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Started years ago with plastic LS6...then moved onto a carb/elbow. Then around 2-3 years ago changed to a BBK/SSI intake
Pretty much after the 20 intake test and for the money etc...it seemed the cheapest that offered good gains everywhere and still seemed to hang on up top too.
Although the carb intake always seemed fine.....I just never really grew to like the appearance of it, nor the elbow up top, despite how beautifully made it was.
I will probably use this one....as I would like to change to something that will improve over 6500rpm as also getting a Magnum which has a shorter 5th gear...so I'm going to need 7k+ for 200mph now. Just a little disappointed with the fitment of this one, even though I didnt have high expectations in the first place.
But on a price point....still hard to say it's bad value and the actual fabrication, welding, appearance etc are all pretty good.
To change to any other fabricated intake ( G1Pro was well up there ) is still going to cost at least 3x the price of the Holley.
And as I'll need to change injectors too really....costs soon add up. ( I've always had 2 inj per cylinder...going back years ago before good high flowing injectors were available )
What is so bad about the stock LS3 intake manifolds? I am building my first twin turbo set up and honestly am asking because there are so many out there but no real world results. Currently I am running a Fast 102 with a wet plate system and am concerned about hood clearance with the new build. There a so many fabricated intakes but hood clearance is tight and what is really to gain by going this route.
Had a better look at this...it's pretty bad really.
If I align the right side of the car, bolts, ports etc are all not too bad on that side. But the other side is a good 6mm off. The bolts would be impossible to get in on the left, injectors would partly spray onto the head face and the step between runner to head is huge.
This is runner cylinder no1 whenever 2/4/6/8 are in alignment. I wouldnt be able to get the bolts in side 1/3/5/7 though....obvious why really.
I've contacted Holley via ebay where I bought it to see what they say....but being half way around the world wont make this easy.
I used the sheet metal intake from ebay also but not the sniper per say. I have it on a ly6 with a 102mm TB. Fitment was good and performance is too. No problems here and I think it was only $400 with fuel rails. Throttlebody was $79 and also works great. No problems so far.
They requested I install the "gaskets" and try again....this on it's own would push the intake further away.
So I installed gaskets and fully tightened the unit down. Given the misalignments, it will find it's own natural home...which it did and there isnt much movement in any direction.
Flange vs vee angle...not perfect..but then previous intakes werent perfect either, but there is a noticeable gap on the right side flange at the bottom of the valley. Enough to leak ?....not sure.
Other side, ie left side of car looks to be pretty decent.
Intake runners are definitely not central, and not much can be done. It's not huge, but still very visible on camera. The biggest step is at the base of the runner which is considerable. This is apparent on all cylinders so whilst it wont be perfect either I've started to weld up the base of the runner to try and at least reduce this step.
Such a nightmare that is, trying to get a torch in and weld the anodised part. Even despite lots of grinding etc t try and clean it up. ( I know I should chemically remove it all but I didnt )
I've mostly done one side....welding is terrible but it grinds up op. Port alignment still not great but it is much improved. It would be far too much work to weld all around to try and smooth it all and I cant see it being worth it.
But for for the money, it's a lot of metal and fabrication for such a cheap price.
Pics are of a front view of the head/intake flange and one of the runners after it's all bolted down with gaskets. Most cylinders are very similar to this
left side of all ports have a step, and right side perhaps a very small step the other way so not a problem as such, but not ideal either.
All ports have the huge step at the base of the runner....although not honestly sure if any of my previous intakes were like that
Have you seen anyone else post about such bad alignment issues? Maybe you got a bad one? Or maybe people are just chucking them on the car and not even noticing how bad they fit...
I'd say most are just throwing them on. TBH, I'm not even sure why I checked mine, as dont recall doing it on any other intakes.
Well...with the carb intake you could sort of see but I never stuck a camera down.
And the BBK I last used, no way could I get an eyeball, but I probably could have chucked a camera down the hole ok...I just didnt.
From a few basic measurements I could almost think it might have a step at the base too, although side-side measurements of the BBK port relative to bolt holes would seem more favourable.
Would the steap realistically make an actual difference ? Hard to know.
But one thing is very apparent, a Hi Ram style intake with these cathedral ports is always going to have the runner hit the port/head at a rather poor angle vs an OEM low runner style intake.
Not sure of square port heads would be the same, as I think the base of their ports is higher to start with ?
But hell...it's a cheap intake, it looks kinda cool. If it can improve things over 7k compared to what I've used before, then I'll be happy enough...if it doesnt leak lol.
I was very tempted to buy one of the G1Pro, but they're 3x the price...they arent on ebay with their global shipping program which makes postage very cheap from the US and I dont believe for one second that a more expensive intake of the same, almost identical design will give me 3-4x the performance.
Although his intakes do look superb.
