BBK SSI Intake Warning!
BBK: 1986-1993 Ford Mustang 5.0L Intake Manifold
I had to have the latest and greatest intake manifold from BBK. The SSI looked like nothing I’d seen before. It was unique and tests had shown it to outflow a ported cobra intake. It barely lost to the Edelbrock at high RPM but it created more low end. Late one summer (2006) there was a mustang show in Birmingham, Alabama at Barber Motor Speedway. I walked into the CJ Pony Parts stand and there it sat, brand new for about $500 or so. I bought it and took it home.
Shortly after that I found out I was going to be a daddy. My job took a turn for the worse (contract ended), and my landlord lost the house I was living in. I didn’t know if I would be able to keep the car with a baby coming and all of these problems. I put the build on hold…
Fast forward to a few months ago. It was finally time to turn that 93 Coupe into a GT40X powered street machine. My friends and I started the build. Everything was put back together. As with any build there were bugs. Among them was the fact that I kept losing fuel pressure. I assumed it was a hung injector.
To make a long long long (hours upon hours of work) story short- It was the BBK SSI intake.
If you’ll look at the pictures you’ll see the problem. These intakes come with proprietary fuel rails made specifically for this intake. And while they are pretty, they lack in function.
Let me explain…
On the stock system, and every other system, you have 2 fuel rails one on each side of the motor. The fuel comes from your tank into the passenger side rail. From that rail there are 2 fuel lines connecting to the driver side rail. The BBK SSI intake doesn’t use any fuel line to connect both rails. It makes use of a hollow metal tube that is literally pressed into both rails. Not pressed by the BBK factory, pressed by you using a tiny o ring on each side. When you screw the rails into the lower intake, it is supposed to sandwich the hollow tube into place.
Can you see where I’m going? Not only that but there are THREADED PLUGS on the back of each fuel rail that you must cap off. This isn’t rocket science but let me be clear-
You now have 40psi of raw gasoline flowing through a little hollow tube held in place by 2 o rings sandwiched in between the rails. Not screwed into, not connected into, not made into the intake but literally sitting in between the fuel rails. If the tube is cut too short from the factory, if the spacers that hold the rails up are too long, if the lower intake is off by just a hair you will have gas running down the back of your motor onto the exhaust like I did. To top it off, and here’s the kicker, there are perfectly good threaded plugs that must be capped off on the back of each rail where a fitted hose would have worked in another lifetime.
So what you are (I am) stuck with is a $500+ intake that cannot use aftermarket or stock fuel rails because the angle of the injectors is different. I have heard from several people that BBK is good about taking care of their customers. Due to my situation I was unable to locate a receipt. CJ Pony was unable to locate a receipt because it was a mustang show I bought it from. BBK has told me that I must purchase a new tube, and folks that may not even come close to fixing it. Also, that’s after their tech had me file down the spacers used to hold it all together. Now I must go spend money for a welder to heliarc the holes where the tube fits and somehow fashion a fuel line making use of the plugs on the back of the rails if I’m to use this intake. I even bought the $75 phenolic spacer recently because the intake wouldn't clear anything!
Let me make one or two more points about this intake-
a) When I say raw gasoline leaking onto the exhaust, I don’t mean a little bit. I mean a huge 2 foot puddle whilst smoke rises from the engine bay.
b) The lower intake injector holes are sharp. A dab of oil or petroleum jelly doesn’t always work to seat the injectors.
c) The lower intake has a shield on the bottom of it that is attached when you buy it. Some of them came put on backwards.
d) The instructions will have you use black silicone on the bottom shield to prevent oil from seeping through your intake, and you should do this especially if it came put on backwards! Couldn’t any of this been installed by BBK????
Guys and gals you know I’m a straight shooter. I’m not so much angry about the customer service as I am the dangerous design. If one of those screws comes loose on the rail, if one of those o rings gets pinched or deteriorates, if anything is even a bit off while you are driving around you are sitting on a ticking time bomb. Had my motor actually turned over and ran for any length of time I might not be here. Luckily it died from lack of fuel before the smoke turned to a fire in my garage.
Just to let you know how serious I am, I’m thinking about contacting someone who watches over the industry. I don’t know if its NTSB or who but I’m filing a complaint at the very least with someone. People need to know how fragile this design is, PERIOD. There's no explaining it away if you've ever worked on one.
