PeteZ06

I've spent a good amount of time researching it.

What I'm gathering is that its a great intake but make sure the black gaskets are included.

Locktite the bolts and let them cure over night.

Anything else that I'm missing?

Those of you who purchased one, would you do it again?

Thanks

Dan_the_C5_Man

Haven't actually installed mine yet - I had to RMA the original one I bought 2 weeks or so ago due to a mis-alignment of the intake runners to the external shell.

MSD took great care of me however - they paid for the return shipping and even express-delivered the replacement to ensure it wouldn't show up while out of town during the holiday.

I did expect the black gaskets to be inside this new box (first one had the red gaskets), but interestingly no, still red - good thing my guy at MSD took care of me a few days previous by shipping me a black set (he thought I'd end up with a "spare" black set, but honestly I only needed one good set).

So far, initial QA / manufacturing started out as a C-, now up to a B+ (I will do some slight clean-up / blending around the port area), customer service always an A+.

This thing isn't manufactured to OEM standards, but it is pretty close.

mtomlin1

Mines perfect makes great power I gained a lot of torque over stock intake manifold with my BTR stage 3 cam setup

No complaints

bullitt4110

I just got mine, haven't installed it yet. The ports could definitely use some clean up and blending, which I expected and I'll do prior to install. Overall looks good though. I also just picked up my nw102 throttle body so just need to schedule getting a re tune before I install it all.


Sounds like I need to get the black gaskets though. Just call and they'll send them?

Dan_the_C5_Man

Yes.

ttx350z

My runners were straight, nothing misaligned visually. I saw Dan's runners and it was very noticeably misaligned. We purchased ours around the same time as well. I bought mine from Summit, not sure where he got his from. I did spend about an hour just cleaning up excess plastic from the mold lines with a razor and sandpaper.

I installred mine with the red gaskets for the time being. It ran fine with the stock TB and airaid intake. If anything it actually smoothed out the surging from my cam a bit.

But I need a tune now that I installed a NW 102 and Halltech MF108 which caused it to idle at about 1500 RPMs now.

mtomlin1

why do people need the black gaskets ? What's the difference ?

Is there a way to tell with out removing what gasket you have.

Mines been installed for a few months and can't remember what colour the gasket was

ttx350z

Apparently the red gaskets weren't resistant to fuel so they would fail and leak air.

The blacks are a revised material. I'd say if it's been a few months and your car is still running correctly, you'll be fine.

You could remove the throttle body and see what color that gasket is. But I'm not sure if they changed all the gaskets or just certain ones.

ETA: looks like just the runner port gaskets?
https://www.corvetteforum.com/forums...post1590820989

Dan_the_C5_Man

No way you have the black ones.. The story is they leak / break down over time with exposure to fuel.

EDIT: Yes, they just send you the manifold to head gaskets, not any others (which I did question, but was told the middle gasket was fine).

And I bought mine at Jegs, not that it really matters.

Michael_D

Has anyone bolted the base down with some blueing compound to see how well the runners match the intake ports on the heads? The runners do not have provisions for removal, correct? Just wondering, because the Fast I used was horribly out of alignment, and required a fair amount of time with a die grinder to correct. - I miss the good ol' fashioned intakes that used a single gasket. Sure made port matching a lot easier.

Dan_the_C5_Man

I have some compound (heck of a time finding it in town, I think I ended up buying it off the Net), I might volunteer.

Anxious to try out my new high-end dial gauge inch-pound wrench I bought myself for xmas - always used my calibrated hand for those lower values, so let's see how many fasteners I can strip with it (hopefully none).

jitsu10

please do i would like to see those results.Hope it doesnt go horribly wrong.

edmundu

I test fitted just the lower shell, and then peaked inside the runners, and they were all almost perfectly spot on!

My heads are Vette-Air WCCH X heads stg2, plus milled .065. Was worried the ports wouldn't line up due to the milling. But I had nothing to worry about

And to the OP... On a HCI car, I definitely think this manifold is the best out there, short of an ITB, or tunnel ram. The more head & cam you have the more it shows too!

