I'm interested in hearing the opinions for the DCS Renegade intake manifold for the CrossFire engines...good or bad.

I'd have to say I'm disappointed with the experience I've had with it...unless I did something wrong. Was just interested in hearing what others thought of it.

Thanks

 

Not too many guys have one. My opinion of it is that it was a good improvement on the old manifold's restrictive ports. It did not make a huge difference on my original 305. I improved the intake, and exhaust at the same time and felt an improvement. But I think the gains are to be had if you put a larger engine in that can take advantage of the larger ports.
If your car feels worse then before you put the manifold on, something is wrong and you need to find out why performance is down. The car should run the same or better, not worse.

 

I agree...it does seem as though there isn't much to be gained by installing the manifold if you have a 305. I think some of the problem I'm having is a matter of tuning and I don't have the money and the time for it right now. I think I'm just going to put the old intake back on for now until I can figure some things out...I still don't want to give up on this Crossfire thing...it's so different and unique and I love the looks at the car shows as people scratch their heads wondering what the heck it is. I'd like to build a 350 or 383 for the car and put the Renegade on that and see what happens.

 

I think you may have a tuning issue. I gained 4 tenths on the 1/8 with just a ported intake and fuel pressure tune.

The Renegade is a far superior intake than a ported stocker on a larger engine. You may need to run a larger displacement engine to take the full advantage of a Renegade.

Have you tried porting the stock intake? I would definitely keep that Renegade around though!

 

Your thinking is on the right track. If you want to modify a crossfire engine, you need to be ready to spend some time working on it. Put it back to stock and begin modifying when you have the time to spend with it. You will need to learn to tune or find someone that can.

As mentioned above, the Renegade has bigger ports, so it likely cost you low speed torque if you put it on a stock 305. Corvette guys might have better luck putting one on a stock 350.

I agree that the set-up is very unique and not a lot of people have seen them before. My daughter drove the car on the Hot Rod Power Tour last year without a hiccup from the engine and we got about 15 MPG on the 2,500 mile round trip (with 3.73s ond no OD).

Here is a link to a thread with a pic of my set-up:

https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/tbi/...-anything.html

 

I can comment on this. I installed one in my 82 trans am.

This is targeted at the corvette.
The alternator bracket will not bolt to the manifold - to to much of a big deal, good excuse to use a custom bracket thats polished.
The power brake booster line also will not bolt down in the same location, it has to be bent (which is fine).
The manifold is to wide, I had to grind off almost 1/4 inch to get it to fit in the valley, yes I could have removed the valve covers, but the reality is it should be the same width of the OEM manifold to make sure it seats properly.

Now, for what you really want to know, performance, idle, overall, is it better? The answer is yes, but not by much really. The cost and headache to install is really not worth it.

My car has 41k miles on it, and it has never idled smooth, or at least close to being smooth. This manifold did address that problem (the fuel puddling no longer happens causing the engine to surge, or hunt for its correct RPM). Keep in mind I did also install the TPI fuel pump, that was helpful as well.

Off the line, no real huge change, top end, yes there is a change here, the biggest difference is the engine doesn't run out of air at 3500 RPM like it used to.

I am not going to dyno this thing, because I don't really care. I would estimate maybe a 20 horsepower increase.