After working with two preproduction units, I finally received one of the first production units off the line. It's only been on the car a few days, and I ended up using a conservative tune from the first preproduction unit as time and weather haven't been all that helpful this fall/winter, and I couldn't arrange dyno/datalogging/track time.

Good news is the vehicle's response is day and night compared to the earlier units, even with the old tune. I had the car out last Saturday for a full day cruise from Maryland to Pennsylvania and back, and the drivability issues are gone. This was a big problem early on, and the "stumble" at low RPM is finally gone. Let me tell you, the car is very strong up to 6800rpm (where my shift light is set). It's hard to describe the steady pull and responsiveness, but I felt like I had a built pushrod 302 in there. Just like my fox bodies.

I had a brief chance to try it at the track. Since racing last I've switched to ET Streets from drag radials, and had trouble dialing in shock settings and tire pressure and getting sixty foots down. I ran 12.5s three times with 1.7x sixty foots, so once I get the sixtys down to high 1.5s/low 1.6s I should be in the low 12s easy. Plus I never launched about 6000rpm this outing so who knows what else was in the car. The **** track was packed so I bagged it after the 3rd run and put my street tires back on.

Next spring I'll datalog and dyno the car to optimize the tune for the manifold, then it's ported heads and 4.30 gears. I'm bummed the season is over and the car is getting stored without exercising the manifold a bit more, but I'll get this figured out in the near term.

Anyone else picked up a unit that started shipping last week?

John

 

if im not mistaking the only change they did was shortened the runners? i could be wrong but i have been waiting for updated info on this mod cause i plan on cams and possibly heads with this manifold, so this would be an awesome mod finally if it delivers and it sure sounds like its delivering for ya. nice job!

 

Shorter runners and fixed some air pockets that were killing power. Came out of Lee's mouth

 

hmm interesting

 

I was on the phone yesterday with Lee for about a hour. They have a lot of research in these intakes. I'm glad I got one! My new intake will be here today! I'm sending my old one (preproduction) back. I can't wait till I get the new one on and get the stumbleing out of it. On mine it has a noticable difference in power above 5000 up to 6200. Where I shift mine. The new short runner is suppose to make more power then the long runner. My long runner picked up a peak of 7 rwhp and at 5700 rpm it picked up 10 rwhp. On the dyno, on the same night! That is over Delete plates. So it woould be more if you had a stock intake with the butterflys!

 

The "air pockets" were actually porous areas in the thicker areas of the casting near the bottom, and that these are actually what caused the "stumbling" on some (not all) of the pre-production intakes. This is because small amounts of air were leaking into a runner, and this causes a momentary lean condition when you first step into the throttle from an idle or cruise condition. The mold had to be modified to reduce the temperature of the aluminum in that part of the mold, so that gas pockets could not create these porous areas which led to small leaks in some cases. The manifolds that they used for there testing did not have the issue, so this is something that they had to determine from feedback from a 3rd party that had received samples. Once they figured out what was causing this issue, the mold was modified to eliminate the problem. Also, each casting is specifically checked for this, to ensure that this will no longer be an issue.

My stumbling only done it when I first cranked it up. As soon as it warmed it it done great! Can't wait till I get my new one! So far all I have to say is I love this intake! Good Job C&L!

 

OK guys I just got my new C&L intake on my car and I have to say I love it! I think this intake pulls harder after 5000 than the first one I had. Plus NO STUMBLE!!!!! It is nice to crank up the car and pull out when it is cold and have power instead of stumble! The first intake didn;t stumble when it warmed up. This intake has NO STUMBLE and I love it. Now I can;t wait till I get to go back to the track and play.

I HAVE TO SAY I LOVE THIS NEW INTAKE!!!!!!!!

 

That jibes with my observations. No stumble, steady power in the upper RPMs, great throttle response. Given the weather in Maryland I've decided to store the car now, but I'll have it dynoed and race the hell out of it next spring. I really think the ported heads will help further but I want to gather data prior to their install.

John