[lilblue302]

Ive been looking at getting an intake to replace my stock HO one for a while and just wanted to know other peoples opinions on a few contenders like the Cobra, PP Typhoon, and TFS Street Heat. For now, im going to keep the stock cam but im looking at a set of gt40 heads. So i guess just shoot me some info and opinions on the hardware . Thanks

[4.6stanger]

Edelbrock Performer!! FTW or a slightly ported cobra are everywhere for cheap.

[lilblue302]

yea ive read good things about the Performer but exactly how much does it differ from the Typhoon, other than in the wallet?

[Graves]

Victor Jr.

Orr..... Trickflow Track Heat. (in black of course)

[thesource]

Ported Cobra intake or the PP Typhoon with some clean up work done to it .

[lilblue302]

i was looking at the typhoon and getting some port work done to it but ive read differing opinions about it and just wasn't sure how good it was compare to the cobra.

[Graves]

I heard it was almost the same thing..

See if you can find some flow numbers on them, and compare.

[thesource]

I had a PP Typhoon several years ago on a 306 with ported Dart Sr's and some mystery hydraulic roller I ended up with that was from one of Mike Murrillos cars once upon a time . Anyways , with a 100 shot on the car , it would run low 11's all day long . The car weighed about 3300 lbs so it wasn't some gutted out race car either . I'd say if you can pick up a Typhoon cheap and get some one to port it for a $150.00 or so , you will be way ahead on dollar to horsepower ratio .

[Sonic Blue 85]

The typhoon is a Chinese copy of the performer, they ported a performer intake then used that to make a mold from that intake.So the out of the box typhoon is basicaly the same as a ported performer. I would still recomend the cobra or GT40 for your application. The GT40 and cobra are exspecialy after the lower has been ported are the best for an application under 350 hp. With GT50 iron heads you will doing good to get to 300 with any intake,if you spend money to build a good engine you can get 350 with a set of GT40s. The GT40/cobra have the best runner design of all of the long runner intakes. The biggest problems with them is the lower has some kinked runners,that can be straightend out. The whole purpose of the long runner is to improve ram effect. The intakes with runners that are retangular in shape loose a good bit of ram efficency when the runners curve down wards. Runners that are round or square with rounded corners work best, because they are more efficient. The retangle runner designs loose efficency when veritcal bends. I have spent many years researching intake designs and ram effect. The ford engineers did a good job on that intake, but they were not intending for 5.0 to ever make much hp. Those intakes are by far the most efficient intakes. The main problems with both ford intakes are the kinked runners in the lower, lack of plennem vollume and the cross over not being large enough.With GT40 head you are not going to make much power with a good port job or a power adder or spend a lot of money on an engine build. There are people that make good power with the GT40 heads in street stock class and they use cobra intakes, but those engines have a lot of trick things done to them.

[4.6stanger]

Originally Posted by Sonic Blue 85

The typhoon is a Chinese copy of the performer, they ported a performer intake then used that to make a mold from that intake.So the out of the box typhoon is basicaly the same as a ported performer. I would still recomend the cobra or GT40 for your application. The GT40 and cobra are exspecialy after the lower has been ported are the best for an application under 350 hp. With GT50 iron heads you will doing good to get to 300 with any intake,if you spend money to build a good engine you can get 350 with a set of GT40s. The GT40/cobra have the best runner design of all of the long runner intakes. The biggest problems with them is the lower has some kinked runners,that can be straightend out. The whole purpose of the long runner is to improve ram effect. The intakes with runners that are retangular in shape loose a good bit of ram efficency when the runners curve down wards. Runners that are round or square with rounded corners work best, because they are more efficient. The retangle runner designs loose efficency when veritcal bends. I have spent many years researching intake designs and ram effect. The ford engineers did a good job on that intake, but they were not intending for 5.0 to ever make much hp. Those intakes are by far the most efficient intakes. The main problems with both ford intakes are the kinked runners in the lower, lack of plennem vollume and the cross over not being large enough.With GT40 head you are not going to make much power with a good port job or a power adder or spend a lot of money on an engine build. There are people that make good power with the GT40 heads in street stock class and they use cobra intakes, but those engines have a lot of trick things done to them.

Damn!! Good info Sonic Blu 85!! This guy knows his shit!

[REDHOT86]

Originally Posted by 4.6stanger

Damn!! Good info Sonic Blu 85!! This guy knows his shit!

