FIRST intake manifold.

Products

Check it out. Ive never seen this before, is anyone familiar with it?

Looks to be fairly similar to TPI but much larger runner I.D. the runners look shorter to me as well.

A little pricey, but seems like a nice alternative.

 

well i saw that the firstinjection site was mentioned in the tpi forums. Suppose i just havnt read much about it yet.

 

yeah Ive done a lot of research on them. I was a hair away from buying one, but decided that I'd spend a little extra and just get a MiniRam because it would definitely work, and its a proven intake where as the FIRST setup is kind of "untested" in the thirdgen crowd.

 

Yeah, but that setup and the mini-ram are designed to do very different things.

From what I've read, on here (from BadSS) and in other areas the FIRST system outperforms the Superram, which has long been considered the "compromise" between the LTR setups and short-runner (miniram) setups. I've read nothing negative about it anywhere and I've been digging for about a month.

However, Ken, the guy at FIRST, told me that it does have a small clearance issue on the T/A hoods (think Stealthram). Since I didn't want to worry about cutting anything on my stock hood, I've kind of backed away from the system, but there's been a couple on ebay as of late and if the price is right I might just jump on one anyways and see what I can do with it.

 

"with prices starting at about 999.99"
i cant see paying that much for an intake, but im a college kid on a low budget.

 

Also, remember that the FIRST manifold is still a long tube runner design, so upper RPMS are still limited to an extent. I would have to say that if you want to keep your TPI style setup, but want more performance, this would be the way to go. Plus, I think it looks better than the stock TPI

But as the guy above me said, prices start at around 1k. I decided to go with a Holley/Cutler single-plane with 4-barrel throttle body. Not only does it work with the stock TPI sensors and harness, but costs less than 1k. The only downside I can see from it is it's height, since it is a high-rise design. Even with a low-pro Turbonetics carb hat, it hits the hood frame. A little trimming though....

If power is what you are going for....
Single-plane

 

The price is actually dead-on, and cheaper than a full upgrade of a stock TPI setup. Not arguing that $1000 is alot of cash, but consider:

Upgrade TPI base $385 (edelbrock)
Upgrade TB $189.99 (Professional Products)
Upgrade Runners (AS&M LTR $435.00)

You're at $1000 right there, and that's with no port work on anything, whether you pay someone else to do it or take the time to do it yourself, and the FIRST system should outperform any aftermarket base/runner/ported plenum combination out there.

 

if you search on here there's some really good info on it. I've never run one (yet) myself, but through some fairly in-depth research, I've come to consider it a very good street intake. Price wise, compare it to a superam(read: PITA) or a miniram, or the above mention stock-type TPI aftermarket stuff. - It's not any worse. Seems to be that in un-ported stock form it will support a healthy 350 with decent heads and cam to about 62-6500 r's. I've seen claims of solid power through around 7k with ported versions. All without sacrificing much bottom-end torque(which all tpi owners have come to love).

BadSS has posted some really good comparison info of it verses a couple other intakes.

 

phatfiddler how u likeing that intake setup u got there? whats the pros and cons u have had?

 

Honestly, I haven't tried it yet since the 350 is still in progress. It is the exact same manifold that Anesthes used; if you look around the boards, and even the sticky at the top of the Alternative Port EFI Intakes board, you can see his results. In fact, the CAI i am using is the one I bought off of him.

The flow numbers for this thing are awesome, and the 4-barrel TB is stepped, like 4-barrel carbs. You can use just the 2 barrels for easy cruising, or open up all 4 for all out racing. The TB that is on it now is rated at 1000 CFM, and there are some for over 1200 CFM out there, so options are great. Also, the manifold uses what Edelbrock likes to call "Air-Gap", meaning the entire bottom of the manifold is separated from the runners by a huge gap. I'll get some pictures right now to show this better, and I'll take pictures of the ports to show how much room there is for porting.

 

here's the pics I promised. I posted the links to them instead of the pic because they are high resolution and high quality. Yes I know it's a little dirty, but consider that the whole thing was once painted black.