PeteZ06

What gains do you guys think I can expect.

WCCH Heads
BTR Stage 3 Cam

mtomlin1

I think I picked up about 30 bhp with mine but I have stock heads , same cam however a nick Williams 102 fitted at same time as intake.

The torque curve was very nice though

c5racr1

Another issue that could make the intake much better is the small gaps in the runner on the top side about 1 inch from the head. Each runner has a small manufacturing gap and this will hurt air flow through the runner. Like trying to suck through a straw that has a small hole in the side. I'm thinking of using some marine epoxy to seal these runners, probably make a good difference in low and midrange torque.

If any one has a intake apart they could verify this gap? I have a early intake and I'm wondering if this was addressed on later model intakes.

Michael_D

It makes me happy to hear people using a torque wrench. Good job!

Now stop screwing around and take some pictures of that thing.

Dan_the_C5_Man

Of the wrench? Sure!

Short story - the only time in 30 plus years of wrenching (the vast majority of that time working with aluminum block and head engines (motorcycles and 5th ans 6th gen LS platforms) that I've ever stripped a case bolt thread is when I used a Tq wrench.

Happened while installing the bottom half / oil pan of a Suzuki GSX-R 750 motor for a race bike. Always tightened those smaller 10mm head fasteners by hand for years, never stripped one, never came apart. One time I decided to "do it right", whipped out the factory manual, used a Tq wrench and BAM, stripped the threads.

That was with the "best grade click-type Craftsman" wrench I could afford (or maybe more accurately, didn't think I needed to spend more than that at the time - this was many years ago). I was nervous while using that wrench for that task, and my paranoia was rewarded.

Note that I've always used a Tq wrench on what I consider "critical" fasteners - head bolts, rod caps, transmission internals, cam sprockets, etc. But when you need to remove a t-stat housing to install a new stat, or removed and reinstall a set of headers, sure, there are published Tq values for those fasteners, but the combination of feel and experience can be just as valuable, and in those situations (difficult to access) much more practical.

Anyway, lesson learned - for Tq values less than 25 ft lbs, either develop a "calibrated hand" as I have, or buy a very good, calibrated wrench.

I bought two for myself this year, both PI's - the 0-150 in-lbs is supposedly calibrated to 2% error, the 10-50 ft lbs split-beam wrench is good to 4%.

So now I have 5 Tq wrenches - 2 PI's, 2 Craftsman's and 1 SnapOn (goes to 250 ft lb).

I am going to retire the mid-range Craftsman (the one responsible for stripping that case bolt), not sure what I will do with it - maybe give it to my kid or just toss it - (I think it is still ok to use in the mid to top of it's range, but I'd feel better about checking it first before handing it down). The larger Craftsman is still fine for tightening wheel lug nuts, etc.

It does feel good to have a low-value Tq wrench I can actually trust.

Anyway, back to the MSD conversation - I disassembled the halves last night, lock-tighted and torqued the bottom stanchions, cleaned up some plastic casting flash, spend a little time removing "lip" edges from the inside of a few of the runners where they meet the head port, rounded the runner to external shell edges a bit (I didn't whip out the dremel, paranoid about removing material and messing with the fluid dynamics), drilled the MAP sensor hole, etc.

Wanted to go ahead and perform final assembly, so I a can do the bluing mock-up, but alas, another small issue - there are (supposed to be) 3 o-ring seals that seal the 3 center stanchion fasteners on the top side (same as on the bottom), and damn it - the seals are missing. This unit was shipped to me as it would be to a new customer, not an RMA'd unit.

So, another call / email to MSD. Looks like this isn't happening until after Xmas.

Dan_the_C5_Man

Are you taking about the distance between the edge of the end of the molded runner to the inside edge of the bottom manifold half? Air flowing around the end of the runner, pulling from the main volume of the plenum?

Or are you talking about a gap between the two runner halves (they are molded in two pieces). Or something else?

c5racr1

Gap between two runner halves, from the injector opening. It extends about 1 inch going toward the horn. It is on the top of each runner closest to the head port.