+++++1 on Sonicblue knowing his stuff.

[Sonic Blue 85]

A few more things to remember. The GT40 heads are efficient for their size, but they are small. When ever you build and engine always use parts that work in the same rpm and power range. Having a small head and putting the biggest baddest intake on top makes a poor combo. Mild to moderate long runner EFI 5.0 engine combintions are usualy going to make peek power at 5500 rpm or less, so finding an intake that gives you the most power thoughout the whole powe band is very important. I keep saying the GT40 designs are very good, because they will make more power up to 5300 than any other small intake and most of the larger intakes. It has the most efficient ram effect of all of the common long runner intakes, with a little work it get better. The other intakes are not as efficient and rely on port vollume and some have bends that are much straighter. Which also helps maintain high charge energy. The performer rpm II is a good intake for many applications because it also has runners that are not very large, but has some of the straightest runners of any of the intakes out there, if it had round runners I would recomend that intake for most all applications. As for your combo try to build as much power as possible everywhere below 5500 rpm. Also any stock head is not going to increase air flow much beyond .500 valve lift stock. You you have small ports and small valves both limit flow, then opening the valves beyond .500 is not going to do much good. Puting a cam like an X cam or any other cam with valve lift over .500 is only going to wear the springs out sooner. The only advantage the high lift cams will have with stock heads is they will open the valves quicker to .500 valve lift and increase the area under the curve. I would stick to cams that have valve lift that is .530 or less. Then when you have the money take the heads to a good head porter and have him do some work. Someone that knows what they are doing can make the heads more efficient and improve low lift flow. Finding someone that is good at increasing low lift flow is going to get you the biggest gains. If you let someone work on the heads that does not know what they are doing they will most likely mess the heads up to the point they will not be worth fixing. You can gain almost as much flow increase with the right valve job. Always remember you are trying to make power below 5500 so things like 75mm TBs and Holley systemax intakes are not going to do you much good until you step up to bigger heads and cams. Look for things that will increase power at 3000 rpm to 4500 rpm, not things that will increase peak power at 6000 rpm or 6500 rpm. Increasing compression will make more power everywhere, adding timing but not too much will help out. Under drive pullies, electric fans, cold air or even a ram air set up, better oil pan, a windage tray, aluminum fly wheel and when you deside to go into the engine, look into a good set of light weight pistons such as Mahle pistons, they make very good pistons at a good price for 5.0s. When you get around to buying pistons ask the engine builder about getting some lighter piston pins and probly also a set of sportsman rods, they are stronger and lighter. Getting a chip of some kind will help in a lot of ways. Having the car properly tuned, completely tuned not just tune parts of the calibration, will give you a noticeable gain throughout the whole power band and improve driveability.If it is not properly tune the engine parts you have bought will not see their potential, many times you will loose power with a new part until it has been tuned for the new part and generic tunes are not worth crap, don't waste your money on them.

[Sonic Blue 85]