The intake/runner ports

Primary barrels part open

4 barrels full open

Air gap, rear of manifold

Air gap, side view

 

thats awesome man i thinkin about gettin me one of those. i have talked to u twice before and u are one stand up guy thanks man

p.s sorry for the hijack

but that first intake looks awesome

 

oh yea that high rise mani will definately feed a hungry motor!! That is pretty much the way to go when you end up with the more radical setups.

The first manifold is not a bad alternative because of the fact that you do still retain all that massive low end torque like **** was saying. The runners are acutaly shorter in length and they do offer to paint the whole setup for you
(that red painted mani looks really good!). In the end you will be spending roughly about the same as any other after market efi type setup (relatively speaking), so try to match up the characteristics of your engine components to that of the mani that your trying to get. Do you want low end high end... more power more torque?? Do note that they will all work .. the mini... stealth... super .... first.... etc it just depends on how you want to see your power being delivered. Mind you, we are only speaking in terms of power not emissions or clearence issues, etc .

Now for emissions only the super and the first come with an egr fitting. In Cali they do get picky. Theoreticaly speaking you could plum a remote egr housing but I do not have any experience with doing so. Ive only read of this being done in a post.

So again in your mind, you have to come to a conclusion of what is the purpose of your car....how is your motor built... among other veriables. Then once these things are decided then you can more accurately pick one that will fullfill your needs

 

I cant say anything bad about this because I paid a small fortune for my intake. Just about any aftermarket TPI will cost you that much. Seems like a great alternative to TPI and looks sexy too.

Only thing is if you could get it to work with vortec heads. Be nice if they considered making one for vortec. Ahh I missed it.

 

Just some ebay links for you guys..

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Chevy...ayphotohosting

http://cgi.ebay.com/First-Fuel-Injec...QQcmdZViewItem

 

it whould leave the line like a bat out of hell but i bet it drops a lot from about 3000 on up rpm, what u think?

 

The torque peak with the FIRST,, ball-park,,, should be around 3750 rpm as cast,,, give or take for cam, heads, cid, headers, frictional losses,,, etc. You'll keep pulling past peak TQ and up to peak HP,,, although it can't pull as hard up high as it did during it's tuned range. I'm actually surprised that a 210/214 cam in a 383 with the ProComp heads (below) peaked at 5000. That cam is a what I'd consider as a small performance cam for a 350 and way under-sized for a "performance" 383. That cam in a 383 with these or lesser heads would fit more in line with applications for towing large equipment or pulling stumps.

http://www.competitionproducts.com/p...?number=300102

 

hi there guys,
im new this forum!
im from Australia!
im into corvettes!
i have a 1991 z07 vette with 6 speed box!
any way i am seroiusly considering the first intake also!
as i love the torque factor that tpis give but the first intake will give a more all round power i guess with out the 4,500 rpm wall that the normal tpi has a problem with!
so has any one actaully tried this intake on a 350 chev at all?
if so whats it like?
thnaks
glen
victoria-
Australia

 

any body out there?
thanks
glen
Australia

 

BadSS has. I did an internet search where someone had put one on their 1982 Corvette. Turned out quite well.

I have recently purchased the FIRST intake manifold only. I'm in the process of adapting my SLP runners to it. So I can't give you a report. Maybe in 3 months. Again that is the manifold only. I can tell you it is like the stock TPI manifold on steriods. Should handle all the air your 350 would want.

 

hi there mate,
thanks for the reply!
i was just wandering how come you are going to use slp runners and not the first runners!
cheers
glen
Australia

 

Couple of reasons. One is for the smog check here in California. The SLP runners are smog legal. The First fuel injection system might pass the visual check though as it is very similiar. The smog tech can't really see the manifold all that well and visually it is quite similiar to the stock intake.

2nd reason is I have my SLP runners all hogged out on the inside and they will flow good enough to feed the First Intake manifold.

Last reason is I don't think anyone has done this before and I'm trying to reach the 400rwhp mark with a true TPI system and a 355 motor. We shall see as in a couple of weeks the machine shop will start on my project.

 

I though I read somewhere that the FIRST intake has some clearance issues with the vette hood?- I'm sure I read it on TGO.

 

Interesting. This intake has been discussed here for years and I happy that is finally came out. Looks like a nice piece.