I've got an experiment going on here that I'd like to share with everyone. First, I have a LS 5.3 badged the "Squirter Project" in my '92 Camaro. I'll need to make another thread to get into that though.

This thread will be about a test of '98 F-Body exhaust manifolds vs LS truck manifolds in a third gen Camaro. 98-02 manifolds are the most common least expensive option out there for our swaps. Another option is the $700+ aftermarket long tube headers. In my opinion the '98 f-body manifolds are the worst LS manifolds every made. They are very restrictive.

I know the first thing that everyone wants to say is that truck manifolds dont fit. Well thats where this gets a little more interesting. From my research these newer LS manifolds are made with a different mix of metals compared to the old SBC cast iron. Some even call it more of a cast steel. It will take a weld and hold. So, I'm cutting the flanges off of the truck manifolds and using a regular mig welder to on a pipe with a v-band style flange. Truck manifolds are usually known as trash since they dont fit anything. This trurns trash into something of value!

Not only does this open up oportunities for a manifold for the swap but also the truck manifolds flow better. They have larger ports and flange. I'll post up the port/flanges size comparison later on.

To show gains of this experiment I have two "before" dynos that came to the same numbers and I will be doing the "After" dyno this Saturday. Check out the two "before" dyno videos with the '98 manifolds below.

LS Fest Dyno:
Most Recent Dyno:
I just got the truck manifolds mounted last weekend and am excited to see what will happen on the dyno this weekend.

 

I currently cant see the video's, but you know there are many options now in the $300 range for longtubes?

I know this is for "budget comparison". I'm sure many will still use stock F-body mani's do to not everyone has access to a welder.

Jay

 

Nah, I've seen one option for a longtube Hawk copy for $250 which wouldn't be bad at all. But like you said this is an extreme budget. Budget building is what most of my videos are about. If I was staying NA I would strongly consider some of those long tubes. I will soon be plumbing in my turbo though. So I didn't want to invest much into headers. I just wanted to get something on there better then the 98 manifolds to see if there is some more power still inthe Squirter and the truck manifolds were a lot larger.

Mainly this gives people one more option during their build.

 

This attachment is the measurement comparison of the truck ports and flange against the '98 f-body manifolds.

 

This first photo is the basic plan to start on the passenger side manifold. The passenger side was the most important because the passenger side '98 f-body manifold is more restrictive then the driver side.

The second photo shows the differences in the flanges side by side.

 

Here is where I cut the passenger truck manifold to make it fit. Flange and EGR port were removed. The EGR port was not a functioning port and was filled from the factory. I removed it for clearance to the frame and for appearance.

 

Here's a little closer photo and with a little more. I cut off the heat shield mounts and ground off casting numbers and seams. This should give it a little better appearance once I paint it.

 

In this photo I've welded a 2.5" pipe onto the area where I cut the flange off at. I mounted the manifold onto the car and held the pipe up to the manifold to get the angle and clearances right. I then tac welded it on. Then removed the manifold form the car and welded it up the rest of the way. In this photo I was also welding on the V-band flange. I've got to say it is very nice not having a flange gasket to jack with anymore and now its only one bolt to separate the flange. Nice!

 

This is pretty much the final photo of the passenger truck manifold. I've welded up the EGR port and a hole that was in the first port. In this condition it fit into the car with plenty of clearance and I'm currently daily driving it like this.

 

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I forgot to mention that I am not using any special Nickel rod or anything like that for cast iron. I am using a regular Mig welder.

 

Now this is the driver side. Like I said before this side wasn't as critical since the driver side manifold flows much better than the passenger side. This manifold was much more difficult compared to the passenger side, but I was determined to get the pair on this vehicle together. The step taken were about the same but as you can see trying to make a round pipe fit into a 90* hole wasn't fun. Also this manifold was out very close to the firewall. So close that I wound up heat wrapping the added pipe to protect fuel lines.

 

Interesting. I never would have thought anyone would spend their time on doing something like this. I sure learned something new lol, keep up the great work man!

 

lol Thanks! Yea, they say you either have time or you have money. I don't have much of either but have more time and a bunch of truck manifolds always laying around. lol

I first got this idea helping a buddy swap a 5.3 into his 93 Roadmaster. We had a hard time finding manifolds for his swap. So I just clocked, tuck and angled the truck flange in and welded it back on. It worked well for that build so thought I'd try it here. I didn't want to reuse that huge ugly flange so it turned into this pipe with v-band.

I kinda do a lot of swaps, so this option opens up a whole lot more options when hunting for manifolds. It makes it faster and less expensive.

 

Now that I own a set of each, I can say that the '01 LS1 Camaro manifolds do have tighter short-turns, but the driver's-side Camaro manifold has a much larger outlet than the driver's-side '01 LR4 truck manifold. Passenger side is so much less obvious that I'll have to measure to be sure if they're different or same.

 

oops, double post. deleted this one.

 

Wow! Can't believe that I forgot to post the "after" dyno video. Here ya go!

 

I also meant to make it stand out more that I've heard that the the newer (2000-2002?) manifolds are better then these 1998 manifolds that I'm talking about. I've never had any to compare. I just know that this passenger side '98 manifold looks horrible.

But I guess the '98 manifold does the job, since my dyno run showed Zero gains from using another manifold with much larger ports and flange. Really makes me wonder what it would do with long tubes now... But we won't find out, because I'll soon be pulling these manifolds off to plumb the turbo. This experiment was fun and interesting. On to the next!

 

i know this is an old therad, but i read on here (it was a thread from back in 2008) that the truck maniflds wouldn't work, he said that the collectors come out wide and crash into the front frame rails. any input?

 

Correct. That is what this whole thread is about... How I made them fit. Lots of info and pics above.

 

I have truck manifolds with vbands. However they go to a front mount turbo lol

 

haha That's a killer solution right there and is what I'm currently doing to mine as well.

Here's the most recent video of plumbing my truck manifolds for the turbo.

 

How you get this but did you have to pre-heat and slow cool on the truck manifolds. I plan on doing this only because I hate headers and am staying under 400 horse.

 

Holy old thread Batman! Are you saying you want to go turbo and under 400 hp?? Can't tell if you're serious or not or just another bot but swapping to an LS for under 400hp just sounds ridiculous and a huge waste of money. Work smarter not harder