Has anybody swapped the aluminum intake manifold for one of the plastic ones and is it worth it? I was looking at various parts on rockauto when I came across the plastic intake for $102. I'd think the plastic would have better heat dissipation than the aluminum. The design also seems to be closer to the 4th gen ss/z28 intakes.

 

there is no intake for the 3800 fbody other than the stock one. the one on rockauto is for a fwd car, will not work on the fbody.

 

Just to clear a misconception, plastic does not have better heat dissipation than aluminium, actually the opposite is true. Plastic theoretically works better than aluminum for intakes because it absorbs less heat from from the engine and because of its poor heat conductivity transfers less heat to air going through it. However, because of the speed that air travels through an intake at WOT, it does not stay in contact with either material long enough to absorb any significant amount of heat. The useful idea is to feed the intake cold air to start with.

 

I think the gain in the plastic is going to be more that shapes and surfaces they can get with the injection molding process vs the very limited things that can do with casting.

Musicman was playing with a FWD intake but I don't think he ever got it working. Remember the FWD pull air from the back of the motor not the front. On our cars that would be under the windshield.

 

I asked my mechanic buddy about it. He said there's a few made for fwd but only about one or two that are designed to replace the aluminum one on the rwd that are designed to work on both. I think gorn's probably right about the shapes and surfaces. I think these have become available for our cars since them and the birds are probably the only ones using that particular intake and it's just easier and cheaper to manufacture in plastic with little change to the molds. At any rate for the price I think it's worth a shot after the holidays. I'll keep y'all updated.

 

You have links? Why on earth would any develop a product for a 13 year old V6 that was put into one body style? Heck most of the CAI and long tube headers for the RWD 3800 have been discontinued. Talk about being late to the game.

Another thing, I have researched the 3800 and from what I understand the intake flows better than the heads. Unless you are doing something to the heads you are not going to see any improvement in performance no matter what you do to the intake. When musicman was playing with the intake he had already ported to polished the heads to the point he feared he took them too far.

 

Just look on rockauto gorn, it's just the fwd intake nothing new or special, it's just like ebay listing incorrect parts.

 

This thread should probably have a sticky since the plastic intakes are listed as compatible on a majority of parts sites.