I have a 96 camaro lt1 with headers, exhaust, no cats, maf, cai. i dont want to spend a couple g's to get the lt4 conversion manifold and heads. but my question is, will an aftermarket intake manifold do anything as far as performance for me? if so what are some good ones

 

No, you're not going to get any gain out of an aftermarket intake manifold. You've done all the basic bolt-ons, now you either have to live with the car as it is or be ready to move onto the big internal mods.

 

yeah youre next step is heads and a cam.Edelbrock claims their intake manifold flows better, but you wont see a difference on a mostly stock engine, and i have yet to see dyno proven results on that anyway.Yeah heads are expensive, if you want some gains id go ahead and put some different gears in the rear.

 

how about a nice set of lt1 heads, if there is a nice set. would that be worth it? or should i just save up and get the lt4 stuff[:@]

 

The LT4 stuff is over priced for the gain you get. Since you're in Colorado you should check out www.dragonrace.com Pete is located in Broomfield and does some great work. You should think about getting a head/cam package so the camshaft compliments the heads as well as possible so you get the best possible HP/TQ curves.

 

thanks slvr il email em

 

Slvr is right on. You will not see any gain going to a different intake manifold. The LT1 manifold is very efficient to start out with. I also agree with the head/cam package its probably the best way to go from where you are now.

 

idk...i agree the heads and cam are soon...but i think he should do gears and if he's auto...a higher stall. then i'd do the heads and cam. i looked up slvr's dragon performance site and they seem to do some good work and they're quite local for ya

 

ya its a manual, but i dont know if i want to do lower gears. thatll hurt fuel efficiency and make it less streetable right?

 

It won't necessarily make it less streetable, but it will hinder fuel economy a little. It's not something that will be extremely evident unless you do a lot of highway driving or you're really in the pedal all the time. My only issue with upgrading gears is if you ever decide to get a good head/cam package you'll probably want to replace the rear end with a stronger one if you're doing any legit racing with sticky tires. Thus the reason I'm not doing gears until I make my rear end explode...(or magically get $2000 for a 9" after I've done a boat-load of engine work).

By the way: My future plans include the Dragon Race stage 3 LT1 package (they don't have it listed on their site, but Pete will still do it).