Aftermarket Product ReviewProvide questions and answers about aftermarket parts for the Third Generation F-Body.
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I did a search before I bought the 52007 vortec intake and found nothing negative on these so I bought one. Man, what a freaking joke. Could I be the only one to purchase this get such a piece of schit manifold. Anyways... poor thin castings, coarse finish, distorted port openings, etc. Pic links below!
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Last edited by DEBt/a; 10-02-2007 at 09:53 PM.
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all their intakes require porting....that's why they're cheap. Bust out the air grinder and spend 3 hours on it and it'll be just as good as edelbrock pieces.
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???? Frankly, I've seen much worse, even from the american manufacturer's. I could have that cleaned up and ready to bolt on in about 20 min w/ a diamond cutter. I seems that proffessional products quality depends on where it's bought from. Some parts houses seems to sell better castings than others.
One way or the other, it comes down to buyer beware/you get what you pay for. You wanted a perfect casting for 1/2 the money of the american product? What were you expecting?
I have one of their crosswind 1500-6500 polished versions bolted on a fresh 355 I built to sell. I know where there are two more just like it (well, one is for standard sbc mounting) all of which required nothing but bolt-on.
They are Chinese castings. They use recycled aluminum. Not the most consistent material. You can have a mixture that doesn't flow that well into the molds and can be prone to cracking. In this case you get what you pay for. The same is true of the Chinese heads and cranks.
Generally you get what you pay for when it comes to aluminum products.
???? Frankly, I've seen much worse, even from the american manufacturer's. I could have that cleaned up and ready to bolt on in about 20 min w/ a diamond cutter. I seems that proffessional products quality depends on where it's bought from. Some parts houses seems to sell better castings than others.
One way or the other, it comes down to buyer beware/you get what you pay for. You wanted a perfect casting for 1/2 the money of the american product? What were you expecting?
I have one of their crosswind 1500-6500 polished versions bolted on a fresh 355 I built to sell. I know where there are two more just like it (well, one is for standard sbc mounting) all of which required nothing but bolt-on.
I've never seen nothing american this bad. Do you not know what a hi-performance vortec port looks like? They are tapered tall ports. This schitty grind job already exceeded my mid-port head intake width .. And did I say I was expecting perfect. If it was "getting what you pay for" then it should have cost $75 not $119.00. You get time post some of those out of the box Crosswind pics. Can't imagine Chinese children outdoing themselves
you could always sell them to some expert who can fix them in 20 min. . [ yeah right ] i don't care what some others may say they are junk , hope you get your money back .
I work for a larger engine parts supplier and I sell tons of these intakes with no problems, probably around 100 a month. The intake you have looks alot like the older style castings and I will admit when these things came out a few years back there were lots of problems with quality, and even I had one that I had problems with. By seeing the newer ones first hand they have alot better quality control and finish machining. Engine builder magazine actually recommended them over a edelbrock, because the castings are thicker allowing for more room to port. I actually sell alot of there balancers and stuff too, and no problems with them either.
I work for a larger engine parts supplier and I sell tons of these intakes with no problems, probably around 100 a month. The intake you have looks alot like the older style castings and I will admit when these things came out a few years back there were lots of problems with quality, and even I had one that I had problems with. By seeing the newer ones first hand they have alot better quality control and finish machining. Engine builder magazine actually recommended them over a edelbrock, because the castings are thicker allowing for more room to port. I actually sell alot of there balancers and stuff too, and no problems with them either.
I bought the PP Crosswind vortec intake. There was nothing wrong with it.
The cast appearance is not as nice as a edelbrock manifold for sure.
The machining was good. required no port grinding. Bolted it on.
No problems after many years. I bought mine from a retail store and opened the box to inspect it in the store. i recommend you do the same next time.
Your manifold appears to be a "second" product. Probabily bought up in volume from a scrap aluminum dealer. Let me guess, you bought it on Evil-bay.
Well they are made in China, even says so on the bottom lol... the one we bought was a little rough but not too bad. We gasket matched the ports, so that part was taken care of(although we didnt notice anything wrong with the ports beforehand), and the finish is pretty coarse, but they also have a polished version.
We only bought it over the Edelbrock AirGap because of the cost($80 cheaper off ebay) and becuase of the little bigger water port on the front and back(we needed those for special reasons)
Even if I was stuck with professional products on a budget I wouldn't give them the praise. This thread is not about porting and making good of a new out of the box product. Why admit to that? Some didn't save that much after all once they had to take time to rework the manifold. It's a warning to be cautious about getting ripped off by Ebay drop shippers and chinese goods.... Well, I'm not concerned about price. I first chose that intake(52007) because it was recommended by EngineQuest castings. I now have on order the GMPP vortec manifold. Surely GM will stand behind the quality of that one!
I've never seen nothing american this bad. Do you not know what a hi-performance vortec port looks like? They are tapered tall ports. This schitty grind job already exceeded my mid-port head intake width .. And did I say I was expecting perfect. If it was "getting what you pay for" then it should have cost $75 not $119.00. You get time post some of those out of the box Crosswind pics. Can't imagine Chinese children outdoing themselves
Yes, I've seen vortec ports, as well as most other heads. I've been in the performance world, building engines for quite some time now. As an FYI, most intakes have a port width wider than that of the head. It helps promote swirl in naturally aspirated engines. For big block chevys, you actually gain a considerable amount of power running a square-port intake on oval-port heads, instead of a matched oval-port intake.
You answered your own problem saying you bought if off ebay from some off-the wall ebay "performance parts dealer". You probably recieved a second, also known as a factory blemish. The manufacturers sell these items at discount prices in lot loads, they are usually bought buy low-end retailers who use it is a chance to compete w/ large mail-order companies. Seconds/blems usually are only sold if they have cosmetic defects, they're trashed if they have an actual defect like a surface that won't seal. - Plus, you paid as much for it as I can buy it from a reputable mail-order parts house. Also, as was posted by another, proffesional products updated their castings a few years back, and yours could easily have been an older casting(another possible issue of where you bought it from)
I'm not pulling an intake off a running motor just to post pics to make you happy. If I happen to have my camera w/ me I'll take pics of the two my buddy has.
I'm not trying to bash you or argue in anyway. I'm just saying that just because you recieved a rough casting from an ebay dealer doesn't mean the manufacturer is casting a poor product.
Its worth mentioning that an intake like the ones discussed is perfectly fine when being in used in a true hipo build. In all honesty, if you are going to gasket match the intake and heads, what does it matter? The real advantage is if you are going to do this anyway, you can save some cash.
ive purchased 3 professional products and they are great. i got a 58mm TB that looks awsome, and i got 2 harmonic dampners, both are sharp pieces. its funny that some ppl rag on american products vs non american. personally i would buy only american products if i could but then there are products like accel injectors/venoms, that totally suck, u cant skimp on quality when it comes to car parts bc of the use they see.
but wow that intake looks bad lol i would port the hell outa it.
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