Time For An Intake Upgrade, Which To Choose?

LukeG14 · Oct 14, 2012

my 87 mustang is bone stock except for shorty headers exhaust and a maf conversion. i was thinking of going with the edelbrock performer efi intake manifold and a 70mm throttle body. would this be a nice intake for a stock motor? in the future i would like to have aluminum gt40x heads and a vortech or some sort of supercharger. any suggestions on the intake manifold i should choose would be appreciated

Cory Berg · Oct 15, 2012

I'm running a Performer intake on my '87 with no complaints. But I did buy the car with it already on it so I don't know any different... lol

Dino Dino Bambino · Oct 15, 2012

LukeG14 said:
my 87 mustang is bone stock except for shorty headers exhaust and a maf conversion. i was thinking of going with the edelbrock performer efi intake manifold and a 70mm throttle body. would this be a nice intake for a stock motor?

Yes, it's a very good choice for a stock or midly modded 302.

mikestang63 · Oct 15, 2012

I'm at the same point you are. Recently bought a bone stock 90 with 46k miles. I also want to start tearing into the motor but think I am either going to leave it stock or wait until I do the H/C/I swap all at once.

Here's my 2 cents. I wouldn't waste the time or money swapping out the intake or putting on a 70mm TB (which is too big for your setup) until you put a better set of heads on it. It is true an aftermarket intake will flow better, but the restrictive heads will certainly limit any HP gains . The 70mm TB won't give you any more HP than a 65MM on a stock motor. You also want the MAF to be at least as big as the TB.

Trust me, once you change the intake it will only be a matter of time before you want to swap heads, then you will have to do it all over again. Rather than gain 10-15 hp from the intake/TB swap, you may want to wait to get a 70hp bump from the H/C/I swap. That should put you around 260-275 rwhp.

If you still want to go with the intake, first determine what you want to do with the car- DD, weekend warrior? Do you want it N/A or power adder. That will dictate what intake to go with. For a cheap n/a DD, it's hard to beat a TMOSS ported Explorer GT40/cobra intake. I've used the Ebrock Performer. The Performer II is a better choice if you go with a supercharger as the rpm range is higher. The TFS intakes are also a good piece. They make 2 one for lower and higher rpm.

I've been playing with mustangs for over 30 years. Once you start modifying the car, it won't stop. Make a plan, a budget, and choose the right components. I've seen many people spend a ton of money on mismatched parts and wonder why their car runs like crap.

madspeed · Oct 15, 2012

didnt you post in another thread that you picked up explorer intake and tb? use them for now while you save for some heads! Did the explorer motor still have the heads on it?

JordanB21 · Oct 15, 2012

H/C/I combos are put together because they all work with each other. But of course that's not to say that doing it in part won't be worth it. You drop less money at once, and you'll still get the HP eventually that you would receive out of a full combo.

I dislike how the performer intake looks, but I've read it flows well in some article. So if it's what you like then get it.

NIKwoaC · Oct 16, 2012

mikestang63 said:
I'm at the same point you are. Recently bought a bone stock 90 with 46k miles. I also want to start tearing into the motor but think I am either going to leave it stock or wait until I do the H/C/I swap all at once.

Here's my 2 cents. I wouldn't waste the time or money swapping out the intake or putting on a 70mm TB (which is too big for your setup) until you put a better set of heads on it. It is true an aftermarket intake will flow better, but the restrictive heads will certainly limit any HP gains . The 70mm TB won't give you any more HP than a 65MM on a stock motor. You also want the MAF to be at least as big as the TB.

Trust me, once you change the intake it will only be a matter of time before you want to swap heads, then you will have to do it all over again. Rather than gain 10-15 hp from the intake/TB swap, you may want to wait to get a 70hp bump from the H/C/I swap. That should put you around 260-275 rwhp.

If you still want to go with the intake, first determine what you want to do with the car- DD, weekend warrior? Do you want it N/A or power adder. That will dictate what intake to go with. For a cheap n/a DD, it's hard to beat a TMOSS ported Explorer GT40/cobra intake. I've used the Ebrock Performer. The Performer II is a better choice if you go with a supercharger as the rpm range is higher. The TFS intakes are also a good piece. They make 2 one for lower and higher rpm.

I've been playing with mustangs for over 30 years. Once you start modifying the car, it won't stop. Make a plan, a budget, and choose the right components. I've seen many people spend a ton of money on mismatched parts and wonder why their car runs like crap.

I ran a 70mm TB on a stock head/intake motor for years. Don't fear the throttle body! It sounds like he will eventually grow into it with the future mods he is planning, so I wouldn't steer him away from it.

To the OP: I think it sounds like you've got a good plan in the works. Not everybody has the patience or the money to do it all at once, so there's nothing wrong with piecing it together as you can afford it. mikestang63 is right in saying that the TB and intake won't be a huge performance gain by themselves, but they will pay off once you put heads and a cam in the mix.

Dino Dino Bambino · Oct 16, 2012

JordanB21 said:
I dislike how the performer intake looks, but I've read it flows well in some article.

Yeah, it won't win a beauty contest but it does flow well for a long runner intake and it has the lowest flow differential (~4%) between runners. I gained 14rwhp/7twtq when I swapped my EP in place of a mildly ported stock intake and as a bonus, gas mileage also improved by ~1mpg. It cost me only $183 from ebay so it turned out to be a great bang per buck mod.

stykthyn · Oct 16, 2012

FWIW the performer flows pretty much the same as the explorer. Its not until you start porting the eddy that it pulls way ahead in comparison. apparently it has more room to port than the explorer unit. unless you are sold on the edelbrock you can get a trick flow for roughly the same price and it will put you in a whole new ball park especially once you add heads that can handle more air.

Time For An Intake Upgrade, Which To Choose?

LukeG14

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Cory Berg

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NIKwoaC

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I want to measure mine. It doesn't look that tall.

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Time For An Intake Upgrade, Which To Choose?

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I want to measure mine. It doesn't look that tall.

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