.

 

On a manual car one doesn't feel much of a loss of torque with the MR 1204. Exhaust should be done first before swapping intakes...

 

Ok that was a good reading from all, thanks all. I’m leaning toward the FIRST after few researches and reads since it will be for street fun mainly.

I guess I’ll go this way then (and in same order):

1- Borla S-type exhaust system connected to Flowmaster/Magnaflow (which is best?) catalyst.

2- Hookers LT headers connecting to the above catalyst (3” pipe)

3- 1.6 RR (any specific brand?)

4- Then go for the FIRST intake on top.

How does that sound?
Does it require tuning after all that done or during? How much will that get me in terms of Hp/Tq?

TIA

 

Catco, Car-Sound cats are good. I don't know if Random Tech is still producing.

Make sure the headers are ceramic coated inside and out, go to JetHot especially if you buy a used set. 2149 has the emissions hookups, 2151 does not and may not come coated. 16720 is their Y-pipe that mates to the C4 cat. In 91 you already have a ministarter so no issues there, and I don't use a heat wrap of any kind myself.

I use CC Ultra Gold 1.6RR myself, Summit PN 19005-16 with TrickFlow pushrods 7.2", TFS-21407200 in my AFR heads. There are others that are just as good.

It does not require the tuning, but it would benefit from the tuning. You'd get more driveability around town and better mileage most likely. Since a 91 starts at about 250bhp, you're looking at a little more than 50hp from throwing this all on there. So I'd say 310-325bhp without too much change in the torque number, it'll just be at a little higher rpm.

You will still want the TC changed but rear gearing does not need a change.

 

Thanks for the info. Ya I guess I’m ok with it for now...
For the TC I believe 2500 is ok?

TIA

 

and by the way the RR you mentioned are not self aligning, right? Does it matter if it is self aligning?

 

Those Hookers can be purchased either coated or not, fwiw.