I am trying to decide what color I am going to paint the intake on the LT1 that I am building for my wifes 97.

I have a 93 intake that I am sending to AI for a little work. In the mean time I painted the 94 and the 97 intakes to see which color I like best.

I am leaning towards the wrinkle black. I also did a set of the OEM valve covers in the wrinkle black. I'll post pics later.

Here are a few of both the red and the black. I took a couple with the flash, and a couple without. In person, they look more like the pics without a flash.

Keep in mind that I will be polishing the top ridges that are usually machined.

 

I like the black a lot

 

I don't like the black, it makes the intake look plastic.

 

black looks good, just not in the wrinkle. make it look like **** IMO. if you would do black, leave the top part, that had the runners kind of, brushed. THAT would look B/A!!

 

dont like the black, I powdercoat my self for a living and the Black bumper full "Gloss black" looks the best. Thats what i have for my intake, Everything i have in my engine bay is powdercoated.

 

Hugger orange or a flat black. or match the color of the car

 

im diggin the red wrinkle. the black looks funky, but maybe when you do the polished ridges, the black may look better than the red.

 

the wrinkle black looks like ****.

 

I'm sure the black would look better with the polished bars on top, but overall I'd definitely go with the red.

 

I love gloss black with chrome stripes on top of the manifold my favorite personally. Not diggin the wrinkle in the black, but if it had some stainless stripes on top i'm sure it'd look great

 

I like the gloss black as well.

Someone posted a ceramic-coated manifold a while back, I think that was a neat idea.
No idea how well it worked as far as keeping it from soaking heat.

 

Black

 

A guy I know got the baffle that goes underneath the intake ceramic coated, and that helped with intake temperatures, which in essence creates a better spark, the colder the air and fuel is when entering the combustion chamber, the better and more efficient the combustion process will be (to a certain extent)

 

Heat is the one thing that I really have not taken into account. The ceramic coating under the intake will help keep the heat from bieng absorbed. A ceramic coating on the exterior will hold it in.

the natural finish on the exterior will dissapate heat better than any other color or coating. However I do rember reading about a special; thermal coating that was tested in a mustang magazine a few years back. The intake was coated inside and out. they did back to back tests and it was cooler after a WOT run with the coating than without.

 

sand the fins on the top an d both will look kick ***. Also isnt a 93 intake slightly different than the rest?

 

Yes. It is not pictured, but it does not have the channel cast into the top for the fuel rail crossover. The inlet flows slightly better than the later ones. The fuel rail must be modded for an fittings and a braided line to cross over the top of the intake.

 

Sounds painful.

 

I vote for different option. The black would look much better if used with gloss balck.

Mine is charcoal to match my CAI and wheels

 

^^^that is gorgeous! i really like that!

 

that black wrinkle makes the intake look like it is covered in grime. not flattering one bit. A gloss black would look good, but based on your choices above, I'm going with the red.

Of course, you could polish the entire thing, too.