Plastic Intake Manifolds, What THE...

[Traveler501]

hi, guys
not sure if you'll believe me, but I was the guy who designed this puppy for GM quite a few years ago. I googled it just to see if they are still using it...and bumped into this thread.
lots of truth, lots of well-intentioned nonsense in this thread. fwiw...the manifold is molded in 33% glass fiber filled nylon (which is technically a composite, but usually called a filled polymer). It is good for 350 def F continuous duty. The reason it is plastic is twofold...super cheap to make with a funky "lost metal" style used by Freudenberg in Germany (who makes them for GM) and because they add several hp from being so darn smooth inside, better than even "flowing" an aluminum head. also, obviously they are incredibly light and because of the advanced molding it was possible to incorporate other typically separate parts like the fuel rail and internal cooling runners, although I don't know if they are still doing that (hell I didn't even know they were still using it, although they predicted it would be in use for at least 30 years back in about 1992-3 when it was designed. As for the guy who said they don't flow as well...no way, that should be obvious on its face. If it didn't flow as well as metal, it's gotta be that somewhat dissimilar shapes were used, not the material...cause the difference is night and day. also, the manifold won't break down or explode with backfire, it will last beyond your lifetime without doubt...it was designed extra strong because of the imbalances in the early motors without counter-rotating shafts (I am assuming they must have counter-rotaters by now, but don't know). And even if it did get overstressed, it would simply swell microscopically, uniformly...strain, in other words. Also, GM didn't design it, Dupont did (who makes the material)...GM only designed the flow path of the tubes.
hope that wasn't too boring...pretty cool they are still using it IMO...oh, and no doubt they should be considered a performance mod...reverting to metal for performance reasons even for NO2 is backwards. The original design had a heavy throttle body hung on it...so this should handle any extra weight since I assume they must be individually fuel injected by now.
cheers
John

[Gentry78]

dude have you ever heard of a Glock its made of plastic and if a fully automatic(if equipped) 45 can hold up and be one of the most reliable hand guns on the market, i think a manifold that just sit there under a hood will hold up just fine

this is a 9mm but you get the point

[UsedTaHaveA68]

I feel a little bad for necrotizing this, but since plastic is so much cheaper than metal, anyone ever wonder why the FAST intakes are so damn expensive? I understand they don't sell as many, and they have to account for development costs but... $1000?? Really??

[haulass350]

Originally Posted by UsedTaHaveA68

I feel a little bad for necrotizing this, but since plastic is so much cheaper than metal, anyone ever wonder why the FAST intakes are so damn expensive? I understand they don't sell as many, and they have to account for development costs but... $1000?? Really??

your paying for the technology not the plastic.

[Robert91RS]

Originally Posted by haulass350

your paying for the technology not the plastic.

Yep, and the name.

[ss1129]

Originally Posted by Rogue Leader

Its almost as bad as the guys on the 4thgen sites that are determined to redneck their LS1 cars by removing the emissions, a/c, electronics, etc to "clean up the engine bay" and plan to keep the car forever (because they can do it better than GM... right). Then when the proverbial shit hits the fan and they have to sell their car (inevitable 75% of the time) they wonder why noone will touch their car with a 10 foot pole.

Or some people actually take all that shit out to make the car lighter and faster. Im no redneck or hillbilly, but my 98 SS was bare bones when I sold it. No power steering, abs, airbags, EGR, air injection (bullshit design that did nothing) It was mainly a drag car, but I drove it on the street often. So some people actually take that shit out besides cleaning up the engine bay.

[theholycow]

Originally Posted by ss1129

Or some people actually take all that shit out to make the car lighter and faster. Im no redneck or hillbilly, but my 98 SS was bare bones when I sold it. No power steering, abs, airbags, EGR, air injection (bullshit design that did nothing) It was mainly a drag car, but I drove it on the street often. So some people actually take that shit out besides cleaning up the engine bay.

Did you weigh any of that stuff when you took it out? I'm always interested to find out how much individual parts weigh.