One of the most over looked parts of the whole combination is the exhaust. The exhaust on most street cars and a lot of race cars are not worth the money that was spent on them. An engine 6500 rpm or less should have a primary header tube around 36" to 38" long, you want all the tubes the same lenth and with as few bends as possible. Your combination and most small block street mustangs should have a 1 5/8" primary tube diameter, the step headers are not worth messing with im most cases. Stay away from all shorties, most of the long tube that are availible are not very good for you application. The common long tube headers the primary tubes are too short and not equal length. The better headers like Kooks are equal length have few bends, but are also too short for 90% of street cars and they are expensive. The only off the shelf headers that may be properly designed for street cars are either the Edlebrock long tubes that are also very expensive and possibly Hooker Super comp headers, I know some of the hooker headers have tubes that can be added to the primary tubes to adjust the lenth. If the header does not have O2 bungs, it is no big deal to weld some on. I ran into these problems years ago so I started making my own headers. I have finaly bought a set of Kooks because they meet the requirements of my curren engine. I have studdied everything I can find on exhaust systems for many years. I have built many sets of headers and have been very happy with the results. I you get a properly designed header you can gain upwards of 40 to 50 lbs of torque and close to the same hp around 3000 rpm and then maintain more power all the way to peek power. Also many engine builders and cam companies recomend cams that have more duration on the exhaust, this is for scavanging. If you have the wrong headers and exhaust sytem, these cams will just cause you to loose power down low,kill fuel mileage and sometimes make a little more power by the time you get to peak power. On the other hand if the exhuast is correct for you engine adding exhaust cam timing will make more power thoughout most of the power band and will not hurt your low end, but the exhaust has to be done right. If you go with shorties or comon long tubes such as Mac or BBK you should stick with a cam that does not have much exhaust duration. The B303 works well with shorty hears or unequal lenght long tubes. The exhaust system needs to have very low restriction, X pipes help reduce restriction while allowing you to run full exhaust. A quality 2 1/2" exhaust system with an X pipe with the proper 1 5/8" long tubes will work for you application. If you do like most people and put comon long tubes, shorties a common H pipe flow masters and 2 1/4" tail pipes stay away from cams that have much exhaust duration, they will just cause reversion and kill your low end and fuel mileage. With your low opperating range you should choose your parts carefuly,actualy you should always do a lot of research on all of the parts before buying. The last bit of advice I would have is to learn as much as you can about every part of the engine possible, and the rest of the car also. It all has to work together, you should make sure the whole combination is correct. Find and read as many books on engines as possible, look for books on induction systems,exhaust systems also you will find there is a lot more to what I have written on hear. You can only get so much info from a forum and magazines are paid by the performance part companies to do stories on their parts to make their new parts look good. They give you little good info, but most of the time they are just trying to help sell somebodies latest part. Sometime some writers will write an informative article, but those articles do not happen very offten. If you want to get the most out of your combo and get the fastest, with good driveability and still have good gas mileage, start looking for books on how to make power. There are common books that will introduce you to many areas and then there are books that get very indepth that will require you to have read some of the other stuf first or it will go completely over your head. Spend more time reading books and less on forums, you will learn more. Reading the books and then getting on some forums and asking questions will possibly help even more. Then there is the tuning part of the equation, you can't forget that or you will never see the potential of all else you have done. Good luck.

[95 GTS]

Originally Posted by 4.6stanger

Edelbrock Performer!! FTW or a slightly ported cobra are everywhere for cheap.

+1

dont do the street heat EVER, and dont do the typhoon without a combo that is meant to peak around 6k.


The preformer and gt40 family will always out average power everything else for a normal mild street application.


If you look into heavily ported gt40s or some aluminum heads and a cam that has duration in the high 220s and 230s then you step to intakes such as the holley systemax II, rpm II, or even trick flow are depending on the application and how many cubes.

Just take our word for it. There will be people that will say otherwise because thast what they have and it still made SOME power. But this has all been control tested. I just dont feel like doing an hour worth of reading and copy and pasting again.

[thesource]

The ported Cobra or Gt40 is a good choice but I wouldn't say that they are the best you can get . Its all about the combo ..........

[95 GTS]

no intake is the "best" at everything. Most are good at one thing.

Ported typhoon is great for a mild motor Blown application

I have a typhoon, it is slightly mismatched to this combo but still works. If I had a performer or ported gt40 I would make 330+ tq and the same peak. The car would be faster in the 1/4 by 1 mph..... I would put money on it

[lilblue302]

i really appreciate all the input on this thread guys it goes to show that theres alot more than meets the eye, the opinions were good but the explanations were even better. i got even more out of this thread than i was actually expecting to thanks alot!

-will

[thesource]

Originally Posted by 95 GTS

no intake is the "best" at everything. Most are good at one thing.

Ported typhoon is great for a mild motor Blown application

I have a typhoon, it is slightly mismatched to this combo but still works. If I had a performer or ported gt40 I would make 330+ tq and the same peak. The car would be faster in the 1/4 by 1 mph..... I would put money on it

Maybe yes but maybe no . While the shape of the runner has some effect on the flow characters of the intake , I think its more of the total design versus just the shape of the runner itself . On a mild engine combo the Cobra/Gt40 intake will outperform other intakes most of the time .

[lilblue302]

yea i had really been considering a cobra. i know that having the lower ported will help out a bit but will having the upper ported as well make a noticeable difference?

[95 GTS]

i wouldnt port until you have heads that need it. Really the only one you can majorly port is the explorer and cobra. you would want these extrude honed. for budget, I would get an explorer and have it extrude honed.


If you want a fully ported cobra, and your combo requires this flow, you are better off just getting a performer and having the lower ported when you eventually get aluminum heads.... leave it be until then.