Hand porting a LS1 intake?
Thread Starter
Teching In
Joined: Jul 2004
Posts: 14
Likes: 0
From: Missouri
Hand porting a LS1 intake? Is there anything I can do to a stock '02 corvette intake to help improve the performance? Can they be ground on some to make them flow better?I've got experience with porting heads and I figure this shouldn't be any different...just in plastic rather than alum.
Actually I recall that intake port matching was most popular, not sure how many of the sponsers have ported runners though? 
Porting the neck is also what some of them do, but I heard that causes some instability near the TB area, but that remains to be seen in the long run.
Oh btw I have some pics of a ported ls6 I purchased pre-owned on my web site, sorry about the dark pics I'll post up some more soon.
Porting the neck is also what some of them do, but I heard that causes some instability near the TB area, but that remains to be seen in the long run. Oh btw I have some pics of a ported ls6 I purchased pre-owned on my web site, sorry about the dark pics I'll post up some more soon.
Thread Starter
Teching In
Joined: Jul 2004
Posts: 14
Likes: 0
From: Missouri
So i might be able to port match it and since i'm using a ported throttle body I can port match where the throttle body goes also?
Any other things? I've thought about painting it while it's off.
Any other things? I've thought about painting it while it's off.
Well, you would have to know what the intake port cross section looks like on the head, because if you port the intake too much, part of the head will be "hanging out", and cause tremendous turbulence at all speeds...if you can accurately keep track of the joint. Maybe this is not an issue, if the manifold won't ever reach that point you have no problems.
As far as the TB opening, I'm sure there are going to be some who argue this is not the place to port the intake, because of the neck thickness, it may or may not weaken the area where the TB bolts to. Personally I would not expand the runners at all on the inside, because I imagine they were designed by GM to provide the proper flow characteristics, as far as velocity vs volume...but Cartek and/or Absolute speed both claim a total of 5-10 rwhp gains, which is about the same as a pulley. I'm not sure why,
Sorry I can't answer your question, but does that make sense? Who knows if it jives with dyno, but $300 is a lot to shell out just for porting IMO, although I wish there were more test results...at least I would paint it a unique color, then peeps would ask you, whacha got?!?
As far as the TB opening, I'm sure there are going to be some who argue this is not the place to port the intake, because of the neck thickness, it may or may not weaken the area where the TB bolts to. Personally I would not expand the runners at all on the inside, because I imagine they were designed by GM to provide the proper flow characteristics, as far as velocity vs volume...but Cartek and/or Absolute speed both claim a total of 5-10 rwhp gains, which is about the same as a pulley. I'm not sure why,
Sorry I can't answer your question, but does that make sense? Who knows if it jives with dyno, but $300 is a lot to shell out just for porting IMO, although I wish there were more test results...at least I would paint it a unique color, then peeps would ask you, whacha got?!?
