scout2000

Aluminum intake options for a 2004 Gen III 5.3

I'm looking to see if there any stock (flow) type aftermarket aluminum intake manifold(s) available for my 2004 Gen III 5.3 engine. It has the 862 cathedral port heads.

The donor of this engine was a 2004 Tahoe, and is currently installed in an early 1960's SUV. An NV4500 5-speed manual transmission is behind this engine in a vehicle that weight's in at around 3300 lbs.

I am currently very happy with the overall performance of this engine, especially considering the performance of its predecessor.

I have a group of friends who have similar engines that did the "smoothed truck intake" thing, documented here:

https://ls1tech.com/forums/conversio...k-intakes.html

I have had a couple people comment that after the mod and removed the OEM ribbing, the intake almost looked alive. But in specific, one friend had an engine backfire which cracked his smoothed intake. He threw in the towel on the smoothed truck intake thing and ended up going with one of the Dorman intakes, which he seems happy with.

http://www.summitracing.com/parts/RNB-615-183/

I am considering this also if an aluminum option is not available.

Just in short, as I know that this is a touchy subject here, I'm not concerned with:

* heatsink issues
* added weight
* any increased horsepower at the top end

I have a 'vette for the higher end power things. This is a truck/SUV.

For this particular application, an aluminum intake is solely about the looks/visuals/bling.

To get to the point, and bring this question to a conclusion, I have one concern from the aluminum intakes others have written about in the forum archives. I'm happy with the current HP/torque curve, and I don't want to loose any of my low end in exchange for top end HP gains that I would never see in this vehicle. The bulk of the time, the tach needle spend most of its time south of the 3500 RPM mark.

Thanks for any comments

99Bluz28

iTrader: (35)

Imo, Your best intake manifold option IF you can get past the cost is the FAST LSXRT 102mm Intake manifold. You'll only gain power everywhere; no power lose! Furthermore it's a lot better looking than the factory gm truck intake manifold.
FYI, there's NO true aluminum truck intake manifold option, stick with the factory intake or get the FAST LSXRT102.
http://www.speedengineeringlsx.com/f...m-truck-146602
http://www.speedengineeringlsx.com/2...-runners-rails
FAST truck intake vs gm truck intake manifold:
http://www.autotraderclassics.com/im...5997/75997.jpg
http://www.autotraderclassics.com/im...5998/75998.jpg

onebadbowtie86

iTrader: (13)

Have you looked at the bbk intake?

99Bluz28

iTrader: (35)

Keep in mind with the BBK he will likely want a shorter fuel rail, and likely have accessory clearance issues he will have to address with the throttle body being mounted so much lower, and some power lose below 4k, like on all options besides the stock truck intake or FAST truck intake.
This is why I actually removed my recommendation for the BBK I originally had in my reply.

Notice the different accessory mount locations between a truck engine and LS6 engine
http://i486.photobucket.com/albums/r...sions/web1.jpg
http://s2.photobucket.com/user/Perth...m_frt.jpg.html

scout2000

Thanks for all the replies.

Actually, after searching the Gen III archives, I went and looked at stuff from Holley, Weiand and BBK. Assuming that this is the BBK intake that several have mentioned:

http://www.bbkperformance.com/products/intake-manifolds

It looks like a nice intake, but from what I read, I would probably end up loosing lower end performance vs the stock intake.

scout2000

This is the Weiand Holley aluminum intake option, both unpolished and polished.

https://www.holley.com/products/ls_p.../parts/300-111

https://www.holley.com/products/ls_p...parts/300-111P

Both specifically list for use on 1997-2004 Gen III (LS Series) Engines, so I am assuming that also means cathedral ports.

Applications listed are: GM LS1/LS2/LS6

Not obvious if there would be any difficulties in installing this manifold on the 5.3 truck engine.

99Bluz28

iTrader: (35)

Any possible issues I listed for the BBK also applies to the Weiand/Holley intake manifold.

scout2000

OK, appreciated.

I'm a new/first time Gen III owner, and still have a lot to learn and figure out.

JoeNova

Any of the stock appearing aluminum intakes are going to mimic car intakes. You may need to make a few changes to run one of these, and the changes are likely the same for any of the intakes since it normally involves the water pump.