anyone know if the tunnel ram intake they have for the 97 lt1 is smog legal. also i was wondering what kind of gains i would get.

Who makes it? Cuz the only thing I found was an intake manifold for a carburator set-up. And our cars, 93 and up, are fuel injected.

i belive edelbrock does but they call it performer rpm air gap lt1/lt4 intake manifold

I dont know why it wouldnt be smog legal, it's really similar to your stock one, only a little bit taller and bigger. Im not sure how much gain you would get from just an intake, but with edelbrock heads, edelbrock intake and an edelbrock cam it has proven gains up to 425 hp.

Edelbrock heads, however, are probably the poorest bang for your buck out there for heads-very expensive and not that great of specs

you can buy all of that together on summit for like $2,800 or so as an "Lt4 conversion kit"

The intake alone is not worth it. Port and Polish your stock one and get more out of it.

Matt

do you happen to know around how much the port and polish would cost?

it seems that with heads/cam/intake combos its best to do it all at once, and spare no expense if you want the full potential of your engine's capabilities. I've held off doing motor work until after ive done suspension and drivetrain mods to handle a punch of 400hp once and a while and I don't have to worry about it breaking as much...

Just my 2 cents tho

That question too entered my head just the other day. I'd say no more than $200-400, more depending where you live.
Most of the cost is labor, so if you can take it apart and just take them the parts your saving yourself alot of money.
You need to find someone who knows what they are doing though.

Who would you guys go with to get heads? AFR?

thanks ill check around town only reason i was asking about it is b/c a guy i know has one on his lt1 camaro and he said it was a huge gain... but he also had to get hood it would fit in...

the lt4 intake should fit under any stock Lt1 hood I think, I've never heard of this being a problem...

AFR makes some of the best cylinder heads...people praise llyod elliot and trick flow as well...those are the names id look into...

How much? Depends on how far you want to go. I have seen it get into the thousands when you extrude hone the heads and intake as well as a 3, 5, or 7 angle valve job.

The LT4 intake will fit under the hood, but will not work on LT1 heads. The LT4 HOT CAM conversion without porting and polishing is good for 429 at the crank on a stock LT1.

I have heard good things on AFR, Trick Flow, and Edelbrock. It comes down to what you want to do, how much you have, what else you are doing at that time, and your goals. There are some really good complete packages out there that will combo cam, vavles, RR, heads, intake, and all gaskets needed.

Matt

you can also, depending on your budget, look on ebay...

lots of times you can find ported stock intakes very similar to the LT4 intake that will flow just as well and come painted for a few hundred bucks...
You may also look on there for heads, and buy a stock pair, either modified or not(obviosuly if they are not, you can get them ported/polish) if you don't want to modify your originals...

just a thought

there is a guy on the web that will upgrade your stock heads and give you a new cam for about 1100 dollars. I'm lookin for the guy's name and site right now...but I'm gonna start shovelin snow soon. Also...I can't remember if you gotta send in your stock cam...

Lloyds website is www.eportworks.com


Tom mentioned him earlier.

cool ill check him out now, i also found a friend who has the tools too port and polish my intake. anyone know a place with some instructions on doing it

http://www.sa-motorsports.com/diyport.aspx