Returned the Holley Hi-Ram
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Joined: Apr 2005
Posts: 572
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From: Gold Country California
Returned the Holley Hi-Ram I had planned and have a design to build my own intake manifold. I have all the CAD work done a few years ago but its really a 5 axis job and a huge project for my 3 axis mill. I bought the Holley LS1 cathedral port Hi-Ram base only. It looked very cool and I could fab up my own top. I made the patterns to port match the "ports" to match my CNC heads. Not even close. I could look past all the machined holes that are not even centered with the casting boss's. I planned on smoothing and polishing the entire thing to match my engine and was willing to do the effort to straighten out all the mismatched casting lines. I found there is really no two ports the same and by the time I removed 3/16 of an inch to match my ports that the runner walls would get pretty thin. The injector angle basically isn’t. More or less straight up and down. Not aimed at the intake valve at all. I know lots of guys that would not even notice these details and would be happy with it. I just have so much time and money in my heads that this became a non starter and Jegs return policy is great. They even set up the FedEx. The manifold is like the burger you get that does not even match the picture on the menu. Not bashing Holley, they are great. I just don’t know how much difference it is to make a good casting verses a, what I got casting. Just not for me.
Maybe non-matching runner volume is also why only the forced induction crowd has had success w/ it. Don't agree that Holley is great. They really f'cked up the whole Street Warrior campaign. Recently, it seems as though Holley acts before they think.
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Joined: Nov 2011
Posts: 609
Likes: 6
From: jacksonville,fl
Sounds like the holley has the same type of quality & use as the edel pro flo.Just a lower cost version of a good sheetmetal intake.
I still have plans to make my own cross ram dual plenum intake form sheet aluminum , attaching to a modified nylon base with rubber connectors.I even got advice on pro-touring,com from an engineer involved with factory ls intakes backing up my thoughts. But it's such an intense fabrication project making the sheetmetal runners the way I want, It may be several years before I get to work on it again.
Like a good set of custom stepped or tri-y headers, there is extra power to be found in a difficult design.
I still have plans to make my own cross ram dual plenum intake form sheet aluminum , attaching to a modified nylon base with rubber connectors.I even got advice on pro-touring,com from an engineer involved with factory ls intakes backing up my thoughts. But it's such an intense fabrication project making the sheetmetal runners the way I want, It may be several years before I get to work on it again.
Like a good set of custom stepped or tri-y headers, there is extra power to be found in a difficult design.
