VetteVert

Before you get too high and mighty (not making a cut, just a statement)...you do realize that since only air passes through the intake manifold these days, there are MANY cars that have composite intake manifolds. Look under the hood of GM's finest...the Corvette. Now I'm sure the ZR1 has an alum manifold underneath that supercharger, but probably for a W/W intercooler.

With fuel out of the equation, composites have a lot of advantages.

VV

glhs379

Composites do have alot of ads, like less heat, they usually can be removed pretty easy and swapped cause they don't have any fluids running thru them.

The ls motors from gm are a very good example of that, you can swap from an ls1 to an ls6/lsx pertty easy.

My z28, you could run it all day long and still lay your hand on the intake and not be burned at all.

07MONTECARLO_SS

i took all these pics and never thought to look.
i guess i dont have a pic, will look on monday.

krispy

The ZR1 supercharger assembly is also the intake assembly, its all aluminum. I did a little looking and it seems like the SRT4 (at least on the neon) has a cast manifold. Composite manifolds are much better for N/A applications, I would never say otherwise, but for FI applications cast is really the only way to (reliably) go. Also, on the ZR1 its a A/W inter cooler just FYI, its quite an interesting setup when you look at it.

blackbird

You can have coolant passages running through composite intake manifolds but it isn't extremely common.


I know the engineer who designed the intake manifolds for the Neon SRT-4 and the PT GT which both share the same engine (and is completely different than the new Hyundai-developed engine of similar displacement in the Caliber SRT-4). The only major differences between the the Neon and PT powertrains was the different intake manifold design dictated by different packaging requirements between the two vehicles. They both started out with cast manifold designs but in '05 the PT got a new composite intake manifold that replaced the former cast aluminum unit.

Besides being less expensive to manufacturer, the composite manifold had a lot of other advantages such heat transfer characteristics, but from a performance aspect something even more important is that it had much smoother passages. The composite design also allowed the runners to be shaped to a more optimal design than could be done cost effectively on a cast manifold. He ended up letting the PT community know that in internal testing they were seeing 10-15 hp increases just from switching out the older, more restrictive cast manifold to the plastic unit (the SRT-4 manifold already flows pretty well despite being cast due to the better packaging space provided in the Neon).

A lot of early GM and other manufacturer's designs got a lot of bad press on their composite manifolds due to leaks but that can be attributed a lot to things such as bi-metal engine construction (i.e. different expansion rates from iron blocks and aluminum heads), poor flange design, and bad gaskets (which for GM was an issue when the DEXCOOL sludge-o-death started eating the gasket material). Properly designed there is no reliability concerns with newer composite manifolds on a forced induction application. Then again for a simple design like the one on the LNF that also has to support the weight of the electronic throttle body, a cast unit may work just as well and have its own advantages.

SportredSS

The Csrt4 m,akes 285 hp, so it's more like a 30bhp gain, no whlhp.

Also, the SS\TC Cpe is 2950lbs and the CSRT4 is 3190. 240 lbs difference.

The SS\TC Sedan is also 65 lbs heavier than the coupe.

1BADSS/SC

hmm, dunno about that. Heard stories on the SRT forums of a drop in pulling a stage 2 SS from a roll.

lewisb13

Difference between the NSRT and the CSRT exahaust wheel.

Stiner

im going to drop an ls1 into a 1988 Astro van I'll have more power and equal styling to a csrt4

1BADSS/SC

Nah, ull still be fatter.

krispy

thats a good choice right there, high quality vehicle and not to mention classy

Stiner

For sure, I can get more kids to soccer practice in it and faster than 1 Bad. Can't wait!

1BADSS/SC

that would be an ill fated trip for you. I will be stage 1 the first of Oct.