I didnt read all of the posts here about the Sniper. But I just bought a Sniper Race version for my 6.0 and when installing it I found one flange that meets the head was bowed. It hit head in the middle and both ends were about 1/8th inch from the head surface. The vacuum ports are BNPT, so metric, you have to buy adapters to use standard NPT fittings, which I did. When I removed the fittings to send the intake back, every threaded port had threads pull out with the fittings and they were not cross threaded. Its a POS. Sent it back for a refund and bought a High Ram.
I didnt read all of the posts here about the Sniper. But I just bought a Sniper Race version for my 6.0 and when installing it I found one flange that meets the head was bowed. It hit head in the middle and both ends were about 1/8th inch from the head surface. The vacuum ports are BNPT, so metric, you have to buy adapters to use standard NPT fittings, which I did. When I removed the fittings to send the intake back, every threaded port had threads pull out with the fittings and they were not cross threaded. Its a POS. Sent it back for a refund and bought a High Ram.
Flanges on mine seemed mostly flat, although measuring with a digital protractor I had the angle of the two flanges come out at around 50.5deg.
This seemed in conflict with a stock manifold I had here and also the BBK, both of which came out around 52deg. So a bit of manipulation with a trolley jack....and the angle is now 52deg lol and it does seem to fit a little better.
Whether BSP or NPT, they are very very close and screwing in fittings shouldnt be a problem. But yes if you're looking to screw i and out a few times....( why ? ) then that could cause issues I guess. No idea whether they are actually NPT or BSP though as any fittings I'm using will be BSP here as that's what is available. But I'll screw them in once and that's it done.
When half way around the world...sending back really isnt an option...and after discussions with Holley, it seems they all fit this bad. I've welded up the ports a little and tried to get a better port match but tube angle vs port angle is vastly different so they'll never get a nice straight shot...but any intake of this design will be the same in that regard.
I simply dont have the height for a HiRam nor front end room...so not an option. Although I do almost regret not going for the Edelbrock Proflo....but again, it's taller and not sure I'd have had room for it either.
Overall...the Holley intake is a piece of ****. But it's cheap, it does look kinda ok...and if it can help in the 7-7500rpm range then I'll be happy enough.
I'd struggle to recommend one to anyone though.
Mine was a cathedral port...maybe the square ports fit better ?
I started this thread quite a while back. Still no problems. 18psi cruising it around almost daily. Stevieturbo, What makes me curious, is that you've had problems with more than one intake. Awfully big coincidence. Have the heads been milled so much that intakes will no longer bolt up correctly?
Both the Victor jr and the new Hi Ram fit my heads perfect.
The problem with the Sniper is quality control over the Chinese company thats making them. They also need to design a damm throttle cable bracket thats a simple bolt on. Ive looked, doesnt exist. Only 1 thats a TB plate and its not designed for stock TBs.
I started this thread quite a while back. Still no problems. 18psi cruising it around almost daily. Stevieturbo, What makes me curious, is that you've had problems with more than one intake. Awfully big coincidence. Have the heads been milled so much that intakes will no longer bolt up correctly?
I havent had problems with any other intake.
The carb intake fitted fine....the BBK intake fitted fine. The carb intake was used with both these heads and others and also with a couple of different blocks over the years.
The BBK intake was only used on my current engine and it fitted fine.
The vee angle with a digital protractor of a stock truck intake I had lying about and BBK were identical at 52deg. The angle on the Sniper as received was around 50.5deg although as said I rectified this.
The nature of construction makes it fairly bendable lol.
And the heads have only ever been milled once by TEA themselves after I sent them back for welding repairs, and once locally which was barely a skim at all just to clean them up.
I never did look down the ports with the BBK but I'm sure I do recall a glance down with the carb intake it it didnt look too bad.
The Sniper runner sits far far too low vs the head, it's offset to one side...unfortunately each way so it's not even a case the intake needs to go forwards or back.
And the port runner/flange is also not a very good match up top either. It's just a poor shape, although they do leave a rectangular hole in their flange so it's never going to be a perfect match to a cathedral port.
Kind of hard to tell but is this thread mainly about the original Holley sniper or the RACE version? I have a forged 5.3 with this intake and 85mm just curious if anyone is having issues with this race version
I started this thread quite a while back. Still no problems. 18psi cruising it around almost daily. Stevieturbo, What makes me curious, is that you've had problems with more than one intake. Awfully big coincidence. Have the heads been milled so much that intakes will no longer bolt up correctly?
I also found these old photos I took and added the Holley alongside it. Holley is resized a little so scale ratio maybe not perfect but still valid.
As you can see, a huge variance in port shapes and alignment if you compare injector position and overall OD of the o-ring location, which lets face it wont or shouldnt change too much.
The Edelbrock Vic Jnr probably looks to be the best of them all with the higher floor which would undoubtedly align better than the other pair when seem to have the port floor very low.
01-21-2018, 05:31 PM