Just a FYI,
Strype
BBK: 1986-1993 Ford Mustang 5.0L Intake Manifold
BBK said:
I had to have the latest and greatest intake manifold from BBK. The SSI looked like nothing I’d seen before. It was unique and tests had shown it to outflow a ported cobra intake. It barely lost to the Edelbrock at high RPM but it created more low end. Late one summer (2006) there was a mustang show in Birmingham, Alabama at Barber Motor Speedway. I walked into the CJ Pony Parts stand and there it sat, brand new for about $500 or so. I bought it and took it home.
Shortly after that I found out I was going to be a daddy. My job took a turn for the worse (contract ended), and my landlord lost the house I was living in. I didn’t know if I would be able to keep the car with a baby coming and all of these problems. I put the build on hold…
Fast forward to a few months ago. It was finally time to turn that 93 Coupe into a GT40X powered street machine. My friends and I started the build. Everything was put back together. As with any build there were bugs. Among them was the fact that I kept losing fuel pressure. I assumed it was a hung injector.
To make a long long long (hours upon hours of work) story short- It was the BBK SSI intake.
If you’ll look at the pictures you’ll see the problem. These intakes come with proprietary fuel rails made specifically for this intake. And while they are pretty, they lack in function.
Let me explain…
On the stock system, and every other system, you have 2 fuel rails one on each side of the motor. The fuel comes from your tank into the passenger side rail. From that rail there are 2 fuel lines connecting to the driver side rail. The BBK SSI intake doesn’t use any fuel line to connect both rails. It makes use of a hollow metal tube that is literally pressed into both rails. Not pressed by the BBK factory, pressed by you using a tiny o ring on each side. When you screw the rails into the lower intake, it is supposed to sandwich the hollow tube into place.
Can you see where I’m going? Not only that but there are THREADED PLUGS on the back of each fuel rail that you must cap off. This isn’t rocket science but let me be clear-
You now have 40psi of raw gasoline flowing through a little hollow tube held in place by 2 o rings sandwiched in between the rails. Not screwed into, not connected into, not made into the intake but literally sitting in between the fuel rails. If the tube is cut too short from the factory, if the spacers that hold the rails up are too long, if the lower intake is off by just a hair you will have gas running down the back of your motor onto the exhaust like I did. To top it off, and here’s the kicker, there are perfectly good threaded plugs that must be capped off on the back of each rail where a fitted hose would have worked in another lifetime.
So what you are (I am) stuck with is a $500+ intake that cannot use aftermarket or stock fuel rails because the angle of the injectors is different. I have heard from several people that BBK is good about taking care of their customers. Due to my situation I was unable to locate a receipt. CJ Pony was unable to locate a receipt because it was a mustang show I bought it from. BBK has told me that I must purchase a new tube, and folks that may not even come close to fixing it. Also, that’s after their tech had me file down the spacers used to hold it all together. Now I must go spend money for a welder to heliarc the holes where the tube fits and somehow fashion a fuel line making use of the plugs on the back of the rails if I’m to use this intake. I even bought the $75 phenolic spacer recently because the intake wouldn't clear anything!
Let me make one or two more points about this intake-
a) When I say raw gasoline leaking onto the exhaust, I don’t mean a little bit. I mean a huge 2 foot puddle whilst smoke rises from the engine bay.
b) The lower intake injector holes are sharp. A dab of oil or petroleum jelly doesn’t always work to seat the injectors.
c) The lower intake has a shield on the bottom of it that is attached when you buy it. Some of them came put on backwards.
d) The instructions will have you use black silicone on the bottom shield to prevent oil from seeping through your intake, and you should do this especially if it came put on backwards! Couldn’t any of this been installed by BBK????
Guys and gals you know I’m a straight shooter. I’m not so much angry about the customer service as I am the dangerous design. If one of those screws comes loose on the rail, if one of those o rings gets pinched or deteriorates, if anything is even a bit off while you are driving around you are sitting on a ticking time bomb. Had my motor actually turned over and ran for any length of time I might not be here. Luckily it died from lack of fuel before the smoke turned to a fire in my garage.
Just to let you know how serious I am, I’m thinking about contacting someone who watches over the industry. I don’t know if its NTSB or who but I’m filing a complaint at the very least with someone. People need to know how fragile this design is, PERIOD. There's no explaining it away if you've ever worked on one.
Just a FYI,
Strype